Educational empowerment and strategic guidance: A critical perspective on regional educational digital transformation

Abstract

This article explores the dichotomy between empowerment and guidance-oriented strategies in the leadership exercised over teachers, particularly within national digital-transformation initiatives and the teacher-professional-development schemes designed to sustain them. Building on European Commission frameworks and tools (SELFIE, DigComp, DigCompEdu, DigCompOrg), we conducted 16 semi-structured interviews with the officials formally responsible for digital-education strategy in each of Spain’s 15 Autonomous Communities and the INTEF-governed enclave. Deductive coding of 17 leadership traits reveals a spectrum of territorial approaches: 8 jurisdictions privilege guidance-focussed leadership, 7 adopt mixed models that blend central direction with pockets of school autonomy, and 1 prioritises empowerment, redistributing decision-making and nurturing communities of practice. These patterns suggest that system size, technical capacity and political alignment shape whether a region emphasises oversight, autonomy or a negotiated midway position. We argue that successful digital transformation requires a context-sensitive mix of structured support and professional agency, enabling teachers both to follow clear trajectories and to act as active agents of change. By foregrounding leadership logics rather than individual personalities, the study contributes a transferable analytical framework for comparing territorial strategies across decentralised educational systems.