ICT for educational leadership in secondary special education schools in Greece in a multicultural environment

Resumen

The Digital Competence has been one of the fields that has become of great interest in recent years in the field of Educational Technology. The aim of the present research has been to analyse the perception of Digital Competence of principals of Special Education schools in a multicultural context in Greece. Educational institutions should be spaces that promote equity and in this sense, principals are an essential figure. School principals, nowadays, do not only have to work with students with Special Educational Needs, but they have to work with students from different cultural backgrounds with different beliefs and languages. Principals and teachers in every Special Education school are required to respect the values and different beliefs of the students and their families. Every effective school principal has as its main task the preparation of young people for their future. As the society has changed dramatically, every principals being the heart of each organization must to be adapted to new conditions. In a digitalised world, it is interesting to explore how digital skills can contribute to improving the leadership and the work of these professionals in special schools. For being effective school leaders, they need to use digital technologies, so the development of their Digital Competence is really important. There are some aspects of Digital Competence that are particularly interesting for school leaders, such as digital information and data literacy, communication and collaboration skills in online environments, digital content creation, security awareness and problem solving skills. For this purpose, a descriptive study is presented, using a survey approach, implemented with an ad hoc questionnaire. The purpose of the questionnaire was to analyse the self-perception of the Digital Competence of the principals of Secondary Schools of Special Education in Greece with students with Special Educational Needs in a multicultural environment and at the same time to detect how their level of perception of Digital Competence can influence the improvement of their professional role linked to school leadership. In this survey, 174 school heads of Secondary Special Education schools in Greece with immigrant students with Special Educational Needs participated. Some of the most relevant results indicate that a majority of the participants (97%) have attended specific training on ICT issues, while most of them consider that they have developed Digital Competence through personal interest and initiative. No differences were found in terms of gender and self-perception of Digital Competence. The level of education received does influence the perception of Digital Competence, in fact, the level of education was found to be essential in this aspect. In addition, the frequency of use of ICT by principals affects the existence of technological equipment in the school unit. Consequently, the frequency of ICT use in administration is positively related to the usefulness of the different ICT possibilities in school administration. As a consequence, it seems that the more years the school heads have been using ICT, the better they self-assess their Digital Competence, which also influences other aspects that have been analysed, such as the possibility of promoting collaboration with other schools, or the possibility of implementing specific educational programmes for immigrant pupils with Special Educational Needs. The factors indicated by the participants that prevent them from improving their Digital Competence are: the lack of specific digital educational programmes for immigrants with Special Educational Needs, the lack of specific software for administrative issues and the lack of training in this direction. Training was considered particularly relevant in order to be able to improve and develop their Digital Competence. We can conclude that Digital Competence is a relevant dimension for the management of educational leaders in this type of schools. Furthermore, this research opens up possibilities for future research where the impact of this competence on the educational reality of the institutions in Greece can be expanded.