System Responses to Crisis: Lessons for Educational Leadership From the COVID-19 Pandemic

• In Event: Leading in Chaos: Crisis and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Insight into system-level crisis responses and school, district, and union leadership emerged from a longitudinal, mixed methods study of teachers’ work in nine states. Theoretical and empirical scholarship on crises provided the organizing framework for the study, which was also informed by research on the organizational and policy contexts of teachers’ work. Interviews and surveys showed variation in state-level political stance and decision-making, with consequences for leaders’ ability to support teachers. Local district, school, and union leadership figured prominently in whether teachers felt well supported (or not) through the crisis and in their evolving career commitment. Implications center on building infrastructure and professional capacity, attending to the nature of public messaging about educators, and enabling teachers’ collective voice and influence.

Authors

• Lora Bartlett, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Judith Warren Little, University of California - Berkeley

• Alisun Thompson, University of Puget Sound

• Riley Collins, University of California - Santa Cruz