Digital Leadership in Educational Institutions during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has been an important opportunity for the education sector to test itself in different conditions. In this process, many countries affected by the pandemic have integrated their technology into all levels of education. Education administrators and teachers played important roles such as improving their technological literacy skills and being a role model for their students. The concept of digital leadership, as one of these theories, is a leadership model used in response to the leadership situation that emerges with the digital transformation, which is deemed necessary in the basic sectors of the information society. Leadership skills need to be developed in order to improve the corporate culture by utilizing the power of digital technologies in education. In this context, digital leadership in education becomes effective. As a crisis, the COVID 19 pandemic has posed a threat to existing organizational structures and forced these structures to transform and overhaul. In terms of the educational institutions, the responsibility of digital leaders are increased in terms of organizational processes during the pandemic and all the rest of it. It can be suggested that educational processes will not continue as before after the pandemic. While the digital leadership skills of school principals contribute to the creation of digital education environments for teachers, the continuous development and improvement of school management processes create a more sustainable culture of change. To sum up, leaders who digitize the learning culture with their digital leadership roles and skills can make significant contributions to the fulfillment of digital transformation in educational institutions.