The purpose of the study was to examine the role of leadership and school culture on the integration of technology to support instruction for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). A multiple embedded case study design was used to describe how a school leadership team supports a school culture for technology integration within classrooms where special education teachers integrate technology to engage students with EBD. The primary case of school culture includes a comprehensive description of how the school leadership team supports a culture for technology integration within classrooms. Embedded cases within the primary case describe how special education teachers integrate technology to engage students with EBD in classroom instruction. Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) (Koehler & Mishra, 2005) is part of the conceptual framework to theoretically undergird the study. The findings of this study describe a school that serves students with EBD where there is a strong school culture and leaders support teachers who integrate technology to engage students. Patterns from the analysis indicate school leaders plan for staff development, participate in staff development sessions with teachers, observe teachers, provide feedback about teacher performance, and praise and encourage teachers to integrate technology. Teachers and leaders engage in formal and informal staff development opportunities to learn how to integrate technology into classroom lessons. As a result of these trainings and school leader support, teachers provide clear expectations for students while integrating technology to engage students, provide direct instruction, choices, and visual representation of content.

The goal of this study was to understand how a secondary principal uses a distributed perspective of leadership to support informal teacher leaders (ITLs) to improve classroom technology integration. Using a phenomenological lens, I employed a multi-site case study to inform the research goals. A conceptual framework based on Bandura’s (1977) social learning theory and Wenger’s (1998) communities of practice theory was used to guide the study’s methods and data collection. Data were collected in three phases. At each site, the first phase consisted of a digital survey with only closed-ended questions that was administered to all classroom teachers. The survey was analyzed using social network analysis to identify the ITLs at each school. During the second phase, individual interviews with the ITLs and the principal as well as a follow-up focus group interview with ITLs at each school were conducted. During the final phase of data collection, I observed the ITLs at work to understand how they embodied informal teacher leadership. Analyses of diverse data revealed how a principal influences the nature of informal teacher leadership in a school. Findings revealed that principals establish cultural expectations using teacher voice in leadership decisions, modeling the effective use of education technology, providing in-school and out-of-school leadership opportunities for ITLs, and establishing expectations for all teachers to assume roles of instructional leadership. It was clear in this study that although principals are not directly connected to the informal leading and learning network that occurs in a school, they indirectly influence the informal network by establishing school-wide cultural expectations for informal teacher leadership and by personally interacting with the ITLs.

Researchers found that various schools took different technology leadership approaches and that school leadership practices were empirically associated with outcomes for teacher performance and student learning. To date, few studies systematically examined the salient aspects of school technology leadership (STL) and science teacher technology leadership (STTL), and the effects of country and grade-level on school and science teacher technology leaderships. A comprehensive technology leadership model was lacking for secondary school science education. Therefore, this research study focused on the status of school technology leadership, science teacher technology leadership, and their relationships and differences across country and grade. In this study, the specific school technology leadership practices and artifacts were investigated in eight schools in the U.S. and China and at both high and middle school levels. This study was completed using both quantitative and descriptive data from surveys, interviews, observations and artifact review. Meanwhile, in the study, school technology and science teachers’ technology leaderships were examined on the bases of their information and communication technology (ICT)-supported learning environment, ICT competence, ICT-enriched curriculum, and ICT-integrated instruction. Additionally, how school and science teacher technology leadership style differed across county and grade-level contexts was examined in this study. As a result, this study increased understanding of the nature and scope of school and science teacher technology leaderships and their differences across country and grade. This study provided school leaders, science teachers, and policy makers with important implications for the development of ICT-integrated education in the digital age.