Interaction Between Science Teachers and School Principals and its Influence on Technology Implementation: A Retrospective Analysis

This paper describes a longitudinal study, in which the interaction between junior-high school principals and science teachers is characterized, and its influence on technology implementation is explored. Ten principals and 19 teachers who participated in a former study, which took place from 1998 to 2001, were re-interviewed and observed in 2003 to 2005. The teachers were classified into four types: initiator, follower, evader and objector, based on the mode and extent to which the teachers used these educational technologies. Principals were classified into four categories with respect to the way they motivated their science teachers to incorporate technologies into teaching, identified as initiating, empowering, permitting, or resisting. The principals were fairly consistent in the type of support they provided to their teachers throughout the seven years of the study. Teachers shifted in the ways they used technology; They leveraged on technology and moved up when they worked with an initiating principal and moved down when the principal was a "resister". The principals’ longitudinal support or discouragement plays a crucial role in teachers’ ability and motivation to use technology as an integral part of their teaching.