Sherry Ganon-Shilon, Orit Avidov-Ungar E15 technology leaders, school principals are responsible for building professional capacity, creating a supportive climate, and encouraging collaboration with external partners (Banoğlu et al., 2023; Dexter & Richardson, 2020; Richardson & Sterrett, 2018). Alongside technology leadership, transformational leadership is essential for fostering technology integration in schools (Schmitz et al., 2023). As transformational leaders (Bass, 1990), school principals offer a sense of purpose and act as a model of the change process (i.e., idealized influence), inform teachers about high expectations and communicate important aspects in a comprehensible manner (i.e., inspirational motivation), foster teachers’ creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving (i.e., intellectual stimulation), and pay attention to each teacher (i.e., individualized consideration). Research Context This study was conducted in the context of an AIED policy, a flagship initiative of the Israeli education system, representing a pioneering global effort. During the "AI Month”, a national largescale effort, elementary and high school principals were required to foster basic AI competencies among teachers and students alike. The AIED policy is based on a top-down authoritarian relationship with school principals instructed to use only AI tools approved by the Ministry of Education and to participate in built-in activities (Israeli Ministry of Education, 2024). Methodology Research Method This qualitative study explored the leadership practices that school principals communicated for spreading the adoption of an AIED policy, an innovation diffusion, within a national program (Gibbs, 2018). The researchers utilized a phenomenological design because it is instrumental in exploring a complex phenomenon, spreading of the adoption of an AIED policy, encompassing a deep understanding of school principals’ leadership practices (Sims, 2024). Research Population The study participants were 12 elementary and 4 high school principals (14 women and 2 men) who spread the adoption of an AIED policy within a national program. The selection of participants comprised both purposeful and snowball sampling (Etikan et al., 2016). The participants represent four school districts: Tel-Aviv (31%), Center (25%), South (38%), and North (6%), contributing to the understanding of under-examined phenomenon. On average, elementary (75%) and high-school (25%) principals had 13 years of experience in principalship (range = 1-23). Research Tools and Procedure Data were collected between February and May of the 2025 academic year via face-to-face and online semi-structured interviews. A semi-structured interview aligns with the goals of a phenomenological inquiry encouraging rich narratives of school principals’ leadership practices and their collaboration with internal and external stakeholders. Specifically, interview continued until data saturation was reached, ensuring the full range of school principals’ perceptions of their leadership practices were captured (Cohen et al., 2018). In the interview, school principals were asked questions such as: (1) How do you perceive the AIED policy? (2) What is your role in spreading the adoption of an AIED policy? (3) Which leadership practices do you communicate to spread the
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