Investigating the effects of teacher leadership on the digital technology competence of teachers in a Scottish primary school

Abstract

This extended research proposal dissertation aims to focus on and examine the position of teacher leadership within a local authority in Scotland, and more specifically the role and impact of teacher leadership on the use of digital technology in learning and teaching activities. It will also take in to account the recent global coronavirus pandemic, which has served to magnify the importance of digital technologies in learning and teaching activities. The study gains its significance from the importance the Scottish Government has placed on the use of digital technologies in schools for learning and teaching activities through the publication of its strategy concerning the effective use of digital technology in schools, as well as the need for all schools to move to an online and remote method of delivery of learning activities during the recent global coronavirus pandemic.

The extended research proposal plans to focus on one school and will use a mixed-methods research approach to acquire data around the digital technology competence of teachers. In stage one, qualitative data will take the form of face-to-face interviews, participant observation sessions and field notes in a learning journal. Quantitative data will be gleaned from digital technology usage statistics taken from two online administration consoles. During stage two, interventions will then take place to include digital learning training sessions, team-teaching learning experiences and individual coaching sessions to increase teacher competence and confidence in using digital technology for learning and teaching activities. Further similar quantitative and qualitative data will be sought after the intervention in stage three to enable comparisons to be made and effectiveness of the interventions to be discussed.

It is hoped that the findings of this study will enable a detailed assessment on how teacher leadership and specialist teacher leaders in the field of digital technology can affect the use of such technology in learning and teaching activities in classrooms. Also, it hopes to define how teacher leadership might also continue to develop and maintain these skills in teaching staff as we embark on a ‘new normal’ way of teaching and learning taking in to account the health and safety measures that have been put in place as a result of the recent coronavirus pandemic.