School principals' technology and transformational leadership practices for spreading the adoption of an artificial intelligence in education (AIED) policy

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has rapidly emerged as a transformative force across diverse sectors worldwide, with AIED policy initiatives signaling its rising prominence. An AIED policy holds promise for revolutionizing learning and teaching. Specifically, the landscape of Artificial Intelligence in Education has been shaped by a variety of initiatives over the years (Liu et al., 2023), gaining widespread attention for its numerous advantages for teachers, ranging from classroom applications to supporting professional growth. However, despite these benefits, research indicates that teachers often exhibit resistance to AI adoption, resulting in hesitation or delays in its integration (Cukurova et al., 2023; Istenic et al., 2021). This resistance can stem from its drawbacks, such as concerns about academic integrity, trustworthiness, overreliance on AI, teacher readiness and job displacement (Flores-Viva and García-Pe˜nalvo, 2023; Whalen and Mouza, 2023). Other studies indicate that ease of use, usefulness and teachers' social environment influence the adoption of AI technologies (López-Costa et al., 2025; Velli and Zafiropoulos, 2024).

The adoption of an AIED policy is conceptualized as a process of innovation diffusion (Rogers, 2003) consisting of five stages: (1) Knowledge – gaining cognitive knowledge; (2) Persuasion – is emotion-focused. Teachers' attitudes are formed and may be influenced by social encouragement; (3) Decision – choosing to adopt or reject AIED policy; (4) Implementation – applying AIED policy and examining the outcomes; (5) Confirmation – reflecting on the adoption of an AIED policy and consolidating final attitudes. Consequently, addressing the persuasion stage, an effective spreading of the adoption of an AIED policy entails school principals' encouragement of social interaction between internal and external stakeholders via the communication of technology and transformational leadership practices.

In recent years, innovation has been recognized as a complex phenomenon requiring leadership that follows a both/and approach (Hojeij, 2024). Scholars argue that the fusion of two effective school leadership styles can produce even more significant improvements in school performance. Specifically, Marks and Printy's (2003) research highlighted the benefits of integrating transformational and instructional leadership to maximize school leadership effectiveness to achieve better educational outcomes. Accordingly, integrative leadership has become more prevalent in educational research (Gudito and De Jesus, 2024), emphasizing the importance of addressing first and second-order change. In the context of an AIED policy, school principals should apply different leadership practices, ensuring AI integration into education benefits all stakeholders (Pietsch and Mah, 2025). This study suggests that technology and transformational leadership complement each other, emphasizing that technology leadership focuses on building professional capacity, creating a supportive organization and connecting with external partners, whereas transformational leadership centers on communicating a shared vision and inspiring change.

Spreading the adoption of an AIED policy in schools, a technology leadership approach provides high-quality learning opportunities, builds professional capacity, creates a supportive climate and encourages collaboration with external partners (Banoğlu et al., 2023; Dexter and Richardson, 2020; Richardson and Sterrett, 2018). Building on this foundation, technology leadership also promotes a digital learning culture, supports professional development and facilitates social issues regarding ICT use in schools (Dexter and Barton, 2021).

Alongside technology leadership, transformational leadership is essential for fostering technology integration in schools (Schmitz et al., 2023). Bass (1990) defined transformational leadership as including four key components: idealized influence (offering a sense of purpose and acting as a model of the change process), inspirational motivation (informing teachers' about high expectations and communicating important aspects in a comprehensible manner), intellectual stimulation (fostering teachers' creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving), and individualized consideration (paying attention to each teacher, coaching and advising). That said, beyond these leadership practices, Bass (1990) and Carless et al. (2000) emphasized the role of charismatic leader figures. This shift is also visible in research on transformational school leadership, as reflected by recent literature reviews that stress even more leadership practices, such as communicating a vision, motivating teachers toward achievement, approaching teachers individually and being a good example in the change process (Danïels et al., 2019; Hitt and Tucker, 2016) that align with core practices described for effective technology integration in schools (Dexter, 2018; Dexter and Richardson, 2020).

Therefore, based on the above-mentioned conceptual framework, this study explores the communication of school principals' technology and transformational leadership practices for spreading the adoption of an AIED policy, innovation diffusion, during the persuasion stage, within a national program.

