Abstract:

Support of principals is crucial for the fulfillment of educational potential of digital technologies in schools. Moreover, principals may have the most important role in planning and managing integration of digital technologies in teaching and other processes in schools including operations, staff development etc. CARNET internal research shows that principals recognize the importance of their role in encouraging implementation of digital technologies in teaching and also in other processes in schools.

This paper focuses on the role of principals in the use of digital technologies in schools, and on the competences they require to manage integration of digital technologies in schools based on the results of the e-Schools pilot project.

The e-Schools pilot project is a part of the e-Schools programme, co-financed from the Structural Funds of the European Union. Its purpose is to introduce digital technologies in primary and secondary schools in Croatia and to help them to raise their level of digital maturity. The e-Schools programme consists of the pilot project, from 2015 to 2018, and the major project, from 2019 to 2022. The pilot project involved 151 schools, while most of 1400 schools in Croatia will be included in the major project.

Pilot project e-Schools offered systematic training for principals in the field of digital competences, based on the Digital Competence Framework for School Employees: Teachers, Principals and Administrative Staff developed in the same project. The framework included general competences and specific managerial competences. Focus of training for principals was on planning and management of implementation of digital technologies in school.

Results of research on the effects of the e-Schools project demonstrate that professional development aimed at raising principals’ digital competences is correlated with frequency of the use of digital technologies in school management. Additionally, training had a statistically significant positive influence on the self-evaluation of the digital competence of principals.

During the e-Schools pilot project the framework and instrument for measuring the digital maturity of schools was developed and implemented in the initial and the final self-evaluation of digital maturity of 151 schools involved in the pilot project.

In the inital self-evaluation majority of the schools (about 51%) were positioned at level 2 in the area of planning, management and leadership, whereas in the final self-evalution the majority of the schools (41%) reached level 3 out of five levels, 5 being the highest level. Thus, substantial increase in digital maturity in this area is evident owing to the pilot project activities aimed at school principals.

On the other hand, results of self-evaluation of 1077 schools in Croatia which were not involved in the project reveals that in 58 percent of schools a long term plan of implementation of digital technologies does not exist, which is distinctive for the lowest level of digital maturity.

The conclusion is that training for principals for management of digital technologies in schools should be continued. The existing framework for digital competences should be more closely related to the framework for digital maturity of schools, which was developed later. To increase sustainability, the methodological approach to the development of the framework will place more significance on the inputs from principals, teachers and other stakeholders.

Keywords:

Principals, Digital technology, Digital competences, Education, Management, Digital Competence Framework.