Use of Social Media as a School Principal

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the use of social media among principals in the state of Indiana. Data from the national 2009 report, A Survey of K-12 Educators on Social Networking and other Content Sharing Tools, were used to compare national results and data collected from Indiana. A survey was also created to analyze the use of social media among principals in the state of Indiana. The survey collected data from principals, indicating age, gender, locality, educational experience, social media use, and social media preferences. Lastly, the data were used to determine if there is a comparison between the state of Indiana results and the 2009 national results. The survey provided data to determine if social media use has increased since the 2009 national report. The research design involved a population of 1,931 Indiana school principals. Use of social media as a school principal was collected in a 16-item survey. Statistical analysis of the data included descriptive analysis for selected items, means, and standard deviations. A one-way ANOVA was used to test all 12 null hypotheses. Significance was identified at the .05 level. In all, 356 Indiana school principals responded to the survey instrument. As a result of the analysis, there were no significant differences among gender, experience, age, enrollment, and locality when using social media for school communication. There was a significant difference in school categories when social media was used for communication. High schools responded in favor over elementary and middle school principals when using social media for school communication. There was a significant difference in women versus men when social media are used for professional development.Women responded in favor over the men for social media use as professional development. There were no significant differences in experience, age, enrollment, school category, or locality when using social media for professional development.