[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-602974-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-602974-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","leading-schools-through-covid-19-a-constraint-or-an-opportunity-for-change-article","Leading Schools Through COVID-19: A Constraint or an Opportunity for Change? - Article","","The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted core routines in schools, creating unprecedented uncertainty and instability across the education system. The study examines how school leaders cope to preserve stability and how leaders judge whether such extreme turbulence can trigger innovation and organizational change. Interviews with eleven principals show efforts to reduce teacher and student stress, adjust priorities toward wellbeing, shift control toward collaborative patterns, and expand teacher support through open communication. Despite change-oriented views, all expect only minor, temporary adjustments after the pandemic.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/leading-schools-through-covid-19-a-constraint-or-an-opportunity-for-change-article/602974/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/leading-schools-through-covid-19-a-constraint-or-an-opportunity-for-change-article/602974.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"MrHarris58","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-01","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",8,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What problem does the study investigate regarding COVID-19 and schools?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"It investigates how the pandemic disrupted school routines and what coping measures principals used to stabilize their schools under extreme uncertainty and turbulence.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How did the interviewed school leaders try to maintain stability?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"They worked to maintain school stability and reduce teachers’ and students’ stress by changing priorities toward wellbeing, increasing support, and creating open communication channels.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"Did the study find that COVID-19 would lead to dramatic school change?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"No. Although many leaders saw the pandemic as an opportunity for change, all agreed schools would not dramatically change and would return to traditional routines with only minor adjustments.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},602974,1792189729,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,111,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":108,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":110},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":55,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},687212988360,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","LEADING SCHOOLS THROUGH COVID-19:  \nA CONSTRAINT OR AN OPPORTUNITY FOR CHANGE?  \nADAM E. NIR  \nThe Hebrew University ofJerusalem, Israel  \nABSTRACT  \nThe outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic undermined basic routines and typical conduct of schools, introducing uncertainty and instability to an extent that schools had never encountered in the last decades. The current study focuses on leaders' coping strategies while struggling to maintain school stability and on the extent to which these extreme conditions of uncertainty and turbulence may potentially promote innovation and change, as many stakeholders argue. Interviews conducted with eleven school leaders reveal that they have invested efforts to maintain school stability and decrease teachers’ and students' stress. They changed school priorities, placing more emphasis on the wellbeing of teachers and students than on academic achievements. They shifted control patterns from centralized to collaborative ones with extended autonomy to teachers. They increased the support they provided teachers and created open communication channels. Although many school leaders viewed the pandemic as an opportunity for change, all of them agreed that schools would not dramatically change. All principals shared the notion that it is more likely that schools would return to their traditional routines and modes of operation with only minor changes after the pandemic is over. Some implications of extreme turbulence on innovation-oriented planning are discussed.  \nINTRODUCTION  \nOrganizational systems strive to maintain stability, assumed to decrease variance among organizational members' behaviors and promote organizational effectiveness. To meet this goal, organizations set and follow routines designed to buffer internal and external pressures and create a stable course of organizational action. This also applies to the organizational behavior of public schools, shaped by routines, which are typical to the educational realm.  \nThe outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic undermined schools' basic routines and typical conduct, introducing uncertainty and instability to an extent they had never encountered in the last decades. This led many educational researchers and practitioners to consider this unexpected and dramatic event to be an opportunity for change and innovation of the schooling system and its inherent routines and processes.  \nThe current study attempts to assess what measures school principals took in order to stabilize their school under the extreme uncertainty and turbulence caused by the pandemic and the extent they consider these newly created circumstances an opportunity to change school routines and organizational behavior.  \nLITERATURE REVIEW  \nScholars generally agree that organizations' effectiveness is related to their stability (Andersen and Mortensen, 2009; Liang and Fiorino, 2013; O’Toole and Meier, 2003; Provan and Milward, 1995) .  \nEducational Planning Summer 2021 51 Vol. 28, No. 3  \nResearch evidence provides a variety of findings supporting this claim. O’Toole and Meier (2003) find that stability among school personnel has a positive impact on organizational performance. Andersen and Mortensen (2009) show that a stable pattern of resource allocation improves organizational performance. Meier and O’Toole (2007) argue that promoting stability is among the core assignments for managers who attempt to shape and improve organizational performance. Provan and Milward (1995) demonstrate that system stability improves network effectiveness, and Liang and Fiorino (2013) show that technological innovation is influenced by stability of government funding. Hence, stability is viewed as a desired feature of organizations and a good proxy for organizational effectiveness.  \nHowever, maintaining stability may not be an easy task when organizations encounter environmental turbulence evident in an unpredictable change in the complexity of their external context. Environmental turbulence creat","cbCainVnQtptFx2M","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCainVnQtptFx2M","pdf",177196,15,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction\n# Literature Review","[{\"question\":\"What problem does the study investigate regarding COVID-19 and schools?\",\"answer\":\"It investigates how the pandemic disrupted school routines and what coping measures principals used to stabilize their schools under extreme uncertainty and turbulence.\"},{\"question\":\"How did the interviewed school leaders try to maintain stability?\",\"answer\":\"They worked to maintain school stability and reduce teachers’ and students’ stress by changing priorities toward wellbeing, increasing support, and creating open communication channels.\"},{\"question\":\"Did the study find that COVID-19 would lead to dramatic school change?\",\"answer\":\"No. Although many leaders saw the pandemic as an opportunity for change, all agreed schools would not dramatically change and would return to traditional routines with only minor adjustments.\"}]","Leading Schools Through COVID-19: A Constraint or an Opportunity for Change? - Article | PDF",1792095523,38]