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Article

School Leadership Networks in the Context of Digital School Development

by
Amelie Sprenger
*,
Nina Carolin von Grumbkow
,
Kathrin Fussangel
and
Cornelia Gräsel
School of Education, University of Wuppertal, Gaußstraße 20, 42119 Wuppertal, Germany
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Educ. Sci. 2025, 15(10), 1320; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15101320
Submission received: 17 June 2025 / Revised: 22 September 2025 / Accepted: 24 September 2025 / Published: 5 October 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamic Change: Shaping the Schools of Tomorrow in the Digital Age)

Abstract

In the context of digital school development, the leadership practices of school leadership teams play a significant role. If leadership teams want to enact leadership practices effectively, they require strong connections to the entire teaching staff as well as close contact with other key actors in the digital process. Since little is known about these connection patterns of school leadership teams, this study aims to uncover them. The aim is to provide practical advice to school administrators and schools regarding digital school development, and to derive concrete recommendations for action concerning their relationships and management. To this end, we examined the social networks of the teaching staff of 13 German secondary schools (N = 817 teachers) by asking all the teachers to complete a questionnaire about their contacts in relation to digital school development. We conducted a social network analysis and extracted various network metrics pertaining to the school leadership teams of these institutions, considering not only their integration within the overall network but also their connections with a pivotal stakeholder: the digital coordinator. To contextualize our findings, we compared the network metrics of the two different professional target groups using t-tests. The results reveal significant variability in the connection patterns of school leadership teams across different schools. Furthermore, our analysis indicates that digital coordinators consistently exhibit higher levels of connectedness within the realm of digital school development than the members of the school leadership teams. These findings highlight the importance of close collaboration between school leadership teams and the digital coordinator in order to advance digital school development. It is also suggested that school leadership teams should consider delegating more responsibilities to the digital coordinator, particularly those necessitating close collaboration with the teaching staff.
Keywords: school leadership team; digital school development; social network analysis; digital coordinator school leadership team; digital school development; social network analysis; digital coordinator

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Sprenger, A.; von Grumbkow, N.C.; Fussangel, K.; Gräsel, C. School Leadership Networks in the Context of Digital School Development. Educ. Sci. 2025, 15, 1320. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15101320

AMA Style

Sprenger A, von Grumbkow NC, Fussangel K, Gräsel C. School Leadership Networks in the Context of Digital School Development. Education Sciences. 2025; 15(10):1320. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15101320

Chicago/Turabian Style

Sprenger, Amelie, Nina Carolin von Grumbkow, Kathrin Fussangel, and Cornelia Gräsel. 2025. "School Leadership Networks in the Context of Digital School Development" Education Sciences 15, no. 10: 1320. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15101320

APA Style

Sprenger, A., von Grumbkow, N. C., Fussangel, K., & Gräsel, C. (2025). School Leadership Networks in the Context of Digital School Development. Education Sciences, 15(10), 1320. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15101320

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