This study was conducted in the context of an AIED policy, a flagship initiative of the Israeli education system, representing a pioneering global effort. Responding to global shifts and the rise of AI-based innovation, the Ministry of Education has focused on developing human capital and relevant learning anchored in knowledge, skills, and values (Benita and Goldschmidt, 2025). In February 2025, the Ministry launched the national program “Hey, AI! - Shaping Education in the Age of AI” declaring it “The Month of AI”. During this month, elementary and high school principals were required to foster basic AI competencies among teachers and students alike. The AIED policy is based on a top-down authoritarian relationship with school principals instructed to use only AI tools approved by the Ministry of Education and to participate in the following activities: four built-in activities in the bot for elementary schools, six built-in activities in the bot for high schools and four built-in activities in the bot for teachers (Israeli Ministry of Education, 2024). The national program promoted a large-scale effort involving collaboration between school principals, mentors from the high-tech industry and local authorities for integrating advanced technology with educational values.

This qualitative study explored school principals' communication of leadership practices for spreading the adoption of an AIED policy, innovation diffusion, within a national program (Gibbs, 2018). School principals were chosen for this particular study as they are uniquely positioned at the boundary of the school and its external environment. The researchers adopted a phenomenological design because it is instrumental in exploring a complex phenomenon and encompassing a deep understanding of school principals' communication of leadership practices for spreading the adoption of an AIED policy (Sims, 2024).

The study participants (See Table 1) were 12 elementary and 4 high school principals (14 women and 2 men) who communicated leadership practices for spreading the adoption of an AIED policy within a national program. The selection of participants occurred through purposeful and snowball sampling (Etikan, 2016). The purposeful sampling involved identifying individuals who are skilled about the topic of interest and possess the ability to communicate their leadership practices. Accordingly, two of the participating elementary school principals were already known to the researchers and were selected based on their personal curiosity addressing innovative technology and experience in the integration of AI applications in education. Acting as models of change, these school principals' digital mindsets influenced and persuaded teachers to adopt the AIED policy. The other fourteen participating school principals were selected through snowball sampling based on referrals from the first two interviewees. The selected participants represent four school districts – Tel Aviv (31%), Center (25%), South (38%) and North (6%) – contributing to the understanding of under-examined phenomenon. On average, elementary (75%) and high-school (25%) principals had 13 years of experience in principalship (range = 1–23).

Data were collected between February and May of the 2025 academic year via semi-structured interviews with elementary and high school principals. A semi-structured interview aligns with the goals of a phenomenological inquiry as the predesigned interview questions focused on school principals' perceptions of the AIED policy and their communication of leadership practices, while open-ended questions encouraged rich narratives of their collaboration with stakeholders. Specifically, the interview continued until data saturation was reached, ensuring the full range of school principals' perceptions of their communicated leadership practices were captured (Cohen et al., 2018). On average, interviews lasted one hour. In the interview, school principals were asked questions such as: (1) How do you perceive the AIED policy? (2) What is your role in spreading the adoption of an AIED policy? (3) Which leadership practices do you communicate to spread the adoption of an AIED policy? (4) Can you provide examples of successful collaborations for spreading the adoption of an AIED policy? All interviews were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim and translated from Hebrew to English by a professional translator.

A bottom-up thematic analysis (Yin, 2016) was employed to analyze school principals' communication of leadership practices for spreading the adoption of an AIED policy, allowing different leadership approaches to emerge inductively from the data. The collected qualitative data were quantified into statements reflecting their communication of technology and transformational leadership practices. This data analysis technique assisted the researchers in building trustworthiness and credibility (Braun and Clarke, 2006). Numerical methods like counting of statements have been used for analyzing qualitative findings and the recognition of themes and sub-themes (Collins, 2021). This approach enabled the researchers to identify common statements and merge them into themes and sub-themes. To ensure the reliability of the themes and sub-themes, 100% of the statements were analyzed by both researchers, reaching a high level of agreement.

This is to confirm that the research study titled “School principals’ communication of technology and transformational leadership practices for spreading the adoption of an artificial intelligence in education (AIED) policy” has adhered to all applicable ethical standards and guidelines throughout the research process. This research was approved by the Institutional Ethics Body on February 2nd, 2025, Ethics Approval Number 2024340, ensuring compliance with institutional and national guidelines. Prior to each interview, the participants were provided with a consent form detailing information about the study's procedures, the study's aims, their rights as respondents to refuse participation or withdraw from the study at any time without consequence, and assurances of their confidentiality. To protect participants' privacy, all data were anonymized, and no personally identifiable information was included in the transcriptions. All interview recordings and transcripts were securely stored, and no data were shared with third parties.

The analysis of 16 semi-structured interviews yielded statements (N = 159) revealing two main themes regarding school principals' communication of technology and transformational leadership practices for spreading the adoption of an AIED policy, thereby reflecting their role as boundary spanners of innovation diffusion (see Table 2 below).

Most participants' statements (n = 98, 62%) reflected on four technology leadership practices communicated across internal and external boundaries.

