Digital Transformational Leadership in Educational Management: Implications for Elementary School Principals – A Systematic Literature Review

Digital transformation presents significant challenges for elementary school management, particularly due to variations in teachers’ digital readiness and limited organizational capacity. This study aims to systematically synthesize empirical research on Digital Transformational Leadership (DTL) and its implications for elementary school principals. Using a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) guided by PRISMA, 28 empirical articles (2015–2025) from Scopus-indexed journals and other reputable sources were analyzed using the Context–Intervention–Mechanism–Outcome (CIMO) framework. The findings reveal that DTL strengthens school management through the development of organizational agility, digital school culture, and teacher commitment. Organizational agility emerges as a key mediating mechanism linking leadership practices to adaptive school outcomes. This study reconceptualizes DTL by positioning organizational agility as a central mechanism in elementary school contexts and offers a refined leadership model for digital-era school management.