School Leadership Theory and Pactice in Times of COVID-19: Our Learnings from a National Webinar

Abstract

While the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in South Africa has made visible the adaptability of some schools to effortlessly transition to the ‘new normal’ in terms of school organisation and functionality, many public schools, mainly the under-resourced dysfunctional cohort of schools, have struggled to come to terms with the different conditions. Similar to other developing economies, this is ascribed, in part, to poor school leadership. Although scholarship on school leadership theory and practice in times of a pandemic is non-existent, what is clear is that conventional notions of school leadership will not be useful in navigating schools through this tumultuous, uncertain and volatile period. In this article, we draw on data from a national school leadership webinar to respond to the question: What can be learnt from the webinar on school leadership theories and practices that can make a difference to school functionality in the context of COVID-19? In this qualitative study, we purposively selected the presentations of four academics in education leadership and two practitioners, one, a school principal and the other a circuit manager. We drew on a grounded theory approach and inductively analysed the narratives of the participants. Our findings on what promotes functional schools in times of a pandemic seem to point to school leadership theories and practices that support school resilience; that foster an ethic of collective care; and those that scaffold a reculturing and restructuring of school spaces. Drawing from our findings, School Leadership Theory and Practice 25 we offer liberation school leadership (LSL) as a proactive leadership approach to assist schools in times of crises.