Sub-theme 1.1: Building professional capacity through increased learning opportunities for experimentation with AI tools and communities of practice for AI learning. Influencing the adoption of an AIED policy, school principals' statements (n = 33) focused on building teachers' professional capacity with peers. Providing their teachers with time and space, school principals (SP1, SP3, SP5, SP7, SP8, SP10, SP11, SP12, SP 13, SP14) increased their educational staff's learning opportunities for experimentation with AI tools:

Alongside above-mentioned learning opportunities, school principals (SP3, SP5, SP6, SP9, SP10, SP11, SP12, SP13, SP16) created communities of practice for AI learning. Communities of practice for AI learning were exemplified through the following approaches:

Connecting colleagues to meet teachers' needs. School principals (58%) leveraged collegial collaboration to cater to teachers' specific needs. SP 3 and SP6 noted:

Allocating time to present to one another. High school principals (14%) allocated time for teachers to present their experiences with AI tools. SP10 and SP11 added:

At least once a week, subject coordinators showed their educational staff how they generated writing prompts (SP10).

Lesson planning preparation. Two elementary school principals (14%) emphasized teachers' gathering for preparing lesson planning. SP13 explained how these sessions helped teachers believe in the potential of AI to support them in designing lesson plans more effectively:

Guiding teachers' interactions through teacher leaders. Two elementary and high school principals (14%) highlighted how they directed teacher leaders to guide teachers' interactions while focusing on applying AI within their teaching. SP11 responded:

Sub-theme 1.2: Sharing leadership. Shaping teachers' mindsets for the adoption of an AIED policy, school principals' statements (n = 27) highlighted the practice of sharing leadership with internal stakeholders. Elementary and high school principals (SP1, SP3, SP5, SP6, SP8, SP10, SP11, SP12, SP13, SP14, SP15, SP16) engaged the expertise of counselors (15%), grade-level coordinators (11%), ICT coordinators (37%), pedagogical coordinators (11%), teacher leaders (19%) and homeroom teachers (7%) to provide their educational staff with an organizational support for learning. The following quotes highlight this finding:

Sub-theme 1.3: Connecting with parents. Strengthening the importance of an AIED adoption within the school community, school principals' statements (n = 13) pointed to establishing communication with parents to serve as mentors (31%) and to build partnerships (69%). Aiming to provide their teachers with parental support, school principals (SP6, SP8, SP11, SP16) turned to parents in order to serve as mentors. SP8 illustrated this:

Other school principals (SP1, SP3, SP6, SP9, SP12, SP13) designed a school agenda on the adoption of AI in real-world school settings via successful partnerships with parents. SP13 described:

Sub-theme 1.4: Connecting with external partners. School principals' statements (n = 25) demonstrated cooperation with external partners (28%) for supporting teachers' adoption of an AIED policy outside school boundaries. School principals (SP2, SP3, SP4, SP5, SP7, SP14) exemplified a proactive approach for strengthening teachers' use of AI technology. SP3 referred to the support of a professional mentor:

Some school principals engaged education networks (4%), organizational consultants (4%) and experts from the industry (8%), academia (8%), the Ministry of Education (28%) and the municipality (20%). SP11 and SP13 stressed the support from the Ministry of Education:

To summarize, elementary and high school principals communicated technology leadership practices across internal and external boundaries for spreading the adoption of an AIED policy.

Participants' statements (N = 61, 38%) reflected on four transformational leadership practices communicated within internal boundaries.

Sub-theme 2.1: Idealized influence. Serving as a model of change, school principals engaged in different actions for influencing their teachers to use AI tools. School principals' statements (n = 17) exemplified the following behaviors:

Leading by personal example. School principals (SP2, SP3, SP13, SP15) set a personal example (30%):

Fostering teachers' progress through collaboration. School principals (SP1, SP5, SP8) moved their teachers forward with the spirit of cooperation (30%):

Bridging top-down vision and teachers' readiness for the adoption of an AIED policy. School principals (SP8, SP12, SP13, SP14) aligned their strategic vision with teachers' readiness for AIED adoption (23%). SP13 expressed the need to model from above and execute from the ground using the image of a “bird's-eye view”:

SP8 focused on strategic teacher preparation from a broader perspective:

Sub-theme 2.2: Inspirational motivation. School principals communicated the usefulness of an AIED policy via an inspiring vision. Specifically, school principals' statements (n = 16) expressed different vision aspects for teachers' adoption of an AIED policy:

Promoting a meaningful and relevant learning. School principals' statements (25%) communicated a vision that supports meaningful and applicable learning for students (SP5, SP6, SP9, SP14). SP9 and SP14 illustrated this by saying:

