EXAMINING THE EFFECT OF E-TRAINING ON LEADERSHIP READINESS OF UAE SCHOOL LEADERS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35631/IJEPC.1163078Keywords:
Accountability, Collaboration, Innovation, Leadership, Management, Professionalism, SustainabilityAbstract
This paper has explored the effects of e-training on leadership preparedness in school leaders in the United Arab Emirates and what aspects of training are most important. The authors used a quantitative cross-sectional design to examine 237 valid responses to the questionnaire items of school heads who attended digital professional learning. Interactivity, active participation, collaboration, accessibility, and content/design quality were measured in e-training, and the preparedness, confidence, adaptability, and readiness to lead were measured by leadership readiness. The descriptive results indicated the general positive perceptions with the item means ranging between 3.22 and 4.15. Structural equation modeling showed that e-training had a significant predictive value on leadership readiness (β= 0.827) and leadership competence (β = 0.176), with leadership readiness having a strong predictive value on leadership competence (β = 0.672). Interactivity, active participation and collaboration at the dimension level had a strong impact on readiness and a strong impact on competence respectively. In key paths, accessibility and content/design quality did not play a crucial role as predictors. Mediation analysis showed that leadership readiness significantly mediated the effect of e-training on leadership competence (indirect effect = 0.556, 95% CI [0.430, 0.694], p= 0.004). The results indicate that to be developmentally effective, e-training must be interactive, participatory and collaborative and not just accessible or well packaged to enhance leadership development in the UAE context of reform-oriented school environment.
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