Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Durrani, Naureen
• Makhmetova, Zhadyra
• Kadyr, Yelzhas
• Karimova, Nazerke

Titel

Leading Schools During a Global Crisis: Kazakhstani School Leaders’ Perspectives and Practices

Ist Teil von

• SAGE open, 2024-04, Vol.14 (2)

Ort / Verlag

Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications

Erscheinungsjahr

2024

Quelle

Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This paper comprehensively examines how school leaders in Kazakhstan managed schools during the COVID-19 school closures. An online survey was conducted with 1,298 school leaders, representing 17.5% of all Kazakhstani schools. Anchored in the concept of crisis leadership, the instrument measured school leaders’ views regarding teachers’ digital competence, their support toward teachers in digital pedagogy, as well as their practices in communicating with parents and teacher autonomy and monitoring. The results of bivariate tests indicate that a significant proportion of schools offered teachers online professional development opportunities to improve their digital instruction, with school location and size influencing the level of training in digital pedagogy received by teachers. Notably, school leaders’ confidence in their teachers’ ability to teach effectively online increased significantly after receiving training in digital pedagogy. School leaders also maintained regular communication with parents, but this increased their workload, particularly for women and urban school leaders. Most school leaders allowed teachers to choose online platforms and revise curriculum content, while also monitoring teachers’ attendance and observing online lessons. These practices varied based on the school’s medium of instruction. This study significantly contributes to crisis leadership by examining practices during school closures in addressing teachers’ digital competence, communication challenges, and teacher autonomy, with insights on variations by school type, location, and leaders’ gender. The study’s findings have significant implications for post-pandemic school leadership, emphasizing equity in professional development opportunities for teachers, effective communication with stakeholders, and striking the right balance between teacher autonomy and monitoring. Plain Language Summary We conducted an online survey with 1,298 school leaders, representing 17.5% of all schools in Kazakhstan. Our study focused on crisis leadership and measured school leaders’ perspectives on teachers’ digital skills, support for digital teaching, communication with parents, and their practices of teacher autonomy and monitoring. Our results show that many schools provided online professional development opportunities for teachers to improve their digital instruction. We found that school location and size were related to the extent of training teachers received in digital teaching methods. Interestingly, school leaders’ confidence in their teachers’ ability to teach effectively online increased after receiving training in digital pedagogy. School leaders also maintained regular communication with parents, which increased their workload, especially for women and urban school leaders. Most school leaders allowed teachers to choose online platforms and adjust curriculum content while also monitoring attendance and observing online lessons. These practices varied depending on the school’s medium of instruction. The findings of our study have important implications for school leadership in the post-pandemic world. They highlight the need for equitable professional development opportunities for teachers, effective communication with stakeholders, and balancing teacher autonomy and monitoring.