Generative AI has the potential to transform various aspects of educational leadership, but little is known about how school principals perceive and use these technologies in their professional roles. This study aims to explore school principals’ perceptions towards generative AI and identify the applications they have already integrated into their administrative and educational practices. Through a sequential mixed-method approach, we will conduct in-depth interviews with three school principals to gather qualitative insights into their professional experiences with AI. In addition, a survey informed by the interview results will be administered to 80 school principals to capture broader perceptions of opportunities and challenges using generative AI applications in their everyday leadership.

The research seeks to uncover how generative AI may support tasks such as administration, school management, decision-making and analysis. We will also examine the perceived opportunities and challenges of AI, as well as the ethical and operational challenges principals face. By identifying both the current uses and future potential of generative AI in education, this study will provide critical insights for educational leaders and policymakers seeking to integrate AI tools effectively. 

The findings aim to contribute to the growing body of knowledge on AI in education, highlighting opportunities for innovation in school leadership.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, educational policy, educational technology, school leadership

Extended Abstract

Research Aims

This study aims to explore school principals’ attitudes towards generative AI, identify its current applications in their professional roles, and assess their organizational readiness for AI integration. As generative AI becomes increasingly relevant in educational settings, understanding how school principals perceive and apply this technology in their leadership roles is essential. This research is guided by three primary objectives: Attitudes and Perceptions: Investigate school principals’ attitudes towards the utility, benefits, and limitations of generative AI in educational leadership; Current Applications: Identify specific uses of generative AI that school principals have adopted within their administrative and instructional practices; and Organizational Readiness: Assess the level of preparedness within schools to integrate AI, focusing on two aspects: (1) principals’ knowledge for making informed decisions about AI, and (2) whether schools have defined, actionable visions for AI’s role, grounded in Weiner’s Organizational Readiness for Change Model.

Methodology

This research employs a sequential mixed-methods approach to capture both in-depth qualitative insights and generalizable quantitative data: (1) Qualitative Phase – In-depth Interviews. The initial phase involves conducting in-depth interviews with 10 school principals in Sweden and Australia during February - March 2025. These interviews are designed to elicit detailed professional experiences, insights, and reflections on using generative AI in their roles. Open-ended questions will focus on the perceived value of AI for various tasks, specific applications in school management, and the challenges they have encountered. Importantly, interviews will also explore principals’ perceptions of their knowledge of AI and the presence (or absence) of an institutional vision regarding AI integration. (2) Quantitative Phase – Survey. Insights from the interviews will inform the design of a survey administered to 80 principals in Sweden in May 2025, with a separate administration in Australia in the second half of 2025. This survey aims to capture broader perceptions and experiences across a larger sample, ensuring that findings reflect diverse educational contexts. Survey questions will cover principals’ general attitudes towards AI, its perceived benefits and challenges, and readiness aspects such as knowledge and vision. The survey will also include items inspired by Weiner’s Model, focusing on school-level commitment to AI integration, shared efficacy among staff, and resources available for potential AI projects. 

Anticipated Findings

While findings are preliminary, the study is expected to reveal important insights into how generative AI is currently used and perceived in educational leadership in the following three areas: (1) Attitudes and Perceptions: It is anticipated that principals will exhibit cautious optimism towards AI, recognizing its potential for efficiency and data-driven insights in school management while voicing concerns about ethical considerations, data security, and practical implementation. (2) Current Applications: Early evidence suggests that principals may currently employ AI for tasks such as data analysis, report generation, and administrative planning, but we have early indications of more innovative applications as well. Applications may also vary significantly depending on the size, resources, and technological infrastructure of each school. (3) Organizational Readiness: Principals’ knowledge of AI is likely to vary widely, potentially revealing gaps in both general AI literacy and specific skills needed for AI decision-making. Findings will also provide insights into the presence of AI visions within schools, exploring whether these visions are aligned with strategic goals, well-communicated among staff, and supported by adequate resources and professional development.

Theoretical Significance

The study is theoretically grounded in Weiner’s Organizational Readiness for Change Model, which offers a robust framework for analysing an organization’s readiness to implement new technologies. This model highlights two main aspects of readiness: (1) change commitment, which refers to the shared willingness within the organization to embrace change, and (2) change efficacy, which concerns the confidence that the organization has in its capacity to carry out change. By applying this model, the study will be able to gauge both the level of commitment among school leaders and their belief in their ability to incorporate AI effectively.

Educational Significance

This research’s educational significance lies in its potential to guide school leaders, policymakers, and stakeholders in integrating generative AI responsibly and effectively into school management and instructional support.

