Leading digital change in vocational institutions: the relationship between principals’ digital leadership and teachers’ digital competence

The rapid advancement of digital technologies is reshaping educational practices and raising expectations for digital leadership in educational institutions. Although digital leadership and digital competence have been widely studied, evidence regarding their relationship in China’s higher vocational education sector remains limited. Grounded in ISTE∙EL (2024) and the DigCompEdu framework (2017), this cross-sectional study examines principals’ digital leadership practices, teachers’ digital competence, and their association in public higher vocational and technical colleges (HVTCs) in Sichuan Province, China. Data were collected through an online questionnaire adapted to the Chinese context. Using proportional stratified random sampling, 411 teachers were selected from a population of 12,250 across 21 HVTCs. After data screening, 349 valid responses were analyzed using SPSS 27.0 and Smart PLS 4.0. Results indicate high perceived levels of both principals’ digital leadership and teachers’ digital competence. Principals’ digital leadership was also found to be significantly and positively associated with teachers’ digital competence. Given the cross-sectional and self-reported nature of the data, the findings should be interpreted as evidence of association rather than causal effect. This study contributes context-specific evidence on digital leadership and teacher competence in vocational education and offers practical implications for leadership development, professional learning, and policy initiatives aimed at supporting sustainable digital transformation in vocational education.