In the words of Margaret Drabble, “when nothing is sure, everything is possible”. International school leaders are still grappling with varying degrees of uncertainty because of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has been dubbed “The Great Disruption”.
The tectonics of viral variants have been reverberating with restrictions and lockdowns impacting school life once again. Unlike previous world-scale lockdowns though, the impact on education provision looks different geographically. The aims of restrictions/lockdowns have largely shifted from reducing transmissibility to easing the burden of healthcare systems and ensuring economic activity continues.
In the UK and the US particularly where Covid-19 cases have been at a record high, a more free market “herd immunity” approach has been generally adopted and schools have not been mandated to revert to remote learning. On the other hand, in some Chinese provinces and particularly in Hong Kong, one single untraceable case of Omicron triggered a full blown 14 day lockdown in January 2022.
“‘Many of us are googling ‘what’s the next letter in the Greek alphabet after Omicron?'”
The discoveries of co-infections such as “Flurona” and “Deltacron” are being reported and many of us are googling the next letter in the Greek alphabet after Omicron. Some in school leadership feel resigned to the possibility that the virus is here to stay and it is something we will have to learn to live with. Others are getting out their crystal balls to prophecise when ‘Rona is gonna skip town.
New Year, new challenges
There have been significant staff and student absences and many schools have been forced to combine classes, send classes/year groups home, employ blended learning approaches, and stagger movement. All this while trying to establish consistency in teaching and learning and managing the differing school community wellbeing needs. They have also been introducing “recovery” teaching, learning and pastoral intervention supports to narrow achievement and developmental gaps that have arisen from the onset of the pandemic.
The pressures of school inspection and reliance on technology for a blended learning approach give rise to immense instability and challenge. With coming up to two years of disruption what does this mean for the future of education?
Paradoxical leadership
In discussion with colleagues who lead schools all over the world, the general view is that schools have undergone some irreversible changes and the pandemic has shaped a new school leadership landscape which puts competing demands on school leaders.
“There is a need to be agile and responsive but without being rattled or overreacting.”
There is the need to be agile and responsive but without being rattled or overreacting. The need to be caring and heart-centred in approach whilst looking at key performance indicators, the bottom line and investor/board targets. And crucially the need to be approachable and visible alongside keeping your own sanity and having the time and space to “unplug.”
All change
I had a chat with a fed up and exasperated colleague of mine who is principal at an Abu Dhabi international school recently. His SLT had spent months preparing for their co-curricular programmes involving multiple external providers starting this month, invested significant efforts into rebuilding in-person classroom routines and re-establishing warm inter-relationships with students. But lo and behold, remote learning has been mandated again.
“The yardsticks of yesteryear may no longer be effective measures of post-pandemic pupil attainment and progress.”
This adds further workload and more pressure of “recovery” learning and progress targets to bring students in line with the yardsticks of yesteryear — which he feels are no longer effective measures of post-pandemic pupil attainment and progress.
The divides between the most and least able have become wider spotlighting the pandemic’s impact of reduced equity. Some students adjusted well to remote learning but the data tells us that some students clearly didn’t.
“Covid” kids
I have also heard from a number of teacher colleagues who have noted that foundation stage pupils (aged 3 to 5) are a bit “feral” — wild and free cherubs who struggle to pay attention or sit in one place.
Dubbed “the Covid kids”, these are children who were two and under when the pandemic hit and due to lockdowns have spent a significant proportion of their lives with relatively less social interaction with extended family, peers and other adults.
“Teacher colleagues have noted that foundation stage pupils are a bit ‘feral'”
Primary aged children have a wider than average variance in ability, impacted by the degree of support and the access to technology they had during lockdowns as well as their capacity to adjust to remote learning. Middle years pupil trends are that pupils are progressing and “recovery” of learning gaps is ongoing but that on the whole, teachers and leaders are feeling the weighty effects of two years of disruption.
International educators are staying put
In addition to academic pressure, those in school leadership are facing challenges with recruiting appropriate staff. Asia Pacific school recruiters have told me that international school leaders are being hard pushed to fill staff vacancies from a local rather than an international talent pool because of countries tightening their border restrictions once again.
“International school leaders are being hard pushed to fill staff vacancies.”
The unpredictable nature of change is increasing teachers’ risk aversion to job switching. In some regions there has been a struggle to find suitable candidates as staff opt for the security of their existing posts. Understandably, they don’t want to be caught in between jobs — stranded at home or away.
Leaders are feeling the strain
With so much going on and the need for school leaders to be perpetual pillars for so many in their school community, it probably comes as no surprise that many are considering cutting loose from education entirely.
Findings from an American survey by the NASSP of just over 500 all-through school leaders found 25 per cent of leaders want to leave the profession in the next two to three years and one third of principals intend to exit leading schools in four to six years. Of these, 92 per cent stated that Covid-19 had a hand in pushing them out of the proverbial school gate. Concerning too, is that more than half of early career school leaders do not see themselves in education for the remainder of their careers.
Organisational resilience
The post-pandemic future of school leadership brings to the fore the importance of resilience, authentically embedded wellbeing and a flexible approach to teaching and learning methods.
“Take time to review even the most unlikely possible scenario that you might face as a leader.”
A recent McKinsey report highlights leader preparedness by taking time to review even the most unlikely possible scenario that you might face as a leader and getting your brain into gear with a “premortem” of the risks and how you might navigate these successfully.
Building resilience with exercises such as these can help to embed preparedness potential and build the “muscles” for organisational resilience in the face of new sudden or slow-burn challenges that will surely need attention as the international education landscape continues to change.
Twitter: @EdLeaderEMEA
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoubiya