Visionary Leadership, Digital Literacy, and Classroom Management in Early Childhood Education: A Qualitative Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17977/um065.v7.i4.2027.5Keywords:
Classroom management, Digital literacy, Early childhood education, School leadership, Visionary leadershipAbstract
Digital transformation in early childhood education (ECE) requires leadership that links institutional direction with developmentally appropriate classroom practice. This qualitative descriptive study examined how visionary leadership, digital literacy, and classroom management were interconnected across four kindergartens affiliated with one educational foundation in Central Java, Indonesia. The institutional setting comprised 33 teachers and 409 children; interviewees were purposively selected from principals, ECE teachers, and supporting stakeholders with direct experience of the focal practices. Data were generated through classroom observations, in-depth interviews, and analysis of school policies, lesson plans, professional-development records, meeting documents, media logs, and digital-literacy materials. Iterative analysis involved data condensation, display, comparison across sources and sites, conclusion drawing, and verification. Four qualitative patterns were identified: principals translated a literacy-oriented vision into instructional direction, resource support, mentoring, and shared routines; digital storytelling, interactive visual media, and visual literacy cues supported attention, participation, and predictable transitions when used for clear pedagogical purposes; reflective meetings and teacher collaboration strengthened instructional confidence and consistency; and unequal digital competence, limited resources, and restricted collaboration time constrained implementation. These findings do not establish a direct causal effect of leadership or technology on classroom management. Rather, they indicate an interpretive pathway in which leadership created organizational and pedagogical conditions that teachers used to integrate developmentally appropriate digital literacy into classroom routines. The findings are bounded to four schools within one foundation and should be tested with more completely documented samples and observation protocols in cross-institutional research.
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