Malaysian Principals’ Technology Leadership Practices and Curriculum Management

Abstract

School leaders face challenges in using technology to upgrade teaching and learning processes in the twenty-first century as they must also become role models in its usage. Thus technology must be used not only for teaching and learning processes, but also in their organisational management. The aim of this research is first, to identify the level of technology leadership and competency in curriculum activity management among secondary school principals in Malaysia; second, to determine if technology leadership practices and curriculum activity management differ based on school location; third, to analyse if there is a correlation between technology leadership and competency of curriculum activity management. This quantitative style research used questionnaire for data collection involving 341 randomly selected Malaysian principals. Data collected was then analysed using descriptive and inference analysis. Findings show that Malaysian principals practice technology leadership at a very high level, and are also very competent at managing curriculum activity. T-test analysis found that urban principals’ technology leadership practices are significantly higher than their rural counterparts, but their curriculum management competencies are at the same level. Findings also show that there is a low yet significant correlation between technology leadership and curriculum management competencies. In light of this information, we recommend further in-depth studies to explore the rural-urban gap technology leadership scenario, thus finding possible solutions in narrowing the academic achieve- ment gap between rural and urban schools.