Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic is triggering a public health emergency and crisis on a large scale, with far-reaching effects and severe damage to all aspects of politics, economy, cultural and social life, and health. Consecutive outbreaks over the past nearly 2 years of “living with COVID-19” have forced most schools to physically close, resulting in the largest educational disruption in human history. In turbulent times of the COVID-19 crisis, school leaders are facing numerous major challenges germane to school governance and leadership. The key objective of the study is to fully explore the prospective challenges principals are encountering in public schools in times of COVID-19. To fulfill the research purpose, a systematic literature review (SLR) was carried out to investigate the leadership challenges. As a result, a total of 24 challenges were explored through SLR approach. Frequency analysis approach was initially applied to figure out the most significant challenges. Accordingly, seven challenges were found statistically significant as showing frequency ≥ 50 each. Irrevocably, the study works as a contribution to K-12 school leadership by providing guidance for current and future leaders in crisis based on practical investigation, experiences, and recommendations. Policy makers can leverage these findings to make necessary adjustments to school policy to better prepare school leaders for crisis. Additionally, the findings of the current study are believed to have profound implications for future research. These findings expand our current understanding on school leadership in time of crisis that needs further investigation. Subsequent studies can quantitatively and/or qualitatively validate these leadership challenges findings regarding a particular school context.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.875646/pdf

Identifying the Leadership Challenges of K-12 Public Schools During COVID-19 Disruption: A Systematic Literature Review

Despite the increasing number of studies on educational leadership during COVID-19, little attention has been paid to the intersections of different educational experiences and perspectives of school leaders, students, and their families that occur both inside and outside of schools. Drawing on eight case studies of public primary schools in Hong Kong, this article explores the challenges and strategies of online learning with a focus on effective leadership practices for supporting economically disadvantaged students during COVID-19. To incorporate the perspectives of multiple stakeholders, a series of questionnaires were distributed to principals (n = 8), teachers (n = 150), parents (n = 775), lower primary students (n = 855), and upper primary students (n = 850) and interviews were conducted with principals (n = 8), teachers (n = 37), parents (n = 32), and students (n = 62). Findings indicated that school leaders and teacher teams demonstrated strategic leadership practices prioritising and responding to the needs and constraints of economically disadvantaged students and their families. The present study draws attention to leadership encouraging collaboration among schools, families, and the wider community, which has become necessary during the shift to online learning during COVID-19.

Leadership for inclusive online learning in public primary schools during COVID-19: A multiple case study in Hong Kong

Research on the effect of COVID-19 and its aftermath on education is gaining momentum. Nevertheless, this expanding contemporary literature only scarcely addresses principals’ digital instructional leadership and has not investigated how principals’ regular instructional leadership aligns with it. Moreover, the emerging writing on the aftermath of COVID-19 notes the phenomenon of teacher shortages in schools as a result of a growing tendency of teachers to leave the profession, but the possible connection with various forms of principals’ instructional leadership remains unexplored. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of combinations of different levels of principals’ regular instructional leadership and digital instructional leadership on teachers’ intention to leave. Cluster analysis of data of 267 school teachers in Israel was conducted. The results indicate an association between differences in teachers’ intention to leave the profession and mixtures of regular and digital instructional leadership. The results and their implications are discussed.

The great resignation: Exploring the effect of regular and digital instructional leadership on teachers’ intention to leave

The purpose of this research is to find out the description of teacher performance data, transformational leadership, and school climate; and the influence of transformational leadership on teacher performance, the effect of school climate on teacher performance. The research method used is a quantitative method through an associative approach. The population in the study amounted to 94 elementary school teachers in the city of Padang. Data collection techniques through questionnaires. The results of the study revealed that: the description of the transformational leadership data of elementary school principals in the city of Padang, is included in the high category with an average of 72.14, the description of school climate is in the high category, namely 101.80, and the description of teacher performance data is also in the high category, namely 92.12; there is a positive and significant effect of transformational leadership on teacher performance of 0.917%, its contribution is 84.08%, which means that transformational leadership has a strong effect on teacher performance of 0.913%, its contribution is 83.35, which means that the school climate has a strong effect on teacher performance; there is a positive and significant effect of transformational and school climate on teacher performance of 0.604, the contribution is 36.48%, which means that transformational leadership and school climate together have a strong influence on teacher performance. The implication is that efforts to optimize teacher performance can be carried out by school principals through exemplary, motivational, democratic policies, providing rewards, making good personal relationships and approaches, and creating a sense of security and comfort at work.

