“Everything Is on Fire and I’m Not Fine”: School Leaders Prioritizing Teacher Needs During COVID-19

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

Abstract

This presentation shares the results of a qualitative study examining coaches’ and principals’ articulation of care during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors drew upon 24 longitudinal qualitative interviews, analyzing teachers’ needs and school leaders’ ways of caring during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic. We found five categories of teacher needs and five ways school leaders addressed these needs. These included structural interventions, discursive moves, and serving as buffers to additional stresses.

Authors

• Alexis Leah Jones, Eastern Illinois University

• Meghan A. Kessler, Illinois State University

• Evthokia Stephanie Saclarides, University of Cincinnati