Exploring the relationship between the leadership role of the school principal and ICT integration in instruction and learning

Abstract

An education system plays a crucial role in empowering its school principals, teachers and learners to communicate information through the integration of ICT (Information Communications Technology) in instruction and learning at school level. The role and vision of the school principal are determining factors in the way in which ICT is implemented by the teachers and learners in a school. The focus of this research study is twofold: firstly, to examine the priorities of school principals in the attainment of leadership competencies as a means to enhance ICT integration, and secondly, to examine the obstacles hindering the school’s capacity to realise its’ pedagogical goals through the integration of ICT in instruction and learning. The human factors “vision” and “expertise”, the two components of the adapted Four-in-Balance-Model of the Kennisnet Foundation 2011, have been used as conceptual framework for this study. This model guided the exploration of the leadership role of the South African school principal as ICT is integrated in instruction and learning in the participating South African secondary schools. This study is a secondary data analysis that explores the previously gathered data from the South African principals’ questionnaire of the SITES 2006 project. The SPSS V22 software package was used to analyse the data descriptively as well as inferentially. For the purpose of descriptive analysis, the Pearson Chi-Square and Fisher’s Exact Tests of significance was utilised, while Kendall’s Tau B/C or Cramer’s V was used to calculate the strength of the relationships between the applicable dependent and independent variables. The findings of this explorative study show that certain personal characteristics do have an influence on the way in which South African school principals view and experience their role as leaders in cross-curricular ICT integration. Furthermore, significant as well as strong relationships have been found between several variables, underlining the importance of the principal as innovative leader in cross-curricular ICT integration.