A research on the technological leadership competences of secondary school administrators

School administrators need to adapt quickly to developments in societies. In this context, the primary duty of the school administrator is to provide the education needed according to the technological developments and to lead the digital transformation of the schools successfully. In this research it is firstly aimed to determine the technological leadership competencies of the school administrators working in secondary schools and to develop suggestions about education policies. Within the scope of the research, it is examined whether the technological leadership competencies of secondary school administrators show a significant difference according to the type of duty and school type, professional seniority, gender, age, educational status, having in-service training in the field of information technologies and IT class statues in their schools. In this research, which aims to determine the technological leadership competencies of the administrators working in secondary schools, a mixed research method is used in which quantitative and qualitative research methods are used together. In the study, one of the mixed research methods, sequential (mixed) patterns were used. The quantitative part of the research was designed in the descriptive scanning model. 386 principals and assistant principals working in secondary schools in central districts of İzmir participated in the study. The data of the study were collected from the principals and assistant principals working in public and private secondary schools in Bornova, Bayraklı, Çiğli, Karşıyaka, Karabağlar, Gaziemir and Balçova districts by using easily accessible sampling method within the boundaries of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality. The research was analyzed on the data of 352 managers who returned to the data collection form completely. In the research, as a quantitative data collection tool, 'The Technological Leadership Self-Sufficency Scale for School Principals' adapted to Turkish by Hacıfazlıoğlu, Karadeniz, and Dalgıç (2011a) from 'School Principles of National Education Technology Standards (NETS-A) framework for administrators' which is prepared.by International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), was used. The scale consists subdimensions of visionary leadership, digital age learning culture, excellence in professional practice, systematic improvement and digital citizenship. The qualitative data of the study were collected by semi-structured interview form from 12 secondary school administrators working in Bornova, Bayraklı and Karabağlar districts of İzmir province selected by purposeful sampling method. Content analysis was applied to analyze the qualitative data of the research. According to the results of the quantitative analysis of the research, it was found that the technological leadership competencies of the secondary school administrators are at "adequate" level. It was observed that the technological leadership competencies of secondary school administrators did not show a significant difference according to the type of school (official-private), professional seniority, age, education level, having in-service training status and IT class status in their schools. Significant differences were found at the technology leadership competencies of secondary school administrators according to their duties. The technological leadership competencies of the secondary school principals were found to be significantly higher than the technological leadership competencies of the secondary school assistant principals. In the sub-dimensions of visionary leadership, digital age learning culture, systematic improvement and digital citizenship, the competency of secondary school principals were significantly higher than that of secondary school assistant principals. Significant differences were found at secondary school administrators' technology leadership competencies according to their gender. The technological leadership competencies of male secondary school administrators were found to be significantly higher than the technological leadership competencies of female secondary school administrators. In the sub-dimensions of visionary leadership, digital age learning culture, excellence in professional practice, systematic improvement, the competencies of male secondary school administrators were found to be significantly higher than female secondary school administrators. According to the results of the qualitative analysis of the research, it was seen that the secondary school administrators using educational technologies mostly through the information systems in school management. Secondary school administrators stated that they used DYS, MEBBİS, E-Okul, EBA which were the official practices of the Ministry of National Education in their schools. Social media opportunities and barriers came to the fore in the views of secondary school administrators about the use of social media in school management. Positive and negative opinions have emerged about the use of social media by school administrators in school management. They stated that they were aware of the power of social media today but prefer to be cautious about the use of social media at school works. In the opinions of secondary school administrators about the contribution of technology competency to effective leadership, the necessity of using technology for effective leadership comes to the fore. With the transfer of all works and processes to the electronic environment, the use of technology by the administrators and teachers of the Ministry of Education became compulsory. It was seen that secondary school administrators have been facing difficulties in terms of technological deficiencies. School administrators stated that they didn't have sufficient budget to repair and renewal of technological tools in terms of hardware, software and infrastructure deficiencies at schools. It was seen that secondary school administrators expected more support to overcome the difficulties. School administrators stated that schools should be provided with a separate budget support for technological devices, infrastructure and technology integration and classes for the use of technology at schools. Keywords: Technological Leadership Competency, Technological Leader, Digital Age, School Administrator, Technological Leadership Standards