This study evaluates aspects related to P12 principals’ professional development needs in South Carolina regarding the three domains of school leadership: management, instructional leadership, and program administration. A survey to rate principals’ current leadership knowledge, rank order their professional development needs, and provide a confidence rating regarding their abilities was given to over 1,100 principals and 85 superintendents. Through examining relationships with a psychometric model, results derived latent leadership ability scores and self-reported confidence ratings of principals as well as the superintendents’ leadership scores and confidence ratings of their principals. This study found a significant discrepancy between principals’ and superintendents’ confidence ratings and their corresponding leadership ability scores, respectively. A further analysis of the rank-ordered professional development needs highlighted instructional leadership to be the most needed topic for professional development. Finally, atypical response patterns regarding principal’s current leadership knowledge are also identified through person-fit analysis to provide additional information regarding P-12 principals’ professional development needs.

This mixed-method study evaluates P–12 principals’ and district officials’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic amid the abrupt change to virtual leadership. Professional learning needs are identified in relation to the three domains of leadership as seen in literature: school management, instructional leadership, and program administration. The quantitative study instrument, which included an online survey given to 270 principals and district officials in South Carolina, allowed principals and superintendents to rank order their professional development needs to be better prepared for the virtual principalship. The top need expressed across all races, genders, and school settings was virtual instructional leadership. The qualitative measure includes interviews of 10 principals/district officials, and five major themes were identified as administrative struggles/priorities in the virtual principalship during the pandemic: increased presence and communication; projecting calm during uncertainty; displaying flexibility, empathy, and patience; knowledge of technological capabilities; and a systems approach to sustained instructional leadership. The study showed a heightened need for soft skills development.

This article examines the shift to virtual school counselling through an organizational learning framework developed by Mary Crossan. This framework links the individual, group, and organization levels of an institution through the social and psychological processes of organizational learning, including intuiting, interpreting, integrating, and institutionalizing. The findings highlight four major challenges of virtual learning—technology, work-life balance, legal ramifications, and virtual counselling skills and abilities—that were partially or fully overcome with solutions that became institutionalized. RésuméCet article recourt à un cadre d’apprentissage organisationnel développé par MaryCrossan pour examiner la transition récente vers l’orientation scolaire virtuelle. Ce cadre relie les niveaux de l’individu, du groupe et de l’organisation d’une institution par le biais des processus sociaux et psychologiques de l’apprentissage organisationnel, y compris l’intuition, l’interprétation, l’intégration et l’institutionnalisation. Les résultats mettent en évidence quatre défis majeurs de l’apprentissage virtuel—la technologie, l’équilibre entre vie professionnelle et vie privée, les ramifications juridiques et les compétences et aptitudes en matière de conseil virtuel—qui ont été partiellement ou totalement surmontés grâce à des solutions qui par la suite ont pu être institutionnalisées. Keywords / Mots clés: virtual school counselling, organizational learning, virtual learning/ orientation scolaire virtuelle, apprentissage organisationnel, apprentissage virtuel

Social and emotional aspects of literacy learning have become hot topics for school districts, educational leaders, and teachers as they seek means to connect the academic and affective domains of schooling. To educate is to empower; it is to equip with more than knowledge but also the resilience, fortitude, and self-efficacy for success to be within reach. The transformation of K-12 classrooms must involve launching points for social and emotional learning (SEL). These mechanisms permit educators to think through how to connect content to lived worlds, how to embed social elements to literacy experiences, and how to foster emotive responses from students regarding challenging topics for authentic debate. Now is the time to reconsider and redesign what constitutes a core focus in K-12 literacy contexts that incorporates a focus on social and emotional aspects of literacy learning. A developmental approach to SEL in literacy learning will be explored in this chapter to establish opportunities for educators to embed SEL into their K-12 classrooms.