School leadership and crisis management in the COVID-19 pandemic: Qualitative research in the Italian context

The COVID-19 pandemic forced school leaders to identify rapid solutions to adapt to an altered context. We studied a sample of school leaders from a northwest Italian city, investigating how they managed the consequences of the crisis, the threats and opportunities for professional and personal growth they identified, and what they learned with regard to new practices in terms of work and leadership. 25 semi-structured interviews were conducted with school leaders (6 males and 19 females, between July and November 2020). From the transcripts, analysed using the Template Analysis technique, 18 themes emerged: 6 addressed the threats encountered (e.g. neglected teaching aspects, work-life conflict, loss of direct relationships, and fatigue); 9 related to opportunities for growth (e.g. change in working practices, new attitudes towards technology, and e-leadership skills); and 3 leadership styles were observed: Transformational, Distributive and Directive. Our findings reveal that school leaders addressed the threats emerging from the crisis but also identified some positive outcomes and useful management practices both to overcome that difficult period and to be maintained once it was over. Finally, changes occurred in the way they saw their role: the managerial focus was supplemented by a psychological aspect, aimed at listening to and emotionally supporting followers, attempting to be a useful resource for them.