Empowering Leaders through the COVID -19 Crisis: Implementing a Transformative Communication Model

Abstract

This study was a reflection on the implementation of a transformative communication model at a school in Central Jamaica to address interruptions in communication and school operations among key stakeholders brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. The researchers sought to establish what kind of support the leaders and teacher leaders needed to improve communication among staff members and pupils in order to restore stability to the school environment. The project employed the Kurt Lewin’s change model: Unfreeze, Change, re-freeze. The study involved seven participants: the leader of the institution and six teachers who operated as teacher leaders with varying leadership portfolios. The researchers found that crisis leadership was necessary to mitigate against the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the institution which existed in the deep rural community. The researchers also found that improving leader’ and teacher leaders’ communication competencies boosted morale and encouraged normalcy in school operations. In applying the transformative communication model, the institution was entirely transferred to the TEAMS platform. A team of international experts in education and communication, that became a sustained extension of the institution, trained the leader and teacher leaders to manage the crisis and increased their communication competencies, while normal school operations continued on the platform. This project demonstrated that in times of crisis, if all stakeholders collaborate, organizational goals can be attained.

Crisis Management, School Leadership in Disruptive Times and the Recovery of Schools in the Post COVID-19 Era: A Systematic Literature Review

“…For superintendents in Coquyt's [102] study, COVID-19 pandemic enabled them to sharpen their critical thinking and problemsolving skills while trying to improve their flexibility and adaptability in decision-making and enhance their communication with all interested parties by becoming more transparent and seeking feedback from stakeholders more regularly. For school principals in a remote, rural community in Central Jamaica, the pandemic era induced the development of their communicative skills via training to restore and enhance school-community interactions at the post-crisis stage [126]. Similarly, educational leaders in [101] were seen to reconsider and restructure initial ideas and plans replacing them with alternative methods and practices to improve school-level operations and to attend to concerns of mental health exacerbated by the pandemic in their educational institutions in the recovery phase.…”