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Research on digitalization and school leadership is emerging, but remains fragmented and under-researched, as indicated in recent reviews. Based on this, we conducted a scoping review of 38 empirical studies published between 2014 and 2024. The review focuses on the descriptive characteristics of the field, how digitalization and digital school leadership are defined, which themes researchers address, and how existing research can be organized into emerging research streams. The findings show that the field is expanding, but remains scattered across disciplines and journals, with a strong geographical focus on Europe, particularly Sweden, and parts of Asia. Although qualitative and quantitative approaches are relatively balanced, mixed-method, longitudinal, and comparative designs are underused. As a result, much of the literature provides snapshot accounts or examines the relationship between digital leadership and teachers’ technology use. Digital school leadership is often treated as complex, yet this complexity is rarely unpacked analytically, leading to few studies of how leadership is enacted in everyday practice. Furthermore, the field reveals limited theoretical engagement and an unclear understanding of digitalization. The review also identifies a paradoxical approach to digital leadership. On the one hand, studies often lack explicit definitions; on the other hand, their research designs and methods create two knowledge logics: a predefined, expectation-oriented logic and a situated, practice-oriented logic. Consequently, the review argues for research that moves beyond individualized understandings of digital leadership and examines how it is enacted across organizational, technological, and governance contexts. It concludes by proposing a research agenda to address these gaps and guide future studies in more coherent and theoretically grounded directions.

Over the past decade, the Nordic countries have made significant strides in integrating digital technologies into their educational systems. Nevertheless, recent data from the International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS, 2024) indicate a disturbing decline in pupils’ digital proficiency, highlighting enduring challenges in realizing meaningful digital transformation within schools. This trend underscores persistent challenges in achieving meaningful and sustainable digital transformation within schools, raising questions about the effectiveness of current strategies and the support structures available to educational leaders. 

A substantial body of research consistently identifies school leaders as key agents in advancing digital school development and shaping pupil outcomes. However, many school leaders report feeling ill-equipped to manage the complex demands of digital transformation. They frequently lack access to comprehensive frameworks, actionable tools, and collaborative support structures necessary to lead effectively in digitally evolving environments. 

In response to these challenges, a Nordplus Horizontal project was initiated with the aim of developing a practical and research-informed framework for school leadership in the context of digital transformation. The project brings together teacher educators and school leaders from Norway, Sweden and Iceland in a structured partnership designed to foster mutual learning and innovation. 

 Central to the project is a series of five interactive workshops, where participants collaboratively explore the specific needs, barriers, and opportunities associated with digital transformation in their respective school contexts. These workshops serve as dialogic spaces where theoretical insights and practical experiences converge, enabling participants to co-design tailored action plans that address local challenges while aligning with broader educational goals. 

 This paper will present preliminary findings from the project. The forthcoming analysis will focus on identifying similarities and differences in national and local contexts (WS1), as well as shared needs and challenges (WS2) related to digitalization and digital transformation in Norway, Sweden and Iceland. These aspects will be examined to better understand how contextual factors influence leadership practices and to identify common leverage points for supporting school leaders across diverse settings. The analysis aims to generate empirically grounded insights that will inform the development of the flexible and context-sensitive leadership framework. Further, the project may contribute to existing frameworks, alternatively, a new framework for digital transformation among school leaders. The findings of this study are of interest and relevance for Nordic education research, as well as international education research, as the results will provide a research contribution regarding leading digital transformation in schools through the development of a collaborative framework for school leadership.

Purpose: This study examines the relationship between digital maturity and digital transformation in schools using quantitative survey analysis.

Design/methodology/approach: The validated Digital Transformation Scale (DTS) distinguishing digitization, digitalization and digital transformation, and the framework of digital maturity as a multidimensional construct encompassing strategy, leadership, competence and organizational culture was used. Descriptive statistics and correlation analyses were conducted.

Findings: Results show that digitization is widespread but weakly correlated with digital maturity, while digital transformation demonstrates strong positive correlations with strategic clarity, cultural support and organizational learning. These findings suggest that meaningful transformation requires systemic development across all dimensions of digital maturity. Implications for school leadership include the need for long-term strategic planning and coordinated organizational efforts.

Originality/value: This study offers a structured approach to evaluating and supporting digital development in organizational settings. However, limitations include sample size and regional scope, indicating the need for longitudinal and comparative studies.

