Digital Resilience in Teacher education: The Role of School Leadership in Strengthening Work-integrated Learning Across Contexts

Abstract

Digital transformation has emerged as a significant challenge for educational institutions worldwide, particularly in contexts marked by increasing inequality and recurring crises. This study examines how institutional digital resilience is shaped by leadership practices, professional learning cultures, and policy environments in schools and teacher education programs. Guided by an interpretivist paradigm, the research employs a comparative qualitative case study design, analyzing institutional documents and annual reports from two contrasting educational contexts to explore how digital strategies are conceptualized, implemented, and sustained.

The findings identify several factors that strengthen institutional digital resilience. First, distributed leadership fosters shared responsibility for digital transformation across multiple organizational levels, promoting collaboration and collective ownership. Second, communities of practice provide essential structures for peer learning and the development of collective digital competence. Third, a clear leadership vision translates policy into practice by aligning institutional strategies with teaching and learning. Fourth, crises serve as both catalysts for digital innovation and sources of persistent digital inequities, highlighting the need for equitable and sustainable approaches. Finally, policy coherence across institutional, school, and national levels enhances preparedness by supporting consistent, long-term digital practices.

This study contributes to the growing scholarship on digital resilience by demonstrating how leadership, collaboration, and policy interact to strengthen institutional capacity for digital transformation. The findings suggest that resilient digital ecosystems depend not only on technological investment but also on enabling leadership, supportive professional learning communities, and coherent policies that prioritize equity and sustainability. Implications include strengthening leadership development, expanding capacity-building initiatives, and conducting comparative research across diverse educational systems.