School Principals’ Influence on Science Teachers’ Technology Implementation: A Retrospective Analysis

Peled, Y. Kali, Y. & Dori Y.J. (2011). School principals' influence on science ‎teachers' technology implementation: A retrospective analysis. International ‎Journal of Leadership in Education, 14(2), 229-245.

ABSTRACT:

This paper describes a longitudinal study, in which the interaction between junior high school principals and science teachers is characterized, and its influence on technology implementation is explored. Fourteen principals and 19 teachers who participated in a former study, which took place from 1998 to 2001, were re-interviewed and observed during 2005. The teachers were classified into four types—Initiators, Followers, Evaders and Objectors—based on the mode and extent to which they implemented educational technologies in their teaching. Principals were also classified into four categories—Initiating, Empowering, Permitting yet Preventing and Resisting—based on the way they motivated or discouraged science teachers to incorporate educational technologies into their teaching. Findings indicate that the principals were fairly consistent in the type of support they provided to their teachers throughout the seven years of the study. The findings indicate that the principals’ longitudinal support or discouragement plays a crucial role in teachers’ ability and motivation to incorporate educational technologies as an integral part of their teaching. Encouraging outcomes show that teachers between the years 2001 to 2005 were somewhat less dependent on the principals’ support than they were between the years 1998 to 2001.