Digital technologies have flooded schools worldwide for decades, adding digital dimensions to roles and practices (Heffernan & Selwyn, 2023). Despite this, research on digitalized school leadership is scarce and often remains abstract, emphasizing broad systemic transformations while overlooking how digitalization is enacted in specific contexts (Krein, 2023). This lack of empirical grounding complicates efforts to critically assess the nature and implications of digital transformation for school leaders. 

To address this gap, the present study examines distance teaching in Swedish schools as a situated case of digitalization. Distance teaching entails novel challenges for school leaders, disrupting established norms, infrastructures, and professional practices. By foregrounding this example, this study focuses on who really needs digitalized school leadership and under what conditions it becomes essential.

The aim of the study is to examine the relation between digital transformation and school leadership in the context of distance teaching. This inquiry is particularly relevant  to Nordic research, where school leaders’ roles have become increasingly relevant—both in relation to new governance forms (Gunnulfsen et al., 2023) and the limited studies on how school digitalization affects their responsibilities (Willermark et al., 2024). The study is grounded in the assumption that digital transformation is not a linear or uniformly experienced process, but one that may be perceived as ambiguously, positive, negative, developmental-often simultaneously-by different actors. Rather than being defined solely by technological adoption, digital transformation is understood as a substantial reconfiguration of educational activities. 

Methodologically, the study draws on 24 in-depth interviews with school leaders, teachers, administrators, and onsite facilitators, as well as 29 hours of observations of meetings and collaborative activities. Using Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as an analytical framework, the study conceptualizes digital transformation and school leadership as embedded in a community, where tools, rules, division of labor, and collective norms interact to shape leadership needs. This analytical lens highlights how leadership emerges not as a predefined set of tasks but as a situated, collective activity embedded in digitally mediated educational practices.

Preliminary findings suggest the emergence of  two distinct but interrelated activity systems. The first concerns the development and implementation of distance teaching, which requires leadership to coordinate fragmented communities, integrate new roles, establish routines, and legitimize distance teaching as part of the school’s mission. The second relates to teachers’ remote work outside the physical school, which demands leadership to sustain collegial relationships, ensure inclusion in professional communities, and develop communication structures that substitute for informal interactions lost in digital environments. Across both systems, leadership is required to negotiate tensions between innovation and tradition, presence and absence, autonomy and coordination.

The study demonstrates that digitalized school leadership cannot be understood apart from its contextual enactment. Distance teaching exemplifies how digital transformation is not merely technological adoption but a reconfiguration of organizational practices, professional identities, and community relations. School leadership needs emerge differently depending on the activity system, underscoring the importance of situating analyses of digitalization within concrete educational settings. 

Remote teaching in Sweden has emerged as a response to the persistent challenges of rural education, including sparse populations, urbanisation, declining birthrates, and long travel distances. This study investigates the historical genesis of remote teaching in northern Sweden, particularly in small rural schools, where digital technologies have been used in K-12 education. Through a microhistory approach, we examine early developments in digital education, drawing from interviews with key stakeholders involved in school development and governance from the 1980s to 2010. The findings suggest that the integration of digital technologies in rural Swedish education was driven by both necessity and innovation, as schools sought solutions to sustain education in sparsely populated areas. The study contributes a historically contextualised perspective on remote teaching, emphasising the long-term challenges of rural schooling and the role of digital technologies in addressing these issues. By analysing the early adoption of digital education in Swedish rural municipalities, we provide insights into the evolution of remote teaching and its implications for future educational practices.

Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to influence all aspects of school and education. Although AI is acknowledged for introducing both opportunities and constraints for school leadership, there remains limited research on how school leaders use and understand AI in schools. This paper examines how school leaders perceive and engage with the integration of AI for their learning processes and leadership practices. School leaders’ professional use, as well as how they model the use of AI in their educational settings, may in turn support teachers’ and students’ application of AI for teaching and learning, and it may benefit the school as an organization.

This paper presentation regards a scoping review (Grant & Booth 2009) centering the scarce research on school leadership and digitalisation. Schools worldwide are becoming increasingly integrated with digital technologies. The significance of school leadership for overall school development is widely acknowledged in international research on school leadership and development. Especially concerning digital development of schools, school leaders are vital (Håkansson Lindqvist & Pettersson, 2019).  Compared to the extensive research on teachers' roles in digitalized environments the literature on school leaders' roles in such contexts is scarce and fragmented (Tømte et al, 2024). Therefore, shedding light on school leaders regarding digital leadership is crucial since school leaders are crucial in schools adapting to the rapid technological changes, fostering an innovative learning environment and preparing students for a digital future.

