Artificial Intelligence in Educational Leadership

Abstract

The rise of generative AI (GenAI) and artificial intelligence (AI) is wholly reshaping and redefining the nature of education delivery in schools (Fullan et al., 2023). The advancement of AI is set to directly impact the educational landscape at all levels, including school leaders. While increasing research has shown teachers and students making use of GenAI to a greater or lesser extent (e.g., Radianti et al., 2020), AI has been increasingly used to automate routine tasks in organizations (Raisch & Krakowski, 2021). Indeed, recent accelerations in machine learning approaches might result in AI might subsuming more complex managerial tasks (Balasubramanian et al., 2022; Parent-Rocheleau & Parker, 2022). Scholars are beginning to concur that AI will replace humans in several standardized managerial functions (Balasubramanian et al., 2022; Parent-Rocheleau & Parker, 2022; Raisch & Krakowski, 2021) such as the automation of tasks, data-analysis, communication with teachers, students, and parents.

This indicates that while GenAI and AI can assist school leaders in routine school management tasks, freeing them of the responsibility of administration and enabling them to focus on other more pertinent issues, it cannot replace human relationships and the feeling of empathy towards others (Harris & Jones, 2023). Common leadership conducts such as motivation, human skills and social intelligence that enables people to contribute to the collective goals of an organization have so far remained eluded by AI substitution scenarios (Antonakis & Day, 2018; Kniffin et al., 2020). Potentially, AI opens up new horizons for school leadership, but it also brings with it many ethical, moral, and practical challenges. The introduction of new technologies into schools might change the way leadership is enacted in schools, however, “true” leadership traits that caters to the needs of teachers and students should and will remain the province of humans (Quaquebeke & Gerpott, 2023).

This issue of IOJEL features a paper by Yih Wern See, Ishak Zahari, and Mohd Nazri Abdul Rahman focusing on preschool principals’ perspectives on the importance of transitioning children into preschool and challenges faced during this period. They found preschool principals were laying the foundation for learning, managing young children’s behaviors, and understanding routines in preschool. However, principals encountered challenges such as incompetency of young children, meeting parent’ expectations, separation anxiety, and unqualified preschool teachers. This research provides a new perspective for preschool principals in dealing with the situation of transition in the beginning of a new academic year.

Fazlina Mohd. Sani, Bambang Sumintono, and Zuraidah Abdullah present findings on professional learning community (PLC) practises by educational leaders and educators at MARA Higher Technical Colleges of TVET institutions in Malaysia. Through structured interviews, and open-ended survey techniques with educational leaders and educators from four TVET MARA Colleges, they found the six PLC domains represents the large power distance and collectivism of Asian society. The findings bridged the research gap in PLC implementation strategies in the context of TVET MARA.

Rosmalily Salleh researched teachers’ views on school-based professional development for promoting inclusive education in Malaysian primary schools. The study responded to the call of examining teachers’ views about their continuous professional development needs to improve their inclusive practice. The findings revealed besides school leadership and the understanding of inclusive education, the values and positive attitudes of teachers are important.

Kogulan Rajandran and Anusuiya Subramaniam investigated the impact of inclusive leadership on innovative work behaviour, while considering the role of psychological ownership as a moderator. They surveyed 300 faculty of business academics from five Malaysian research universities. Their findings show a non-significant relationship between inclusive leadership and innovative work behaviour. However, it was found that psychological ownership significantly moderated the positive relationship between inclusive leadership and innovative work behaviour. They concluded while the findings show an insignificant relationship between inclusive leadership and creative work practises, for universities and academics leaders looking to promote innovation and drive success in the quickly evolving higher education setting, this study bestows a valuable starting point.