The Effect of Transformational Leadership and Madrasah Climate on Elementary School Teacher Performance

Considering that the relationship between workplace spirituality and organisational change has only recently sparked scholarly interest, the connection could be more evident, as research has only recently begun. Furthermore, there is a growing tendency to add spirituality as the fourth dimension to sustainability in addition to the environment, social responsibility, and the economy. This study contributes to the academic literature by examining the influence of workplace spirituality on lecturers’ responses to change in their commitment to change and change-oriented organizational citizenship behaviour (C-OCB). Private universities in Banjarmasin, Indonesia, were selected to research these links. To collect data from 1050 instructors, self-administered questionnaires were used, and structural equation modelling (SEM) was performed. The findings demonstrated that the workplace spirituality level, exemplified by a solid connection to a higher power, humanity, and nature, affects the lecturers’ commitment to change leading to change-oriented organizational citizenship behaviour (C-OCB), a dimension of OCB less researched. The findings offer a novel perspective on the relationship between workplace spirituality, lecturers’ attitudes towards change, and change-oriented organizational citizenship behaviour (C-OCB) in higher education. Since this result has not been examined in the context of change in higher education, several consequences and suggestions for future research emerge. More studies could be used in future research, given that the literature in this area is still in its early stages. The current work is expected to spark future research on this intriguing and fertile issue.

/pdf/workplace-spirituality-as-an-alternative-model-for-promoting-gy4ljar4.pdf

Workplace Spirituality as an Alternative Model for Promoting Commitment to Change and Change-Oriented Organisational Citizenship Behaviour

The COVID-19 pandemic caused education systems to embrace remote schooling and online learning. In the context of this dramatic change, the principal's role has also changed. Instead of interacting face to face, school leaders had to become distant leaders operating digitally. The field has no knowledge of digital instructional leadership. The study used new and adapted measures to explore principals’ digital instructional leadership, its mechanisms of operation, and its outcomes. In particular, the research examined how digital instructional leadership affects perceived student learning in online settings through teachers’ intrinsic motivation for digital instruction (i.e. the mediator). The study used data from 380 teachers in Bahrain. Results indicated support for mediation. This is an empirical exploratory study, and therefore it is limited in scope. Nevertheless, its concepts, measures, and findings offer valuable contributions to research and practice. The limitations, findings, and implications of the study are discussed. The significance of the study derives from the growing incorporation of hybrid schooling in education and digital instructional leadership practices in mainstream principalship.

Principals’ digital instructional leadership during the pandemic: Impact on teachers’ intrinsic motivation and students’ learning

Workplace spirituality and, particularly, the concept of spiritual leadership have received much attention in the business literature in many Anglo-American countries. Together, both concepts refer...

Leading schools spiritually: Some speculative insights into Arab societies

The knowledge about principals' digital transformational leadership in schools is scarce. This lacuna is problematic because recently many countries switched to remote schooling and online learning models during the COVID-19 pandemic. The new situation changed the principal's role to one of distant digital leadership, working with teachers and students remotely. The present study aims to investigate principals' digital transformational leadership and its outcomes. The research is based on data from 380 teachers in Bahrain. The findings and their implications for effective remote schooling are discussed. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Tahani Hassan

Papers

Principals’ digital instructional leadership during the pandemic: Impact on teachers’ intrinsic motivation and students’ learning

Leading schools spiritually: Some speculative insights into Arab societies

Principals’ digital transformational leadership, teachers’ commitment, and school effectiveness