Teacher Leadership in Developing Digital Skills for Improving Teaching and Learning in Secondary Schools: A Case with Community Day Secondary Schools in Phalombe

Abstract

The essence of this study is to explore teacher leadership skills in developing the digital skills for improvement of teaching and learning in rural secondary schools. Previous studies by other researchers have underlined the problem of teachers’ lack of digital skills, which means that they cannot act as competent mentors for their students. Teacher leadership today must consider the pedagogical use of digital technological skills to prepare teachers and students for their future practice. Digital devices and applications for the classroom are here to stay, so educators must be equipped to use them. We believe that by leveraging the power of connectivity and technology young people can benefit from new and broader ways of learning. For teachers, digital tools, like Microsoft Teams, enable them to plan and deliver lessons via technology so they can better track the efforts of the students and quickly spot if someone needs further assistance. As our urban secondary schools digitalise, concerns around equal access to resources and the lack of digital skills to operate virtual learning tools in rural community day secondary schools have been at the centre of the conversation. Connectivity and technology tools alone do not guarantee improved learning outcomes but also development of digital skills in teachers to help in improvement of learning in students. This qualitative research used a sample of five rural community day secondary schools in Phalombe District with the sample population of about twenty teachers, four from each school. Questionnaires and interview questions were used to collect the data.