School technology leadership

Lessons from empirical research

Abstract

While research has found that technology leadership is an important factor for effective integration of technology in schools, there is a paucity of research on technology leadership in schools. This paper reviewed 12 empirical reports on technology leadership and a grounded theory approach was used to derive the key findings. Several roles of technology leaders were identified, which are categorized into four main areas of change: infrastructure, organization structure and policy, pedagogy and learning, and school culture. The corresponding competencies of school technology leaders were identified. Several relationships were established between technology leadership and other factors: School technology leadership is a strong predictor on the level of technology use in schools; the cultural and structural characteristics of schools could affect the level of computer use in classrooms; transformational leadership is correlated with a principal’s ICT competencies. Researchers have also started to explore the views of followers and the recursive relationships between the leader and the followers. Based on the review, recommendations for future research are discussed.