Contextually Responsive Leadership in Crisis During COVID-19: A Mixed-Methods Study of Superintendent Decision-Making in Two States

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: Using Culturally Responsive School Leadership to Center Stakeholders and Empower Student Voice

Abstract

This sequential-explanatory mixed-methods study draws on district communication between March and June of 2020 (n=7,142) from 150 Maine and 465 Pennsylvania districts, as well as superintendent interviews conducted between November 2020 and June 2021 (n=52) to explore how superintendents addressed challenges related to COVID-19. We combine binary logistic regression with qualitative framework analysis to understand how district factors such as organizational culture, political climate, community characteristics, location, size, and financial factors influenced superintendent response to the iterative decision-making cycles they had to engage in within the context of the COVID-19 crisis. We find that while rural locales predicted more constrained district resources overall, superintendent solutions to COVID-related challenges were largely borrowed and adapted from role-alike networks.

Authors

• Catharine Biddle, University of Maine

• Maria Frankland, University of Maine

• Ryan Crane, University of Maine

• Katharine Truesdale, University of Maine