The Role of School Leadership in Promoting Digital Safety for Secondary School Students in Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Professor of Educational Administration and Planning at the National Center for Educational Research and Development, and former Director of the Professional Academy for Teachers.

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the conceptual framework of digital safety and its importance for secondary school students in Egypt. It also sought to ascertain the opinion of school leaders and technical guidance personnel about the roles currently practiced and the proposed future roles of school leadership to promote digital safety for secondary school students. Furthermore, it aimed to provide some recommendations and suggestions for the roles of school leadership in promoting digital safety for secondary school students in Egypt.
The study used the descriptive-analytical approach to describe and analyze the roles of school leadership in promoting digital safety for secondary school students. The study also used a questionnaire that was applied to a random sample of 186 school leaders and technical guidance personnel in ten governorates to explore their opinion about the roles currently practiced and proposed future roles of school leadership to promote digital safety for secondary school students, and their suggestions in this framework.
The study recommended several recommendations, the most important of which are: Intensively raise students' awareness of the importance of digital safety through training, guides, periodic bulletins, official school websites, awareness messages, whether through social media or mobile phones, and other awareness tools, as well as alerting students not to disclose their personal data through social networking sites and the Internet or in any other form, and also it is recommended to include digital citizenship topics in school curricula such as: Digital safety, digital commerce, digital literacy, digital laws, and adding a section in the front of each textbook to promote digital safety and avoid harmful websites.

Keywords


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