Leading a 21st Century School in Basic Education: The Leadership Styles, Roles and Responsibilities of School Heads in Technology Integration

The study examined leadership styles, roles, and responsibilities of school heads in leading 21^st-century schools in technology integration.  The views of the school heads, ICT coordinators, and teachers were gathered as the basis for the analysis and interpretation of this qualitative study.  Specifically, the study employed multiple-case approach postulated by Yin (1994). Moreover, the participants of the study were purposively chosen based on identified criteria like the length of service, school size, availability of DepEd Computerization Program packages in school, and knowledge of the integration of technology in the teaching and learning process. The researchers focused on three cases, namely,  the cases of school heads, ICT coordinators, and classroom teachers. The study utilized the interview, direct observation, FGD, and analysis of documents as tools for data gathering. The study revealed three emerging themes that described the leadership styles that school heads could use to lead schools through the integration of technology. These themes were repetitively described in the responses of the participants. School heads in the 21st-century exercise democratic, situational, and transformational leadership styles. The study further highlighted eight emerging themes that defined the roles and responsibilities of school heads in leading schools through technology integration. School heads are responsible for assessing teacher’s technology skills, establishing the vision and goals, providing opportunities for teachers to grow in technology integration, securing resources to support technology integration, supporting and encouraging the integration of technology, extending assistance and urging collaboration, modeling the integration of technology, and monitoring and evaluating the integration of technology consistently.

Keywords School heads, leadership styles, roles and responsibilities, technology leadership, technology integration, 21^st-century school in basic education, multiple case approach