The purpose of this explanatory single-case case study was to investigate teachers' perceptions of a principal's leadership behavior associated with the integration of a one-to-one laptop program in a parochial secondary school. The sample included the school principal and teachers who have had at least one year of teaching experience at the parochial school with laptop computers. Owing to a mixed methods case study approach, data was collected from four sources: a semi-structured personal interview with the school principal, semi-structured personal interviews with teachers, a focus group interview with teachers, and teachers' completion with an electronic version of the Principal Leadership Questionnaire. These multiple forms of data were collected to support data-rich triangulation on the same set of research questions. SPSS was used to assist with data analysis of the electronic survey. Cronbach's alpha was used to determine the reliability of the instrument. Themes were extracted from the semi-structured personal interviews and focus group. The findings from this study provided teachers' perceptions of a principal's leadership behaviors associated with the integration of a one-to-one laptop program for students in a parochial secondary school.

Idag används 1:1 datorer, d.v.s. en dator för varje elev, i svenska skolor. Detta ämne är intressant att undersöka i vårt växande globala digitalsamhälle där kommuner och skolor strävar efter att erbjuda en hög tillgänglighet och kompetens till eleverna. Syftet med mitt arbete är att belysa 1:1 datoranvändning, samt om det förekommer skillnader mellan manliga och kvinnliga elevers användning. Det empiriska materialet har samlats in genom enkäter och intervjuer. Detta har bearbetats och därefter analyserats enligt tre kategorier: datorns användning, kommunikation, och samarbete. Resultatet visar att samtliga deltagare i undersökningen är överlag positiva till projektet, både lärare och elever anser att det är lättare att ta kontakt med varandra och skolarbetet underlättas. Det som upplevts som negativt är viss bristande uppmärksamhet under lektionerna pga. sociala medier. Elevernas användarkunskap skiljer sig inte åt könsmässigt, däremot visar undersökningen skillnader i användning efter intresseområden.

The purpose of this study was to examine technology integration and the application of Culturally Relevant Teaching (CRT). This inquiry evolved as a result of trying to understand the unique intersectionality of student identity, which is inclusive of youth culture, and whether teachers understood this dynamic and hence leveraged it in the classrooms and school communities they taught. Given that youth culture is a “mash-up of cultures and the membership transcends ethnic and racial lines,” there was evident value in exploring how youth cultural competence is unpacked and applied by educators to both deliver content and build relationships (Keuss, 2012), Understanding that a major youth cultural referent is technology, the study observed how teacher’s Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge manifested itself in the classroom and the types of technology students shared they were exposed to, in addition to their perceptions of teacher competence of technology and/or youth culture. This exploration was further framed by using a Culturally Relevant Teaching framework to analyze teacher-student interactions, based on the principles, behaviors and mindsets outlined by Ladson-Billings in her construction of defining the characteristics of a CRT educator (2009). This was a qualitative study that included 10 teachers and 20 student participants that were members of a technology-rich middle school in an urban environment. Teachers participated in classroom observations, interviews, and CRT reflective tasks. Students participated in grade-level focus groups that leveraged interactive and reflective tasks. As a result of the data analysis, implications from the study presents school leaders with practical insights on how technology integration can be woven into the fabric of the school to strengthen teacher development, support content delivery and enhance the quality of student learning experiences. Additionally, there is evidence of a need for commitment by schools to train teachers in Culturally Relevant Teaching practices in order to attend to the whole child, operate with a more student-centered approach, and adequately prepare scholars for the digital world. / Educational Administration