Leveraging personalized learning. School principals' statements (25%) communicated a vision that tailors to students' needs (SP4, SP13, SP14, SP16). Two school principals noted:

Preparing students for future labor market. School principals' statements (25%) communicated a vision that supports students' preparedness for the future of work (SP3, SP5, SP10, SP11):

Developing students' critical thinking. School principals' statements (12.5%) communicated a vision that advances students' critical thinking skills. SP8 added:

Sub-theme 2.3: Intellectual stimulation. School principals (SP1, SP2, SP3, SP5, SP8, SP16) emphasized the contribution of an AIED policy while focusing their statements (n = 16) on aspects of intellectual stimulation such as creativity (25%), critical thinking (69%) and problem solving (6%). SP2 addressed creativity:

Other principals discussed the influence of an AIED policy on teachers' critical thinking:

Sub-theme 2.4: Individualized consideration. School principals (SP1, SP3, SP6, SP9, SP11, SP16) provided individualized attention and necessary support to teachers (83%) and students (17%) as exemplified through their statements (n = 12). Using the metaphor of a tour guide, SP1 described her pivotal role in catering to teachers' individual pace and needs:

Providing personal attention to teachers and students, SP9 focused on “double spreading”:

In short, elementary and high school principals communicated transformational leadership practices for spreading the adoption of an AIED policy.

The findings highlight that elementary and high school principals served as boundary spanners of innovation diffusion by translating theoretical principles of diffusion into concrete leadership practices that connected internal and external school environments. Specifically, participating principals were characterized as early adopters while acting as role models integrated into the social system, both inside and outside their school organization (Rogers, 2003; Tan, 2021). This dual positioning reflects the persuasion stage of Rogers' (2003) diffusion process, where leaders influence attitudes through social communication rather than through mandates. Spreading the adoption of an AIED policy occurred as school principals actively shared it with internal and external school stakeholders and influenced their educational staff to adopt it (Basileo and Lyons, 2024). In this sense, the principals acted as translators between top-down policy expectations and bottom-up teacher practices, demonstrating that diffusion in schools is a process to be achieved through the collective will of diverse stakeholders (Kim et al., 2022) rather than coercion.

Elementary and high school principals who participated in this study emphasized the importance of integrated leadership while communicating efficient technology and transformational leadership practices. Technology leadership practices emerged as a dominant leadership style (62%), while stretching within and across school principals' internal and external boundaries. This dominance suggests that the initial stage of AI policy adoption requires principals to establish structural and organizational readiness before deeper cultural transformation can occur. Our results show that technology leadership practices, such as building professional capacity and establishing support systems (Dexter and Richardson, 2020), are not sufficient on their own. To lead to true teacher engagement, these structural practices must be combined with transformative behaviors, such as creating an inspiring vision and providing personal attention. In congruence with this view, Dexter (2018) highlighted the importance of establishing and communicating a shared vision as a core transformational practice (inspirational motivation), while Berkovich and Hassan (2024) further expanded this notion by framing the promotion of a vision for technology integration as a form of digital instructional leadership. Alongside this leadership approach, school principals' statements concentrated on transformational leadership practices within internal boundaries (38%), illustrating that emotional and cognitive influence are central for sustaining motivation once technological capacity is in place. This supports the view that digital transformation in schools is not just about integrating tools but about shaping teachers' professional mindsets (McCarthy et al., 2023; Timotheou et al., 2023), intellectual stimulation that encouraged creativity and individual attention (Philip, 2021).

School principals' dual role has revealed eight core domains of leadership practices representing a synergistic interplay between technology leadership (capacity, structure, and partnership) and transformational leadership (vision, inspiration and individual support). Together, these practices symbolize an integrated, holistic view of the effective spreading of the adoption of an AIED policy entails. The first theme of technology leadership practices involved: building professional capacity through learning opportunities for experimentation with AI and communities of practice for AI learning, sharing leadership, connecting with parents and connecting with external partners. These practices operationalize the “communication channels” component in Rogers' (2003) model, showing that innovation spreads through professional and social relationships rather than through policy directives alone. Recognizing that innovation is driven by people, not just policies, school principals' technology leadership practices centered on developing the people (Dexter, 2018). Specifically, participants cultivated a culture of innovation tidying to teachers' ongoing professional development while providing resources (e.g. time, teacher leaders) to encourage teachers to innovate in a learning environment. By fostering collaboration, school principals created an environment that is comfortable for experimenting with innovative approaches. Embracing a technology leadership style by connecting with parents who invested their time in serving as mentors and taking an active part in partnerships has benefited all stakeholders (Dexter and Richardson, 2020).

