Principals’ Narratives about Leading Schools during the COVID-19 crisis in South Africa

Abstract

This research focused on personal narratives of four school principals from different school contexts, how they experienced the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) crisis and how that experience influenced their leadership. The main question that guided the research, was how these principals made sense of their leadership during the COVID-19 crisis in their different South African contexts. International and national research confirm that policy implementtation during crisis situations is sometimes compounded by complexities and contradictions such as inappropriate policies, poor leadership and corruption, among other things. The research used a narrative inquiry, in which participants told their stories, to take a fresh look at existing ideas, which in this case is leadership in crisis situations.