By pinpointing the AI knowledge principals find relevant, the study could inform professional development programs that equip leaders with skills to address ethical and legal implications and implement AI tools aligned with educational values. Insights into schools’ AI strategies may underscore the importance of strategic planning in technology adoption, as schools with clear strategies are better positioned to leverage benefits while addressing challenges. The findings could prompt schools to articulate AI integration goals, focusing on student outcomes, teacher support, and equity.

By identifying readiness gaps, such as knowledge deficits or lack of a unified strategy, the study may underscore the need for policies supporting AI adoption, including funding for necessary infrastructure, professional learning resources, and ethical frameworks in education. These findings may also aid policymakers and district-level administrators as they seek to foster innovation across schools in a way that is equitable and aligned with educational objectives. 

Conclusion

This research seeks to fill a gap in the understanding of generative AI’s role in educational leadership, with a focus on principals’ attitudes, practical applications, and organizational readiness for change. By examining the current landscape of AI use and identifying readiness factors, this study will provide essential insights for educational leaders and policymakers striving to leverage AI’s potential responsibly. Findings are expected to contribute to the broader knowledge base on AI in education, with practical implications for fostering organizational readiness and advancing innovative leadership practices in schools.

This study investigates how gender and school year influence students’ perceptions of the learning environment in Swedish compulsory schools. Using the adapted patterns of adaptive learning scales (PALS) questionnaire, this research examined 831 students from years 3, 6 and 8 (ages 9–14). Data were analysed using principal component analysis (PCA), t-tests, and multiple regression analysis. Findings indicate a significant decline in students’ overall perception of the school environment, goal orientation and confidence in their teachers’ management skills as they progress through school years, with the most pronounced changes occurring between years 3 and 6. This decline is most pronounced prior to adolescence, suggesting that factors beyond pubertal onset may contribute to this trend. Gender differences were also evident, with boys exhibiting more positive perceptions across all aspects considered despite typically lower academic performance reported in other studies.

In the current spring of Artificial Intelligence, the rapid development of Generative AI (GenAI) has initiated vivid discussions in higher education. Opportunities as well as challenges have been identified and to cope with this new situation there is a need for a large-scale teacher professional development. With basic skills about GenAI teachers could use the new technology as an extension of the existing technology enhanced teaching and learning. The aim of this paper is to present and discuss the project FAITH (Frontline Application of AI and Technology-enhanced Learning for Transforming Higher Education). FAITH is a higher education pedagogical development initiative for institutional development for teachers with good fundamental skills in traditional pedagogy. A project with the overall objective of increasing the staff understanding of AI and to develop new competencies in the field of GenAI and technology enhanced learning. The research question that guided this study was: "What are the perceived opportunities, challenges and expectations of involving GenAI in higher education?" The overall research strategy for the FAITH project is design-based research, which involves iterative and cumulative development processes. In the early iteration that this study was a part of has been carried out inspired by Collective Autoethnography where members of the steering group behind the FAITH project, and members of the project team have constituted the main focus group. Data were collected by structured interviews where two GenAI tools also have been interviewed. Findings show that the expectations are high, but that the FAITH ambition of institutional development is depending on teachers’ motivation for taking an active part in the project. Another challenge could be that many teachers see GenAI as something that threatens the current course design, and that a general ban of GenAI is the appropriate solution. One of, several identified opportunities, is that a general revision of syllabi and assessment in an adaptation for GenAI enhanced learning would improve the current course design.

This study aims to investigate the impact of age and gender on self-perception and views of the learning environment in light of the consistent gender disparities in academic performance between boys and girls. The study adopts a pragmatic approach to motivation, given that perceived motivation and schoolwork engagement are closely related to students’ academic outcomes. An adapted PALS questionnaire was used to investigate the relationship between a learning environment and students' self-perception and motivation. 831 compulsory school students participated in school year 3, 6, and 8 (n=831). Data was analyzed with Principal Component Analysis (PCA), t-tests, and multi-regression analysis. Findings indicate that as students advance in age, their overall perception of the school, goal orientation, and confidence in their teacher's classroom management skills decline. This decline is most pronounced prior to adolescence, indicating that factors beyond pubertal onset may contribute to this trend. Gender differences were also evident in the students' perceptions, with boys exhibiting a more positive outlook across all aspects considered in this study, particularly towards their teachers. more positive throughout the school years in all the aspects mentioned above, especially towards the teacher.

In the current spring of Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI is purported to affect many areas, including higher education. To cope with this new situation there is a large-scale need for teacher professional development. The project FAITH (Frontline Application of AI and Technology-enhanced Learning for Transforming Higher Education) is a higher education pedagogical development project that aims to develop institutional teaching development and education programs further. Using AI and technology-enhanced learning, teachers in higher education will work and develop programmes which are adapted to work and study in a highly communicative, cloud-based, mobile and smart AI-based society.

