Female Principals’ Narratives of Leading Schools in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Educational institutions worldwide have weathered several challenges and crises, ranging from school curriculum changes, school closures due to political turmoil, outbreaks of disease, and natural disasters. The last two decades have seen the rise of natural disasters and global health crises and currently, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). South African education has not been immune to these challenges and crises. The outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in global disruption to education institutions marked by the prolonged closure of schools and school community members falling ill and succumbing to the disease. The outbreak and its impact have necessitated school leaders successfully navigating their staff and students through an unprecedented dispensation. Drawing on critical feminist theoretical insights about leadership ethics and women, interand trans-corporeality, and emotional and affective labour, this qualitative study reports on four female principals’ leadership experiences at independent and public high schools in South Africa. Data about the leadership experiences of the participants were generated using various e-platforms. The study explored the personal and professional challenges the female principals experienced during the COVID-19 crisis in relation to contextual factors such as the geographical location of the school; socio-economic status of parents and their involvement in remote teaching and learning; the availability of resources, and their leadership styles, philosophies, and responses to the pandemic, prior to, during and after the national lockdowns. Female Principals’ Narratives of Leading Schools 367 The study revealed that despite experiencing anxiety over the uncertainty of life in general, their perseverance, resilience, ethic of care and empathy and fostering collaboration amongst staff and parents contributed to successfully navigating their schools through the early stages of the COVID19 pandemic. The pandemic also amplified the socio-economic disparities between independent, resource-rich schools and disadvantaged government schools and its subsequent impact on these schools transitioning from traditional to online teaching and learning.