The Paradox of Experience in Educational Leaders' AI Readiness: Evidence from Greek Educators

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping educational leadership by shifting attention from technological familiarity to ethical judgement, reflective awareness, human-centred governance, and systemic adaptability. This study offers an exploratory empirical validation of the Meta-Noetic Leadership framework by examining AI readiness among 493 Greek educators and educational leaders. It focuses on the paradox of experience: the pattern in which greater AI experience is associated with higher meta-noetic leadership readiness, but not with increased confidence in the adequacy of the existing educational system. The research instrument measured perceived leadership gaps, the dimensions of Meta-Noetic Leadership, and acceptance of a desired new leadership model. Exploratory factor analysis of the 28-item Meta-Noetic Leadership scale identified five interpretable dimensions, with excellent sampling adequacy, KMO = .911, Bartlett's chi-square(378) = 4896.216, p < .001, and 51.691% total explained variance. Internal consistency was high for the overall scale, Cronbach's alpha = .901 and McDonald's omega = .896. AI experience significantly differentiated overall Meta-Noetic Leadership readiness, F(3,489) = 10.385, p < .001, eta squared = .060, whereas perceived systemic adequacy remained low and statistically unchanged across experience groups. Regression analysis showed that the five dimensions explained 39.4% of the variance in acceptance of the desired model. The findings suggest that educational leaders' AI readiness is not primarily technocratic; it is ethical, reflective, evolutionary, and antifragile. Practically, the study points to leadership development that combines AI ethics, human oversight, psychological safety, and experiential AI training.