Abstract:
Principals are instrumental in influencing change in schools. To instil change, successful leadership for learning is driven by a moral imperative that shows commitment to the students’ learning and staff relationships, along with their democratic ideas and values through strong leadership. Ultimately, they act as a conduit to the different communities that influence the school. This presentation is based on a pilot study conducted in 2024, which focused on retired Principals in Queensland retelling an incident, of their choosing, which involved them leading a school through a crisis situation. The term crisis was pre-defined as an incident that was unpredictable and unprecedented, where they had to make a decision/s without training, there was no documented procedure, or the ability to research best practice. The aim of the pilot was to collect their narratives and identify: 1) What strategies did they use when managing your school during a crisis, 2) What decisions (step-by-step) did they have to make about managing the school during a crisis, 3) What knowledge, skills, and resources did they draw upon to manage your school during a crisis, and 4) How did they share resources needed for managing a crisis? The semi-structured interviews were designed to identify the experience of the principals and the key themes in the decisions they made, along with what resources and information they wished they had available at the time. The findings indicated that, although the crisis situations were different, all the participants found support, information, and guidance from a critical friend. Some critical friends were known, and others were formed because of the situation. The location of the school, community demographics, cultural lore, and external stakeholder relationships, impacted the length of time of the crisis, and the social impact felt by the principal. The final question asked was to segue into future research with current principals. The retired principals were asked what they would say to an aspiring principal based on their experiences managing a school during a [community] crisis. All responded to the human agency needed in the role and a warning – do not to find yourself isolated.