The second theme of transformational leadership practices involved: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration. These practices provided the affective and cognitive scaffolding that sustained teachers' willingness to engage with AI technologies. Similar to our findings, previous studies (Sarafidou and Xafakos, 2015) show that principals hold a unique position in influencing school members for ensuring the adoption of innovations. Participating principals not only ensured the adoption of an AIED policy but also communicated different forward-thinking vision aspects. Transformational leaders motivate their teams through a shared vision and foster an environment where creativity is encouraged. In this regard, promoting a successful culture of innovation depends on the use of motivational content contributing to a high level of teachers' awareness and comprehension (Alzouebi et al., 2025). A quantitative study carried out by Barata (2016) discovered that building an innovative culture is likely to occur if the principal is involved in motivating each teacher or fostering group habits of innovation. Spreading the adoption of an AIED policy is a continuous process, nurturing creativity and problem-solving in an educational setting. As exemplified through school principals' intellectual stimulation, transformational leadership style is considered suitable for adopting new ideas, thus improving school effectiveness. Cultivating a school environment that promotes creativity helps the diffusion of new knowledge and motivates further efforts toward change (Sarafidou and Xafakos, 2015).

This study suggests that school principals' experience shaped the spreading of the adoption of an AIED policy. Five school principals (SP1, SP5, SP9, SP12, SP13) were dominant in their statements, exemplifying technology and transformational leadership practices. Their narratives demonstrate that leadership experience contributes positively to fostering innovation (Alzouebi et al., 2025). Nevertheless, this is not the sole determinant, as our study calls for an interplay between experience, gender and transformational leadership practices. In this regard, three female school principals' (SP1, SP5, SP13) statements exemplified that the creation of innovative culture was enhanced by transformational leadership and femininity, aligning with the work by Kawatra and Krishnan (2004). Specifically, in our study, female school principals prioritized inspirational motivation. Similarly, four female school principals' (SP1, SP5, SP12, SP13) statements demonstrated that building professional capacity and creating a supportive organization (e.g. sharing leadership) were facilitated by technology leadership and femininity. Addressing both transformational and technology leadership practices, these female school principals strengthened the integrated perspective in terms of experience, gender and leadership practices.

The findings offer several implications for policy and practice. Given that AIED policy implementation sits at the intersection of national directives and school-level enactment, policymakers should recognize principals as boundary spanners who translate top-down expectations into bottom-up professional engagement. Effective AIED policies should therefore include leadership development programs that integrate technological capacity-building with transformational competencies such as vision-setting, communication and individualized support. In addition, policy frameworks should pair clear national guidelines with structured autonomy, enabling principals to adapt AIED integration to the needs of their teachers, students and communities. Encouraging partnerships with parents, municipalities and industry experts can further strengthen school-level capacity for innovation.

Professionalization programs can help principals cultivate technology and transformational leadership styles for spreading the adoption of an AIED policy, thus forming meaningful collaborations with all stakeholders for innovative schools.

These insights also highlight directions for future research. Focusing on our study, to the best of our knowledge, there are no studies that combine different leadership approaches to understand the communication of elementary and high school principals for spreading the adoption of an AIED policy. Further investigation in additional sociocultural and economic educational settings is necessary to generalize the conclusions over broader populations and substantiate their inter-contextual and international validity.

The study has several limitations. The sample consisted of a small group of early adopters, elementary and high school principals, which may limit the transferability of the findings. In addition, the study could not fully distinguish the differences between elementary and high school principals in terms of their integrative leadership approach across the various districts; therefore, longitudinal studies are needed to deepen this understanding. Finally, implementation occurred within a highly centralized system that presented challenges such as balancing traditional high-stakes assessment and innovation, keeping up with changing requirements and adhering to strict guidelines, which shaped principals' experiences but were not the primary focus of the analysis. Despite these limitations, the study underscores the importance of supportive, collaborative school environments that empower teachers to confidently engage with AIED initiatives.

This study makes several significant theoretical contributions. First, it extends Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation Theory (2003) by demonstrating school principals' role as boundary spanners communicating leadership practices to bridge top-down policy adoption with bottom-up stakeholder engagement. Second, the study advances the understanding of innovation diffusion by identifying specific leadership practices that mitigate resistance during the critical persuasion stage (Avidov-Ungar et al., 2022). Third, it contributes to technology leadership (Dexter and Richardson, 2020) and transformational leadership (Bass, 1990) theories by empirically validating their synergistic relationship, therefore expanding Marks and Printy's (2003) empirical support for integrative leadership in educational settings.

The authors declare that no Gen AI was used in the creation of this article.