1 Research question and objective

The research project investigates the central question:

“How is the relationship between the school leadership team's collaboration with teachers and teachers' professional engagement mediated by a shared understanding of the school's goals?“

This question is highly relevant in terms of the digital transformation of schools as a complex development process that requires coherent management and sustainable involvement of the teachers (KMK, 2021).

Sub-goals:

1. Analysing the cooperative relationships of the school leadership team within the school network.

2. Analysing the connection between the cooperation of the school leadership team with the teachers and the existence of a common understanding of the goals of digital school development.

3. Analysing the connection between the cooperation of the school leadership team and the professional engagement of the teachers.

4. Analysing the influence of a common understanding of goals as a mediating factor in the relationship between the cooperation of the school leadership team and the professional engagement of teachers.

2. Theory

The cooperation between school leadership teams is considered a key factor for sustainable digital school development (Eickelmann & Gerick, 2018). Research indicates that school leaders who actively cooperate with other stakeholders are better equipped to steer and coordinate digitalization processes effectively (Dexter, 2018; Wagner & Gerholz, 2022). Furthermore, collaborative work structures and participation in professional learning networks enhance the development of individual teachers and support the collective competence of the teachers (Webster-Wright, 2009). The digital transformation requires systematic management, continuous monitoring of school development processes, and an organizational framework that fosters collaboration (KMK, 2021).

In addition to cooperation, a shared understanding of the school vision is a decisive factor for the success of digital school development processes (Leclerc, 2012; Ilomäki & Lakkala, 2018). Schools where teachers share a common understanding of the goals of digital transformation show greater implementation efficiency and engagement. (Ilomäki & Lakkala, 2018). School development processes are particularly effective if they pursue realistic development goals and are supported by the majority of the teachers (Leclerc, 2012). Such a shared understanding promotes the intrinsic motivation of teachers and facilitates the implementation of new digital teaching concepts (Leclerc, 2012).

The digital competences of teachers are summarised in the “European Reference Framework of Digital Competences for Teachers“ (Redecker, 2017). Redecker (2017) differentiate between six sub-competences. The competence area “professional engagement and professional collaboration“ can be found under “Educators professional competences“. It is divided into four sub-competences: “digital teaching and reflection“, “communication“, “collaboration“ and “training“ (Redecker, 2017)

3. correlation of concepts and hypotheses

(1) Relation between of school leadership and professional engagement:

Collaborative school leadership creates a supportive work culture through transparent communication and participatory decision-making processes, which has a positive impact on teachers' professional engagement (Dexter, 2018). Teachers who feel part of a supportive network are more motivated to actively participate in professional development programmes and innovations (Lipowsky, 2010).

(2) Relationship between school leadership and a shared understanding of goals:

Close cooperation of the school leadership team with key agents in school development helps to establish a coherent understanding of goals within the school (Leclerc, 2012).

(3) Mediating role of the common understanding of goals on teachers’ professional engagement:

A shared understanding about digital school development mediates the influence of the cooperation of the principals on teachers' professional engagement. Specifically, this means that a school leadership team that actively engages in dialogue with teachers about digital school development goals not only strengthens the culture of cooperation (Leclerc, 2012), but also has a positive influence on teachers' willingness to change (Eickelmann & Gerick, 2018).

1. Survey and analysis of the cooperation formats of the school management (A1) To determine the cooperation within the school (with the focus on the cooperations the school leadership team has) the method of a social network analysis is used. The survey includes the data of all the teachers and the extended school leadership team of a school. Using the software Gephi, the internal school network is visualised and analysed in the context of digital school development. Key network parameters are used for further analysis. Relevant Parameters: • (Weighted) Indegree: Number of incoming connections, • Degree: Number of direct connections within the network, • Closeness Centrality: Measure of accessibility within the network, • Eccentricity: distance to the most distant node in the network. 2. survey of the agreement of objectives (A2) The Agreement with regard to the school's objectives is recorded by asking all teachers if they know the objectives of the schools’ digitalisation process. Only teachers who state that they are aware of the objectives are further included. Their answers are compared within the school to determine a percentage of agreement. This value serves as an indicator of the existence of a common understanding of objectives. 3. recording the professional engagement of teachers (A3) A scale according to Özsoy et al. (2024) is used to measure professional engagement with the following dimensions: 1. Digital teaching and reflection, 2. Collaboration, 3. further training. In a next step, the results of this scale are set in relation to the cooperation of the school leadership team (A1) and the agreement of objectives (A2). 4. Statistical analysis of the mediation relationships The mediation model of Baron & Kenny (1986) is used to analyse the mediating effect of the agreement of objectives (A2) on the relationship between the cooperation of the school leadership team (A1) and the professional engagement of the teachers (A3). The following regression analyses are carried out: 1. Examination of the direct correlation between the network characteristics of the leadership team (A1) and the professional engagement (A3). 2. Analys the influence of the cooperation of the school leadership team (A1) on the agreement of the objectives (A2). 3. Determination of the correlation between the agreement of the objectives (A2) and the professional engagement (A3) while keeping the network parameters (A1) constant. 4. Integration of A2 into the model in order to analyse a change in the effect of A1 on A3.

The theoretical framework underlying this study suggests a relationship between school leadership network structures, goal commitment within the teaching community, and teachers' professional engagement in the context of digital school development. Effective leadership networks - characterised by high connectivity and centralisation - are hypothesised to facilitate greater teacher commitment to institutional goals, thereby fostering higher levels of professional engagement. Furthermore, goal commitment is proposed as a mediating factor in the relationship between school leadership team cooperation and teacher professional engagement, highlighting its role in shaping school-wide digital transformation processes. Data were collected through questionnaires completed by all teachers in a school. In addition to biographical characteristics, teachers' professional engagement and information on cooperation in digital school development were recorded. These were then used to map the internal social network of the schools. In total, data from around 1900 teachers in 23 secondary schools were taken into account. The evaluation has started, but detailed information about the expected results cannot yet be formulated. The results should be useful for the school. Therefor we plant to give extensive feedback discussions, in which the various aspects are considered. They are are intended to give schools the opportunity to develop their school on the basis of the information. In this way, the school leadership team should become aware of their impact and the relevance of their collaboration.

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