The project has the following objectives: To take advantage of ongoing higher education pedagogical development initiatives within the university; To harness the power and benefits of already established models and teams, and to develop professional knowledge through new higher education pedagogy; and To increase staff understanding and competence in AI and technology-enhanced learning.

FAITH is based on design-based research, which involves iterative and cumulative development processes. The project will be implemented during 2024-2026. FAITH consists of three phases: preparation, implementation and evaluation. In the preparation phase, the project is planned in detail. A steering group is formed and a project team is created. In this phase, these groups are responsible for the staffing and scheduling of FAITH, including the development of a plan for the competence development action. Program managers have a primary responsibility for the pedagogical development of their respective programs. Therefore, they have a prominent role in the FAITH project group. The implementation phase includes training of teams, pedagogical development work and seminar activities. The focus is on the impact of technological development on higher education studies and its content and form. In the final evaluation phase, the experiences are compiled and, based on the conclusions drawn, proposals for further development are drawn up.

This paper presents an update of the FAITH project, including ongoing and planned processes within the project. This includes insights in the FAITH project as a model for pedagogical applications of AI and technology-enhanced learning in the context of higher education.

This paper focuses on professional development for school principals, drawing on literature on the education of leaders and school leaders' development. The Swedish National Principal Training Programme (NPTP) is a state-regulated executive education for professional principals in preschools, schools, and school-age Educare centres. It has been mandatory for all newly appointed principals in Sweden since 2010. The NPTP is a mandatory in-service programme and consists of three courses: school law and governance, governing with objectives and results, and school leadership. The programme runs over three years, parallel to working full-time as a principal. The participants are expected to spend 20% of their working time on their studies. The NPTP uses a networked educational design, which is a valuable research topic from a networked professional learning perspective. This pilot study aims to explore the role of networked educational design for novice principals' professional development and strengthened professional confidence and identity. The research question that frames the study is: In what ways do novice principals' experiences of professional development contribute to the development of their professional confidence and identity with a networked educational design? The study employed a qualitative case-study design with a purposive sampling method to include novice principals undertaking Sweden's national school training programme. Data were collected during 2018-2022 from post-programme evaluations, including individual digital questionnaires with close-ended and open-ended responses and small group oral evaluations documented in a log book. The participants were novice principals studying in the NPTP at one university in Sweden. In all, 321 school leaders from 10 cohort groups in the programme consisting of principals and deputy principals from preschool, primary, secondary, and adult education participated voluntarily. The programme evaluations were carried out during the participants' last residential stay in the programme. Results indicate the importance of residential stays and networking opportunities in the educational journey of principals. These opportunities help connect with peers, establish contacts, and acquire valuable strategies. Completing the training increased principals' professional confidence, particularly in their roles as school leaders. The study shows that the networked educational design supports the development of a professional network among principals, which enhances their professional identity and confidence. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of this networked educational design, which helps shape principals' professional identity and confidence. The findings emphasise the value of networked professional learning

This work was built on two strands of earlier research on the community of inquiry framework (CoI). The first strand was Biglan’s seminal work on disciplinary epistemological structures and how these structures impact digital technology-enabled higher education teaching. In the other strand, some rare studies suggested that emotional issues are important to understanding higher education teaching. Nevertheless, research that links these two strands is even rarer. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the relationship between digital technology- enabled teaching in higher educational settings, the presences of the community of inquiry framework (CoI), and disciplinary epistemological structures. Survey responses from 143 teachers were analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis (SEM) and reflexive thematic analysis. Emotional presence was found to be a possible fourth element in the CoI. Disciplinary differences (coded as pure vs. applied sciences) were found to have an effect on the CoI, and that effect was particularly evident through the mediation of emotional presence. The differentiating factor was teachers’ views on the role of teaching. When guiding digital design, the recommendation is to consider such disciplinary differences specifically.

Designing an educational experience that fosters higher-order thinking and learning is a significant challenge in a campus setting, and more so in an online setting. The constantly changing nature of educational technology adds even more complexity to the situation and educational research struggles to provide relevant recommendations and best practices. Therefore, this thesis provides theoretical, methodological, and practical contributions to the research community in five areas : (1) The addition of emotional presence to the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework holds the potential to enrich social presence. A teacher seeking to enhance their educational design can benefit from a deliberate focus on emotional aspects. This extension offers researchers fresh perspectives and advances understanding in this area. However, there are valid arguments against expanding the framework, as it may introduce unnecessary complexity. (2) Digital technologies play a crucial role in designing effective online educational settings to accommodate the various presences within the CoI. A review of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) applications in higher education identified several tools that can support individual CoI presences. However, while technological advancements have addressed numerous issues, challenges persist. (3) The CoI framework is rooted in principles of active learning, which are vital for fostering social presence and cognitive presence in online settings. Evaluating the implementation of active learning classrooms (ALC) revealed intriguing connections between campus- based and online teaching. However, assessing student activity in online environments can be challenging. Visualizations of Google Docs revision history prove valuable for diagnosing collaborative patterns and identifying low collaboration and interaction between group participants, which otherwise could hinder higher-order thinking and critical discourse. (4) The rapid growth of online educational settings in higher education has generated an abundance of student data for learning analytics. Unfortunately, ethical considerations have not received adequate attention. Key ethical areas in learning analytics are discussed. (5) The methodological contribution lies in the design that utilizes a pragmatist worldview as the guiding philosophy of science for a mixed methods approach, coupled with a pragmatism philosophy of education, that in turn, guides the theoretical and educational stances.

