E14 Technology and Leadership in the Adoption of AIED Policy Introduction Education and technology are integral components shaping the future of learning and teaching in the area of Artificial Intelligence (Arar et al., 2023). Artificial intelligence in education (hereinafter 'AIED') enables schools to innovate new learning and teaching practices, providing quality and inclusive education for all, in alignment with the fourth goal of the Sustainable Development Goals (Holzinger et al., 2021). Despite the positive impact of AI on teaching and learning, its adoption is slow in many schools (Cukurova et al., 2023). Specifically, there is an increasing concern about how to spread the adoption of an AIED policy as it depends on teachers' willingness to adopt it (HazzanBishara et al., 2025). The successful spreading of the adoption of an AIED policy in schools, an innovation diffusion, is determined by the leadership of the school and teachers’ support from their social context (Benavides et al., 2020). Diffusion is the "process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system” (Rogers, 2003, p. 35). Accordingly, the school principal communicates technology and transformational leadership practices between stakeholders across internal and external boundaries to influence teachers’ motivation, emotions, and behaviors toward adopting it (Alzouebi et al., 2025). The school principal’s communication is deemed central to fostering an educational environment conducive to the successful adoption of AI technology, as principals are uniquely positioned at the boundary between the school organization and its external environment (Dedering & Pietsch, 2025). The adoption of an AIED policy in complex educational systems calls for a holistic approach integrating top-down and bottom-up processes (Witthöft et al., 2024). As the Israeli education system is highly centralized and follows a top-down approach to digitizing teaching and learning in schools, there is an urgent need to understand innovation adoption from a bottom-up perspective (Nir et al., 2024). Since teachers’ mobilization is key to the successful adoption of innovation diffusion within a bottom-up approach (Gosselin et al., 2022), this study focuses on Roger’s (2003) persuasion stage, during which teachers’ attitudes are formed and influenced by social encouragement. Therefore, the research question that has prompted this qualitative study is: Which leadership practices do elementary and high school principals communicate to spread the adoption of an AIED policy, an innovation diffusion, during the persuasion stage, within a national program? Literature Review AI has rapidly emerged as a transformative force across diverse sectors worldwide, with an AIED policy initiative signaling its rising prominence for revolutionizing learning and teaching (Cheng & Wang, 2023). Despite these benefits, research indicates that teachers often exhibit resistance to AI adoption (Cukurova et al., 2023) while other studies suggest that ease of use, usefulness and teachers’ social environment influence the adoption of AI technologies (López-Costa et al., 2025). Therefore, addressing the second stage, persuasion, based on Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation Theory, an effective spreading of the adoption of an AIED policy entails school principals’ encouragement of social interaction between internal and external stakeholders via the communication of technology and transformational leadership practices. In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that innovation is a complex phenomenon embracing several academic disciplines, requiring, therefore, leadership that follows a both/and approach (Hojeij, 2024; Kwan, 2020; Smith, 2010). Marks and Printy’s (2003) research highlighted the benefits of integrating transformational and instructional leadership to maximize school leadership effectiveness to achieve better educational outcomes. Accordingly, an integrative leadership approach has become more prevalent in educational research emphasizing the importance of addressing first and second-order change (Gudito & De Jesus, 2024). This study proposes that technology and transformational leadership practices complement and reinforce each other, as structural practices must be combined with transformative behaviors. As
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