Fostering digital school leadership in a world of artificial intelligence

The rapid development of digital technologies poses challenges for policymakers and schools in staying updated with the latest trends and assessing their impact on education (Casal-Otero et al., 2023). Artificial intelligence (AI)I and the introduction of generative AI (GenAI) in fall 2022 necessitated a re-evaluation of its effects on leadership, teaching, learning, and ethical concerns (Quaquebeke & Gerpott, 2023; Williamson et al. 2023). AI offers personalized learning and access to vast data, but challenges include bias, ethical concerns, overreliance on GenAI, and data security issues (Adiguzel et al., 2023; Fullan et al., 2024; Viberg et al., 2024). For school leaders, AI and GenAI may impact various school management processes, such as stream-lining administrative tasks, and facilitating communication between school leaders, teachers, parents, and students, and increases school leaders ‘efficiency (Adams & Thompson, 2025). Professional development for teachers' digital competence (PDC) has been extensively studied, with efforts to enhance AI proficiency (Fernández-Batanero et al., 2022; Skantz-Åberg et al., 2022; Sperling et al., 2024; UNESCO, 2023). However, there is limited research on school leaderships’ PDC and their role in implementing AI and GenAI in schools (Fullan et al., 2024; Tømte, 2024). This paper investigates how school leaders perceive and manage the integration of AI and GenAI in schools. It is guided by the following research questions: 1) How do school leaders facilitate AI and GenAI in schools? 2) How do they perceive their role in this implementation? 3)How does their PDC influence this process? The study is informed by theories of distributed leadership, and conceptualization of PDC for school leaders including areas of expertise including administrative and pedagogical leadership (Tømte, 2024). We use a qualitative approach with interviews, observations, and logs from four workshops with school leaders from 14 upper secondary schools, applying a reflexive thematic analytical (RTA) approach (Braun & Clarke, 2022). Preliminary findings suggest that both the school leaders’ own PDC and a systematic approach influence school leaders’ local efforts. The findings will be further elaborated and at the conference we’ll offer a more comprehensive analysis. Although this study is based in Norway, a small country in Northern Europe, it may be relevant to the international research community. First, Norway holds a long history of digitalizing public welfare. Second, Norway's education system, which is a public offering, has been influenced by digital technologies for over two decades, yet with a strong hold in governmental steering and guidance on educational goals and with a certain eye on privacy issues. Since 2022, all schools have provided one-to-one digital devices for teaching and learning indicating that all schools currently hold a solid digital infrastructure (Munthe et al., 2022). Thus, as an early adopter of digital technologies in education, Norway's experiences with integrating AI and GenAI offer valuable insights to researchers and practitioners interested in AI and education. Third, the scholarly literature on school leadership, AI, and GenAI are still scarce (Fullan et al., 2024; Krein, 2023; Wollscheid et al., 2023). This way, the present study may add new knowledge to the research community. References Adams, D., & Thompson, P. (2025). Transforming School Leadership with Artificial Intelligence: Applications, Implications, and Future Directions. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 24(1), 77-89. Adiguzel, T., M. H. Kaya, and F. K. 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