School leaders’ perspectives towards leading during crisis through an ecological lens: a comparison of five Arab countries

ABSTRACT This qualitative study compared school leaders’ perspectives towards their leadership practices in times of emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of twenty-seven school leaders from public and private schools across five Arab countries (Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, and Qatar) participated in the study. Following Turbulence Theory and an ecological framework, the study adopted in-depth semi-structured interviews to respond to the following queries: (1) What were the major actions taken by school leaders during the crisis? (2) What were the resemblances and disparities between school leaders’ practices across the five countries? Findings of the study revealed different levels of turbulence among school leaders within the same country and across the five countries. In addition, participants revealed valuable insight pertaining to changed leadership and educational practices in their schools in a post-COVID era. Further conclusions and implications are fully discussed.