School principals were required to engage in crisis leadership throughout New Zealand’s first seven-week COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020. Eighteen school principals from a range of secondary schools were interviewed about their experiences. The challenges they faced included preparing students and teachers for online teaching and learning for an unknown length of time, supporting student and staff wellbeing, and communicating clearly and compassionately to all stakeholder groups. Their opportunities related to strengthening digital teaching and learning, distributing leadership and resetting direction. This study identifies a number of implications for future crisis leadership practice including: preparing, attending to wellbeing, communicating effectively, leading collaboratively and taking opportunities.

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PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES in the early childhood education sector have been under-researched. The focus on collaborative learning, collective enquiry and shared leadership of such communities makes them worthy of study in order to establish their relevance to the sector. One of the foci of this research involving case studies of different models of professional learning communities was leadership. Findings suggested that the actions of the professional leader and the degree of relational trust present have an impact on the effectiveness of the professional learning communities.

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the educational leadership capacity of mentors working with new teachers and to identify factors that support and hinder the development of this leadership capacity. Design/methodology/approach – The author conducted a qualitative case study of mentors with connections to the New Teacher Center in California. Data were collected through an online survey of mentors, focus group interviews with mentors, and interviews with programme leaders. Findings – Mentors in the study view themselves as educational leaders and were able to identify enablers and barriers to the development of their leadership capacity. Enablers include: their selection and experience as mentors, mentor preparation and ongoing professional support, and the support and encouragement of skilled programme leaders and of some principals and districts. The main barrier to mentors having a positive impact is the culture of the schools and districts in which they work. Research limitations/implications – Findings from this small-scale study of mentors with connections to the NTC cannot be transferred to other contexts, however, the factors supporting and hindering the development of educational leadership capacity may be of interest and relevance to other mentoring programmes. Originality/value – There is a lack of empirical research that considers the benefits of mentoring for the mentors and in particular the educational leadership capacity that mentors develop in their roles.