Systematic insights for educational sustainability: Principals' digital leadership and teacher professional performance

Clarifying how leadership supports teacher performance within sustainability agendas is very important, as evidenced by the rapidly accelerating digital transformation of education and the global call for resilient, future-ready education. Improving teachers' digital proficiency and performance is a critical strategy for enhancing educational standards, particularly as global education systems undergo digital transformation. School principals play a central role in this process through their leadership styles. The necessity for a thorough synthesis is highlighted by the scattered evidence, despite increased attention, regarding the relationship between principals' digital leadership and teacher effectiveness as well as long-term institutional sustainability. This systematic literature review (SLR) examines how principals' leadership influences teachers’ digital performance by synthesizing empirical studies published between 2015 and 2025. With the PRISMA framework as a guide and the addition of qualitative content analysis and bibliometric mapping, the review analyzes 21 peer-reviewed studies from diverse educational contexts, focusing on research trends, conceptual frameworks, and methodologies. Findings reveal key leadership practices—such as platformization, collaboration, systemic improvement, and fostering a digital culture—that significantly enhance teacher performance, particularly in digitally enriched classrooms. By incorporating these observations, the review shows how strategic digital leadership promotes institutional resilience and equity in addition to enhancing teachers' self-esteem and pedagogical efficacy. The review highlights how strategic digital leadership strengthens teachers' confidence and pedagogical effectiveness, providing valuable evidence-based insights for policy and practice aimed at creating digitally competent schools. This work contributes to advancing our understanding of leadership's role in driving successful digital transformation in education. The role of leadership in promoting sustainable digital transformation is better understood thanks to this synthesis, which also helps guide leadership development initiatives that support the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.