Guidelines for Digital Leadership Development of School Administrators under the Office of Mahasarakham Secondary Educational Service Area

Abstract

The purposes of this research were: 1) to explore existing situation, desirable situation, and the priority needs to develop digital leadership of school administrators; and 2) to investigate the guidelines to develop digital leadership of school administrators. The mixed methods research was employed. The 1^st phase was exploring the existing situation, desirable situation, and the priority needs to develop digital leadership of school administrators. The samples were 317 school administrators and teachers in Secondary schools. The samples were randomized through stratified random sampling technique, classified by school sizes. The research instrument was a 5-rating scale questionnaire. The 2^nd phase was investigating the guidelines to develop digital leadership of school administrators. The informants were 5 school administrators being the best in digital leadership, and 5 experts evaluated the guidelines. The research instruments were a semi-structured interview form, and an evaluation form of the guidelines. Statistics used were mean, and standard deviation.

The research results were: 1) The existing situation to the digital leadership of school administrators was at a medium level, while the desirable situation was at a high level. The priority needs ranked from high to low were: digital vision, digital ethics, technological competencies, and digital ways of learning, respectively; and 2) The guidelines to develop digital leadership of school administrators were: 2.1) digital vision aspect: school administrator should emphasize on long-term perspective in utilizing digital technology and setting administrative system efficiently; 2.2) technological competency aspect: school administrators should develop the abilities to use technology for school administration,  develop teachers on digital technology skills, develop network to utilize digital technology; 2.3) digital ways of learning aspect: school administrators create the digital organization culture, promote teachers to develop their digital skills; 2.4) digital ethics aspect: school administrators attend seminar on utilizing digital technology with ethic, responsibility and creativity. The assessment of the guidelines was at the highest level of propriety, feasibility and utility.