“ICT for Inclusion” for Educational Leaders: Inclusive and Digital Distributed Leadership

Abstract

AbstractIn today’s rapidly evolving educational landscape “Information & Communication Technology” (ICT) has gained a pivotal role for inclusion. ICT is transforming the way we teach and learn, but also the way we administer educational institutions. Yet up to now, there are hardly any concepts for inclusive digital leadership in schools – even less so for distributed inclusive digital leadership. As school principals grapple with the complexities of managing their educational institutions in the digital age, the leadership dimensions “design of teaching concepts”, “strategic development of their organization”, “fostering cooperation”, “developing ICT concepts”, and “human resources development” (adapted by Eickelmann & Gerick, 2017 from Holtappels & Rolff, 2010) have become integral components of responsibility. In the era of digital transformation, the effective integration of ICT is essential for fostering inclusion: Heads of schools play a crucial role in leveraging the potential of ICT for inclusion, making it imperative for them to adapt to technological changes. Therefore, the above-mentioned tasks of digital leadership must be strategically combined with the idea of inclusion in a concept of inclusive digital leadership. And these inclusive digital leadership tasks should be shared among multiple stakeholders in the faculty staff in a concept of distributed inclusive digital leadership.