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Lessons learned about principal leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic: To be close at a distance
Mid Sweden University, Faculty of Human Sciences, Department of Education.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3481-1648
Mid Sweden University, Faculty of Human Sciences, Department of Education.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5631-2714
Mid Sweden University, Faculty of Human Sciences, Department of Education.
2022 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a time of a low intensive crisis and has changed conceptions of leadership and leadership practices (Harris, 2020). Principals’ work across the globe has fundamentally altered (Pollock, 2020). In terms of implications for leadership, a study from 2020 have shown that to help transition to remote education provision, there has been a need for leadership to come from many and to prepare leaders to lead through crises. This might include being future focused, highly responsive, and with an emphasis on values-based and moral purpose leadership views (Gurr, 2020). During the pandemic, Sweden used a strategy built on trust, which also effected the work of the principals’, thought trust is an important aspect of their leadership (Ahlström, Leo, Norqvist, Isling 2021). The aim of this study is to examine principals sense-making of how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected them as leaders. In this study, the sensemaking theory presented by Weick (1995) is used to grasp principals’ sensemaking of how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected them as leaders and managers at local school level. The study used a qualitative research method and 193 principals studying the national school leadership training program in Sweden participated in this study. The principals got to discuss in small groups, based on a specific conversation model, how the Covid-19 pandemic affected their leadership and how they made sense about it together. Preliminary findings show that problems related to the pandemic have created additional work and an increased workload with new tasks. To lead on a distance is a new situation for the principals. Relationship building becomes difficult with the digital distance and the "gaps" where physical meetings with employees on large and small issues disappear. The pandemic has also led to several positive effects, such as finding new ways of meet for collegial learning and communication, with the possibility of a higher presence of educators and guardians. For Nordic educational research, this paper provides a contribution to valuable knowledge about key factors for principal leadership during a low intensive crisis in a Nordic context, for both practitioners and policy makers.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2022.
National Category
Social Sciences Educational Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-47709OAI: oai:DiVA.org:miun-47709DiVA, id: diva2:1740450
Conference
Nordic Educational Research Association: Education and involvement in precarious times, Reykjavik, Iceland, June 1-3, 2022
Available from: 2023-03-01 Created: 2023-03-01 Last updated: 2023-03-16Bibliographically approved

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Sahlin, SusanneStyf, MariaLund, Sandra

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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
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