Findings and derived challenges concerning how school leaders should support ICT integration at schools

ABSTRACT

One of the biggest challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic was to integrate ICT (Information and Communication Technology) into remote teaching. As managers, school leaders play a principal role in deciding how to overcome this challenge. This study aims to identify how school leaders support ICT integration at schools. To do so, the authors conducted a systematic literature review (SLR). A literature search using the ISI Web of Science, SCOPUS, and the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) yielded a total of 537 articles published between 2011 and 2020 (a manual search was undertaken between September 2020 – January 2021). The results suggest that school leaders influence ICT integration at schools in seven ways: encouraging ICT integration in the school community, facilitating ICT use, providing financial support, giving ICT training, collaboration, planning, and monitoring. The findings from this SLR provide valuable data, which could help authorities to evaluate school administrators’ roles in integrating ICT at schools. Additionally, policymakers can use the research results to provide a baseline for future assessments and guidelines for school leaders’ professional development. Finally, future research could examine the relationships between the factors identified in the SLR and how to measure school leaders’ support for ICT integration.

KEYWORDS:

• ICT integration
• school leaders’ support
• school management
• school leaders
• systematic literature review

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Diana K. Rojas Briñez

Diana Rojas is a biologist and a natural science secondary school teacher with a master’s in education. She is carrying out academic research as part of her degree project to obtain a PhD in Education and ICT from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.

Josep M. Duart

Dr Duart is a full professor at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). He holds a doctorate in Pedagogy from Ramon Llull University (URL), Barcelona, and a master’s in Business Administration from ESADE Business School, Barcelona. He graduated from the University of Barcelona (UB) with a bachelor’s degree in History and a teaching qualification. He is former Vice President for Postgraduate Studies and Lifelong Learning, and director of the International Graduate Institute at the UOC (01/2007–2008/2013). He is a lecturer and expert in Education and Technology (e-learning). He was the founder and director of the UOC UNESCO Chair in e-Learning (2002–2009). He is the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education (ETHE) ethe.uoc.edu.

Álvaro H. Galvis Panqueva

Álvaro Hernán Galvis Panqueva was a full professor in the Faculty of Engineering, UNIANDES, Bogotá, Colombia from 1995, and retired in 2022. He has collaborated with diverse organisations as an international senior advisor for technology-mediated educational innovations in higher education and life-long learning initiatives. His major areas of interest are strategic thinking applied to educational organisations, technology-based educational innovations, and the creation and assessment of active learning hybrid learning environments. His most recent publications address these topics. He has been creator, leader and advisor of innovative educational projects that rely on the use of digital technology, nationally and internationally. He is a Systems and Computer Science Engineer from Uniandes, with a master’s degree and PhD in Adult Education with support of digital technologies from The Pennsylvania State University. Alvaro is co-editor in chief of the International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, a Springer open-access publication.