A literature review by Krein et al. (2023), analyzing 31 articles from 2000 to 2020, found that school leadership is viewed through both formal roles (e.g., principals) and perceived tasks. Digitalization is largely framed around technology implementation, with cultural and societal perspectives often overlooked. Key research areas include (1) the use of digital media, (2) school leaders' perceptions of digitalization, (3) their competencies and professional development, and (4) the impact of social media on leadership. A recent bibliometric analysis of articles more broadly addressing research trends on digital school leadership over time (Wollenscheid et al. 2025) shows that publications have increased since 2019, peaking in 2021. Further, the focus has shifted over time, with the most important themes evolving from technology to school and finally to leadership. These findings indicate that the body of literature focusing explicitly on school leadership and digitalisation has increased since Krein’s (2023) review. Therefore, it is of interest to conduct a scoping review in the same topic area, employing similar research questions but slightly different conceptional frameworks. We aim to build on and Krein’s (2023) work, broadening it and adding new perspectives. This scoping review is guided by the following research questions:

What conceptionalisation of digitalisation and school leadership prevail in current research in the topic area?  

What themes are addressed in current research?

What theoretical perspectives, if any, dominate research on school as organisations and educational / organisational leadership? 

How digitalisation is conceptionalised differs greatly. When analysing and discussing conceptualisations of digitalisation in this article we draw on understanding digitalisation as different phases (Verhoef et al. 2021). First, digitization which comprises converting paper-based materials and processes into digital formats, like scanning documents or using word processors for lesson planning. Second, digitalization which related to implementing technology to improve specific processes, such as adopting systems for student data management or using digital tools for teaching and grading. Finally, digital transformation which entails rethinking and redesigning education with technology at the core, such as personalized learning, fully online courses, and digital communication platforms to enhance teaching and learning.

Concerning leadership, unlike Krein (2023), we are not occupied with who is defined or identifies as a leader or part of a leadership team. We draw on theory on leadership as enacted practice and styles such as autocratic, authoritative, transformational and distributed leadership to analyse and discuss what conceptualisations of school leadership prevail in current research in the topic area.

Method

Our research review was conducted following the Prisma Protocol for scoping reviews for a systematic approach and transparency in the process (Tricco et al., 2018). For the search, the databases ERIC, Education Source, Scopus and Web of Science were used with specific focus on peer-review journal articles in English in the period of 2014-2024. This process was supported by a librarian who is an expert in searches for reviews. The databases were searched using the following search string: digitalization OR "digital transformation*" OR digitization OR "digital transition*" OR "digital shift" AND "school leader*" OR "school leadership" OR "school principal*" OR "leadership in school*" OR leader* OR leadership OR "educational leadership" OR "pedagogical lead-ership" AND "K-12 school*" OR "Elementary school*" OR "elementary education" OR "primary school*" OR "primary education" OR "High school" OR "Upper secondary school*" OR "upper secondary education" OR "secondary school*" OR "secondary education" OR "grammar school*" OR school* The selection of articles for analysis was an iterative process which included thoroughly dis-cussing the inclusion-exclusion criteria and our understanding of school leadership which led to us going back and forth to ensure we had not excluded an article. We agreed on including articles that: 1) used school leaders as data source and focused on digital school leader-ship as a topic, or 2) used school leaders as data source and focused on a topic within digitalisation, or 3) used school leaders in combination with other groups (e.g. teachers, pupils etc) or other groups as data source and focused on digital school leadership as topic. Summarizing the selection process, we started with 406 articles and after removing dou-blets the abstracts of 281 articles were screened. This resulted in 75 articles for full text screening in which 50 were excluded. We thereafter checked the reference list of the remaining 25 articles and found 12 additional articles that were included. In sum, this process resulted in the total number of 37 articles to be included in the final analysis. We conducted a descriptive analysis of year of publication, journal, country where the re-search is conducted, participants and methods as well as a thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2019) related to research questions.

