Technological leadership behaviors of turkish elementary school principals in providing and using educational technologies

The main purpose of this study was to determine the technological leadership behaviors of elementary school principals in providing and using educational technologies and the problems they faced in this process based on their perceptions. In the design of this study, a survey research with single and correlational models were used. The sample of the study included 870 public elementary school principals who were working in the city centers of 16 provinces within the Ministry of National Education in the 2008-2009 academic-year. The data in the study were collected by an instrument, which was developed by the researcher, named as ?Questionnaire of Educational Technological Leadership Behaviors of Turkish Elementary School Principals?. In the data analysis, one-way ANOVA, t-test, and Tukey HSD post-hoc procedures were used.In this study, it was found that the principals demonstrated a high level of technological leadership behaviors in elementary schools in providing and using educational technologies. School principals? educational technological leadership behaviors in providing and using educational technologies in schools were composed of six standards. These standards were: leadership and vision; learning and teaching; productivity and professional practice; support, management, and operations; assessment and evaluation; social, legal, and ethical issues. The principals demonstrated five of these standards at a high level while the sixth standard (support, management and operations) was demonstrated by principals at medium level. The results indicated that the elementary school principals faced some problems in the following areas: Facilities, materials, internet connection, software, finance, and technical staff.The technological leadership behaviors of elementary school principals did not differ based on some demographic variables such as gender, branch, educational level, the duration upon the last graduation level, experience, and region. However, their technological leadership behaviors differed on trainings they received on educational technology. There was a significant relationship between their perceptions of competency levels and the leadership behaviors that they demonstrated. School principals who had received training in educational technologies and who utilized these technologies felt more competent in terms of leadership behaviors when compared to others.