These results have implications for higher education teachers striving to develop their educational practice.

De senaste årens pandemi har satt ljuset på fjärrundervisning. Det har tillämpats i en tidigare aldrig skådad omfattning, dessutom i lägre åldersgrupper än vanligt. Fenomenet har beskrivits som Emergency Remote Teaching (Bozkurt & Sharma, 2020; Hodges m.fl., 2020; Mohmmed m.fl., 2020) för att urskilja undervisning orsakad av kriser och katastrofer från välplanerad distansundervisning (Online Education). Men denna framtvingade ”fjärrundervisning i kris” har även lyft behovet av ökad kunskap kring elevers digitala lärmiljö, vilket inkluderar system och plattformar utanför utbildningsanordnarens kontroll.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur tillgången till fritt tillgängliga digitala plattformar kan inverka på lärandemiljön för studiegrupper i samband med fjärrundervisning. Detta undersöks utifrån frågeställningarna: hur resonerar de lärande kring val av kommunikationsplattformar? samt vilka möjligheter och utmaningar kan identifieras?

Studien har en parallell mixad design och datainsamlingen genomfördes genom semistrukturerade gruppintervjuer (n=2, en intakt studiegrupp och en tvärgrupp med representanter från 6 studiegrupper) och en mindre enkät (n≈80). Med Community of Inquiry som lins (e.g., Garrison, 2017; Garrison m.fl., 1999; Vaughan m.fl., 2013) visar preliminära resultat att studenter snabbt och spontant organiserar sig för att hitta smidiga kommunikationslösningar. Fördelar som stärkt social och kognitiv närvaro kan identifieras. Det kan också uppstå nackdelar då kommunikationen flyttar utanför lärares insyn. Möjligheten att identifiera behov av gruppstödjande insatser eller tillrättaläggande av missuppfattningar försvåras. Förekomst av kränkande beteende hamnar utanför utbildningsanordnarens kontroll, och elever/studenter som valt att stå utanför plattformar som Facebook riskerar att uteslutas från studiegruppsarbeten. Viss lärarinsyn kan dock återfås genom digitala lösningar (e.g., Sundgren & Jaldemark, 2020).

Referenser

Bozkurt, A., & Sharma, R. C. (2020). Emergency remote teaching in a time of global crisis due to CoronaVirus pandemic. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 15(1), 6.

Garrison, D. R. (2017). E-learning in the 21st century: A community of inquiry framework for research and practice (Third edition). Routledge.

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (1999). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2–3), 87–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1096-7516(00)00016-6

Hodges, C., Moore, S., Lockee, B., Trust, T., & Bond, A. (2020). The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning. Educause Review. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/3/the-difference-between-emergency-remote-teaching- and-online-learning

Mohmmed, A. O., Khidhir, B. A., Nazeer, A., & Vijayan, V. J. (2020). Emergency remote teaching during Coronavirus pandemic: The current trend and future directive at Middle East College Oman. Innovative Infrastructure Solutions, 5(3), 72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41062-020-00326-7

Sundgren, M., & Jaldemark, J. (2020). Visualizing online collaborative writing strategies in higher education group assignments. International Journal of Information and Learning Technology, 37(5), 351–373. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJILT-02-2020-0018

Vaughan, N. D., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Garrison, D. R. (2013). Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry. AU Press.

This paper discusses perceptions of educational gamification and its potential opportunities for reducing student dropout and teacher workload. Interviews of nine teachers and their technology acceptance were studied in conjunction with the implementation of a gamified online system during2019, fully designed for distance education. Results indicate perceptions of reduced workload, prevention of students from handing in late, and facilitating activity in courses. However, perceptions of clear suspicion towards Educational Gamification also related acceptance as insufficient for behavioral intent until very conclusive result demonstrations of behavioral performance are available to the teachers. Implications for lifelong learning and ethical concerns are briefly discussed.