Exploring Educational Leadership Orientations Through Survey-Based Pattern Analysis: Digital Transformation and Leadership Self-Concept in Primary Education Teachers

The digital transformation of education demands a comprehensive understanding of how leadership orientations and digital competencies intersect among educators. This exploratory cross-sectional study examined associations between self-reported leadership orientations, digital skills, and organizational readiness for innovation among 71 primary school teachers in Western Attica, Greece. Using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ Form-5x) adapted for respondents without administrative roles, we measured leadership self-concept—teachers’ preferences and tendencies regarding leadership—rather than enacted behaviors. This distinction is critical given that 94.4% of participants lacked principal experience; thus, responses reflect aspirational orientations rather than observed behavioral patterns. Descriptive profiling approaches, including K-means clustering and multinomial logistic regression, identified three tentative response pattern groupings: Passive-Moderate (53.5%), Balanced-Active (33.8%), and High-Engagement (12.7%), with observed multivariate differences. After reverse-coding the passive-avoidant items, transformational leadership showed the highest mean score (M = 4.33), followed by passive-avoidant (M = 4.15; reflecting low endorsement of avoidant behaviors) and transactional (M = 3.91). Transformational leadership demonstrated acceptable internal consistency (α = 0.783), while transactional (α = 0.583) and passive-avoidant (α = 0.617) scales showed lower reliability, warranting cautious interpretation. Critical competency gaps emerged in professional digital domains—particularly web development (22.5% deficit) and administrative systems (18.3% deficit)—despite a surplus in consumer technologies such as social media (−29.6%), revealing an ‘aspirational gap’ between leadership self-concept and digital readiness—technology familiarity does not automatically translate to digital leadership capability. Digital skills showed the strongest association with profile membership, with each additional skill associated with a 32–67% increase in the odds of membership in more engaged profiles. These findings suggest digital competency development may be associated with leadership orientation patterns, though the cross-sectional design precludes causal inference. Methodological limitations—including lower scale reliability, weak cluster separation (silhouette = 0.150), and modest sample size—require that findings be interpreted as hypothesis-generating rather than definitive. This work offers preliminary insights relevant to SDG4 (Quality Education) regarding heterogeneity in leadership orientation among primary educators, while highlighting the need for culturally validated instruments and for replication with larger samples.