Abstract
There is an urgent need to upgrade school leaders' competencies in order to prepare them for the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). The focus of this study was to investigate school leaders’ professional development needs for the 4IR. A quantitative approach was used framed within a post-positivist paradigm. A survey research design was employed and questionnaires were received from 505 school leaders from 200 schools across two school districts in the Gauteng Province. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics of percentage, mean, and standard deviation. Furthermore, the hypothesis was tested using inferential statistic of an independent t-test. The adapted questionnaire used in the study was validated by means of face and content validity. The reliability co-efficiency of 0.97 was estimated with the use of Cronbach’s alpha. Findings of this study reveal that school leaders generally possess 4IR knowledge to a large extent even though they require more knowledge in areas such as 3D printing, artificial intelligence and automation. Results indicate that to a large extent, school leaders need opportunities to develop their competency in the use of technology applications, technology hardwares and new 4IR technologies. School leaders were adept at installing software, gathering information by surfing the internet and using web tools to receive online information but found it difficult to create a spreadsheet. The study showed no significant gender difference in technological knowledge. However, greater training is required, especially by females, in developing skills such as agility, information management and evaluation, communication expressiveness and collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving, and creativity. It is recommended that the Department of Basic Education addresses the needs of school leaders by developing training programmes and conducting large-scale workshops to enhance their skills for the 4IR. Other training mechanisms such as professional learning communities, mentoring and coaching should be explored within schools to enhance school leadership competencies for the 4IR.
Keywords: School leaders, Professional development, Fourth industrial revolution, Technology, Agility, Information management and evaluation, Communication expressiveness, Collaboration, Critical thinking, Creativity and problem solving.