1.0 Introduction
This chapter covers the relevant theories covering crisis management and leadership, the theory behind education leadership, the role and significance of education leadership on learning and development, prominent challenges faced by educational leaders when faced with uncertain situations, and approaches (policies, framework, adaptation) to support educational leadership and learning during a crisis.
1.1 Education Leadership and Crisis Management
Educational leadership involves a particular form of leadership and process that occurs in groups in a long-term approach to learning and development. The particular goals depend on the context, with the main goal based on learning and thus ensuring academic success through material training and process improvements (Ibrahim & Al-Mashhadany, 2012). This purpose is accomplished mainly through collaboration with parents, educators, public policymakers, students, and the public.
Crisis management involves a process of three stages, as developed by Coombs. The pre-crisis stage involves the detection of the crisis, reducing the risks that the crisis may create, and preparing tactically and strategically to deal with it. The crisis stage involves the organization’s response to the situation, communicating with stakeholders, and dealing with the crisis by implementing a management plan. The post-crisis stage occurs once there is a resolution with an evaluation of how the organization dealt with the crisis, focusing on better preparation strategies for a potential future crisis.
1.2 Role of Education Leadership on Learning and Development of Pupils during Crisis
The features of educational leadership are based on the sensitivity towards those engaged in the process where such conditions indicate the work’s complexity, authenticity, and interdisciplinarity, focus on learning, the need for participation, time or reflection, and respect for diversity. In education systems, leadership is significant, especially in disruptive times and going over ways of navigating new pathways. This requires education leaders to be best equipped to respond to crises and create equitable and resilient education systems. In a study by Leithwood and Jantzi (2006), it is indicated that the impact of leadership on learning is important where about a third of the changes occurring in learning was attributed to leadership, second only to classroom teaching and its effects on educational outcomes. A consistent element of crisis leadership is based on sensemaking in times of uncertainty (Boin et al., 2013). This is because, during a crisis, challenges quickly occur, and information is scarce and known solutions. This was notable during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, where educational leaders faced challenges because of the lack of experience in such a crisis, the uncertainty, and the rapid timeline of the crisis, which hindered effective responses. Joint sensemaking is significant for effective crisis management because, without a shared and accurate outlook of the situation, there cannot be effective communication and informed decisions with other stakeholders (Boin & Renaud, 2013). It becomes essential for education leaders to consider making decisions together with policymakers, sharing their knowledge, and focusing on effective leadership responses and partnerships.
1.3 Challenges Faced by Educational Leaders while Managing Uncertain Situations
According to research, it is important to maintain trust during a crisis (Duckers et al., 2017). However, most top executive educational leaders go through non-consultative decision-making, eroding the ability of the school to effectively communicate and thus hindering trust within the larger community (Sutherland, 2017). As such, there is a struggle to balance the conflicted expectations of educators and parents during a crisis like the pandemic. Another challenge for educational leaders is focusing on immediate issues instead of the larger issue. The study by Mahfouz et al. (2019) found that when faced with the international Syrian refugee crisis, as the influx of refugee families increased, principals focussed their time on resolving the urgent issues, putting out fires, and attending to the basic needs that most of the times are taken for granted. It became challenging because of the gigantic nature of the crisis capturing their lived experiences.
Additionally, there is the challenge of tensions faced by the school leaders, as seen during the pandemic, where they had to lead both slow and fast, balancing excellence and accountability with equity and considering human and organizational needs simultaneously (Netolicky, 2020). This is because such a crisis rapidly redefined leadership and schooling, advocating for the leaders to adaptively lead, build individual and organizational resilience and create distributed structures of leadership for the optimal response of institutions (Bagwell, 2020). The uncertainty of the crisis also creates challenges as educators get concerned with the unpredictability of educational discontinuity, damaging their students’ progress, increasing their workload, leading to poor job insecurity and loss of income, and affecting their abilities to provide quality learning and their coping mechanisms.
1.4 Approaches/Practices to Support Education Leadership and Learning in Schools during Uncertain Situations (decision-making, top management support, school culture)
In their efforts to achieve learning and development, educational leaders redirect the school through changes in the sense and context of the purpose of learning and instruction, where they indirectly influence members in promoting the engagement of people in a common vision (Mazurkiewicz, 2021). They also increase their commitment to work, develop processes or shared decision-making, and create a context fostering learning and risk-taking. Therefore, through educational leadership. A learning community is formed that involves the mind and emotions, sensitivity towards operational conditions and other people, previous experiences, and simultaneous appeal to the accepted community values.
During a crisis, having a strong organizational vision based on clear values and culture ensures educational leaders have intentional and effective ways of responding. This is because the underlying vision and values that form the school culture provide the clarity and strength of responsive decisions facilitating the decisions made by the educational leaders when faced with uncertain conditions, guiding their critical decisions, helping them to engage with others, and enabling coherent communication (Boin et al., 2013). Moreover, the crisis response process depends on the significant relationships that frame their decision-making and planning processes based on collective wisdom, adaptation, collaboration, connectivity, risk-taking, and empathy. Thus, the support of the top management in connecting with the community and building relationships ensures that the educational institutions have a strong network that can help each other make decisions and access best practices for crisis response, meeting the emotional and social concerns that occur.
1.5 Summary
The literature has indicated that educational leaders must focus on developing a collaborative and connective approach to crisis response and management, especially in decision-making. It is paramount that the leaders adequately and effectively respond to the crisis while also focusing on meeting the goal of providing instruction and learning to their students.
References
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