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Sense of Empowerment Among School ICT Coordinators: Personal, Subject-Area and Leadership Empowerment

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Abstract

This qualitative study aimed to reveal patterns of empowerment among ICT (Information and Communication Technology) coordinators during ICT reform implementation in schools, and to examine if and how a sense of empowerment is expressed in their roles as teachers and as agents of change. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 24 ICT coordinators from elementary schools, who were asked to describe the ICT role and its affects upon them. Findings indicate that participants felt empowerment in three areas: (1) personal; (2) subject area; and (3) leadership. All participants felt personally empowered by their new role. This was expressed in a sense of self-efficacy, a sense of responsibility, intrinsic motivation to act, and the ability to lead change and overcome resistance. Some also felt subject area empowerment, which expressed as a desire to learn more about ICT, pedagogical-technical knowledge, and improving the quality of their own ICT teaching. Others experienced leadership empowerment, which manifested as being able to instruct staff members, expand their own areas of authority and achieve hierarchical job advancement. Those 10 participants who experienced (1) and (2) saw their future career advancement as becoming better ICT teachers, whereas those 14 participants who experienced (1) and (3) perceived their ICT coordinator role as a lever to achieve leadership positions, not necessarily within education. All the ICT coordinators reported that the ICT coordinator position positively affected the way they undertook their other teaching roles. The study indicates that synergy results from holding a dual role as teacher and ICT coordinator.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Achva Academic College, P.M Sikmim, Israel

    Orit Avidov-Ungar & Limor Hanin-Itzak

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  1. Orit Avidov-Ungar
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  2. Limor Hanin-Itzak
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Correspondence to Orit Avidov-Ungar.

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Appendix 1: Guide for Interviews with Teachers Holding the Additional Role of ICT Coordinator

Appendix 1: Guide for Interviews with Teachers Holding the Additional Role of ICT Coordinator

The nature of the ICT coordinator role:

  1. Tell us about the ICT coordinator role.

  2. What does being an ICT coordinator mean for you?

  3. Tell us about your professional development process upon receiving the ICT coordinator position and after that. What does the process entail?

  4. Tell us about meaningful stations along your professional development in the ICT field. What feeling characterize these stations.

Professional change:

  5. Describe the change that you underwent as the holder of the ICT coordinator position.

  6. What did you learn about yourself in the wake of receiving the position of school leader in the field of ICT?

  7. How did the ICT coordinator position affect your role as school teacher?

Empowerment:

  8. You were selected for the role of ICT coordinator. What does that say about you?

  9. What does it mean for you to be in a school leadership position?

  10. What does professional growth mean to you?

  11. A basic assumption is that ‘the ICT coordinator is the right hand of the principal in leading technological-pedagogical change processes in the school’. What is your attitude to this assumption?

  12. How, in your opinion, can the ICT field affect your role as a school teacher?

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Avidov-Ungar, O., Hanin-Itzak, L. Sense of Empowerment Among School ICT Coordinators: Personal, Subject-Area and Leadership Empowerment. Tech Know Learn 24, 401–417 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-017-9346-8

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