Crisis Management for School Leaders: The Role of a Resilient School Climate

Introduction

Globally, schools are influenced by current societal events; this concept is nothing new. Yet, in recent years, public pre-kindergarten through grade 12 (P-12) schools in the United States have experienced significant disruptors. Beginning in 2020, the students, teachers, parents, and leaders of schools in America met a range of external pressures and events that tested their normal mode of school. If not tended to, a carefully cultivated school climate may begin to suffer (Mousena & Raptis, 2021) under such pressures. Particularly, teacher turnover and shortages projected a decade prior to 2020 (Sutcher, Darling-Hammond, & Carver- Thomas, 2018) are becoming a reality. In pre-school through grade 12 schools across the United States, the school staff pressures that once derived from a strong emphasis on teacher accountability for student achievement as shown using a one time a year high stakes assessment (Smith, Escobedo & Kearney, 2020) has now shifted to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, culture wars, and increased incidents of stakeholder aggression and violence (Landrum, Sweigart, & Collins, 2019). The COVID-19 pandemic not only shifted P-12 learning temporarily online, bringing with it significant changes in teaching methods; it also exacerbated the differences between school districts and families in regards to access to technology. Additionally, decisions regarding the use of face coverings or masks for students and staff made by states or local school districts were publicly contested by parents and often at odds with public health officials. After several high-profile murders of African-American men and women by police officers, calls for social justice reform carried into the classrooms. These calls for more inclusive educational practice and conversations on race in classrooms were strongly combatted by others who did not want their children exposed to anti-racist ideals. This push/pull of social and pandemic issues in America have exacerbated concerns for teachers as school staff report feeling attacked, called out on social media, unappreciated, vilified (Bartlett, August 2021) and fearing for their personal safety, even as national polling shows local support for teachers is holding steady (Will, January 2021). In the absence of a supportive school principal and a crisis management framework, these stressors have the potential to accelerate teachers’ exit from the profession- bringing with it a loss of knowledge and teaching expertise; each factor with the potential to negatively impact student achievement (Kaiser & Thompson, 2021).

Using Myers (1993) four-stage framework (Myers, 1993) for crisis management, and an extensive review of literature as well as the author’s primary research and experience as a school district leader during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, this chapter seeks to explore the role of the school principal in supporting teachers in order to retain those teachers with experience and strong pedagogy during the COVID-19 pandemic and social justice conflicts in the United States. While both external stressors are of serious concern for American educators in this generation; the themes outlined herein are applicable and useful to supporting schools and teachers facing significant external disruptors yet unknown.