Ritual Practice and Symbolic Interaction of Teachers’ Digital Leadership in Educational Field: An Interpretation from an Anthropological Perspective
In the context of the continuous digital transformation of education, teachers are increasingly expected to play leading roles in technology integration, pedagogical innovation, and relational coordination. However, existing studies on teachers’ digital leadership have largely been dominated by competency-based frameworks, policy-oriented analyses, and quantitative measurement models, with relatively limited attention paid to the cultural meanings embedded in everyday educational practice. From an anthropological perspective, teachers’ digital leadership is not merely a manifestation of technological competence or organizational function, but also a culturally situated process enacted through ritualized practice and symbolic interaction.Drawing on symbolic interactionism and ritual theory, this paper interprets teachers’ digital leadership in the educational field through typical scenes such as teaching-research activities, digital classroom teaching, and home-school collaboration. It argues that teachers’ digital leadership is constructed, performed, and recognized through repeated interaction, symbolic expression, and situational negotiation. Digital tools, professional discourse, and routine educational practices all function as symbolic resources through which teachers establish legitimacy, coordinate relationships, and shape professional identity. The study further reveals that digital leadership is deeply embedded in the cultural order of schooling, where authority is not simply granted by institutional position but continuously reproduced through meaningful social practice.By shifting the analytical focus from measurable competence to interpretive understanding, this paper expands the conceptualization of teachers’ digital leadership and offers a culturally grounded perspective for understanding digital educational reform. It also highlights the value of anthropological interpretation in uncovering the hidden meanings of educational change in everyday school life.