Leading in Complexity and Endemic Crisis: Perceptions of Effective Leadership in Special-Purpose Private Schools

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Educational Leaders’ Efforts to Better Serve Students and Communities (Table 13)

Abstract

Recent research explores the experience of leaders supporting teachers and paraprofessionals in schools during short-term crises like school shootings and natural disasters but largely neglects persistent, long-term crisis environments. This study explores school leaders’, teachers’, and paraprofessionals’ perceptions of effective leadership in special purpose private schools (SPPS) during long-term crises. Empirical data were derived from a purposeful sample of school leaders, teachers, and paraprofessionals in Maine. Demographic information, a written narrative of crisis incidents, and semi-structured interviews were analyzed using a complexity leadership framework and a qualitative Interpretive Phenomenological Approach (IPA). The results can support identification of strategies for leaders in schools where long-term crisis is a factor and where students engage in incidents of frequent challenging behavior.

Authors

• James C. Coviello, St. John's University

• Reva Mathieu-Sher, Duquesne University