Expected Outcomes

The analysis will be finalised during spring 2025 and presented at the conference. The first descriptive analysis shows that there is a clear increase in the number of published articles after 2021, not only peaking in 2021 as Wollenscheid et al. (2025) suggest. Con-sequently, the analysis comprises a majority of articles not included in previous research reviews in the field (cf. Krein et al., 2023; Wollenscheid et al., 2025). Distinctly most of the research was conducted in Sweden. Furthermore, we can state a regional focus on the Middle East, specifically, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Israel and Europe, with most research stemming from Sweden but also Switzerland and additional studies from Ireland, Spain, and Norway. The articles are published in diverse journals covering education, technology, and leadership without an obvious pattern or preferred journal. Concerning methods, mixed methods seem to be most prominent. Further expected findings are that conceptualisations of digitalisation as implementing digital technologies prevail and little emphasis is placed on actual transformation even though the terminology is used. Conceptualisations of what school leadership entails, and how it is enacted depends on the cultural context but there seems to be an empha-sis on transformational leadership perspectives. Themes addressed in the research are 1) Digital Transformational Leadership, 2) Technology Integration strategies, Teachers' Perspectives on Professional Development strategies, 3) Challenges and Barriers for dig-ital transformation, 4) Socio-Demographic Factors influencing Leadership Practices, 5) Crisis (COVID 19) Management and 6) Educational Reform and Policy. It seems only some of the articles employ theoretical lenses when analysing the data or discussing the findings.

This special issue, Rethinking Educational Spaces: Future Classroom, Metaverse and AI, emerges from the recognition that educational spaces are undergoing accelerated and unprecedented change. The digitalization of education, fuelled by the expansion of AI, immersive technologies, and ubiquitous connectivity, is not only altering pedagogical practices but also transforming the very nature of educational space itself. On the one hand, in schools, classrooms are no longer solely physical places enclosed by four walls and marked by timetables. Instead, they now include virtual extensions, blended experiences, and algorithmically mediated interactions. On the other hand, we are also beginning to find evidence of how this technology is starting to affect educational practices in non-school settings. The articles included in this special issue explore the ontological, pedagogical, and political implications of these new environments transformed by digital technologies.

Purpose: In the so-called digital age, there is a basic assumption that digitalization entails rapid and dramatic change in schools, education and society. However, a challenge for educational research is to clarify what digitalization precisely means. This paper aims to develop, test, and validate a digital transformation scale (DTS). More specifically, the aim is to validate digitization, digitalization and digital transformation as hierarchical levels of sociocultural learning in school and education by using cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) as a framework.

Design/methodology/approach: An exploratory factor analysis (EFA), with principal-axis factoring as an extraction method, was used to examine the number of factors underlying the data.

Findings: Results show that the three dimensions in the DTS questionnaire explain 68% of the variance and that all dimensions show high internal consistency (a >0.87). This means that the internal structure of the DTS corresponded to the internal structure of the theory.

Research limitations/implications: The results show that the internal structure of the DTS corresponded to the internal structure of the theory and may be used quantitatively to analyze digital transformation in school organizations. However, further research is needed in other contexts and larger samples with the use of confirmatory factor analysis to develop knowledge in this area and the use of DTS.

Practical implications: This tool and theoretical construction could be used to discuss digital transformation in school and education, both local and in general. Seeing digitalization from a sociocultural perspective makes possible to conceptualize and discuss this as a process ranging from small technology investments on an individual level to digitalization as strategic and organizational development.

Originality/value: This DTS can be used quantitatively to study and analyze digital transformation in educational contexts and provides educational researchers with additional tools to articulate what they mean by digitalization.

School leaders have a crucial role in leading digitalization and school development. However, regarding the pandemic, digital school development comprises many different aspects and includes many different processes for school leaders to consider as the new normal. In this chapter, we analyze how school leaders perceive the development of digital practices, based on their experience from the pandemic. In this study, 300 school leaders were interviewed using a highly structured interview guide. The analysis was conducted using a conceptualization of digital school leadership as their work with four extensive processes, involving setting the direction, developing people, developing the organization, and improving teaching and learning. The study shows that school leaders visioning small steps forward using and facing many different activities ranging from new structures for communication to new digitalized teaching activities aimed to meet students' different individual needs. As such, school leaders' own knowledge and skills, in a variety of areas, are of importance. Reflections on practical implications regarding the complexities school leaders face in leading for digitalization post-COVID-19 as well as opportunities are presented.