Development and Validation of a Digital Leadership Scale for School Principals in the AI-Driven Era
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59045/nalans.2026.90Keywords:
Digital leadership, Digital transformation, Educational leadership, Artificial intelligence in education, Scale developmentAbstract
The emergence of the artificial intelligence (AI) era has accelerated the digital transformation of educational systems, reshaping leadership practices in schools. As digital technologies increasingly influence teaching, learning, and administrative processes, there is a growing need for robust instruments to assess digital leadership. However, existing measures largely focus on technology leadership or digital competencies, overlooking the multidimensional nature of digital leadership as a process of organizational transformation. This study addresses this gap by developing and validating a Digital Leadership Scale for school principals. Using a quantitative instrument development design, an initial item pool was generated through literature review and refined via focus group interviews. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with data from 302 school principals revealed a three-factor structure, which was validated through Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) using an independent sample of 227 principals (χ²/df = 3.58, GFI = .91, CFI = .92, RMSEA = .05). The final scale consists of 28 items across three dimensions: Digital Transformation, Distance and Hybrid Education, and Digitalization. The scale demonstrated high internal consistency (α = .945). The findings indicate that digital leadership extends beyond technology use to encompass strategic vision, instructional innovation, and organizational change, providing a valid and reliable tool for future research.
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