Teachers’ Insight on Digital Competencies and Maturity among School Administrators in Sarawak, Malaysian Schools

Abstract

Digital in education is always evolving at a quick pace and Malaysia experienced a slower rate of adaption among the some Southeast countries. the administrators at the schools possess inadequate digital competence. This article aims to investigate the competence of school administrators from the perspective of teachers, as well as to classify Malaysian schools' level of digital maturity. Moreover, digital maturity is a prerequisite for the success of digital transformation, yet research on digital maturity in Malaysian education is lacking. Six Malaysian teachers participated in a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) by utilising a qualitative method. This study identified school administrators' competence for digital leadership are vision and mission, digital culture, digital professional development, digitally go-forward, digital safety and digital resilience. The subthemes are problem-solving, communication, teamwork, creativity, critical thinking, ethical and cultural awareness, adaptability, self-direction, technical skills, lifelong learning, and information management. Malaysian schools' digital maturity, as measured by the Educational Process-Capability Digital Maturity (EPCMM), is at level 3, which is designated as "Management." In order to empower and improve school administrators' competences to fully integrate digital technology into daily administrative tasks while leading the digital cultural changes in their schools, it is helpful to know the level of digital maturity in Malaysian schools.