Leveraging the Crisis for Equity and Access in the Long Term: A Brief Research Report

Abstract

For years, crises have occurred in and out of schools. School leaders have had to make meaning of these crises and lead during them. Common rhetoric in today’s media describes the educational inequities children have faced as a result of the current crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic. In an effort to understand how school leaders respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, we spoke directly to principals, listening for ways in which they confronted issues of inequity. Our research was guided by the question: How do principals advance equity for students and families while leading during the COVID-19 crisis? This study focuses on the opportunity’s principals have created during the COVID-19 pandemic to address issues of equity in their schools. We present three main findings resulting from our data analysis. Overall, our findings indicate principals acted upon two primary opportunities for achieving equity in their school community. The findings from our study illustrate two specific opportunities principals were presented with as a result of the crisis to engage in equity responses.

Backtalk: What principals need to know to respond to a crisis

“…As the primary agent of socialization, schools, and by extension principals, had to find creative ways to address these inequities by providing food and other resources to families in need, offering technological support, and challenging racist policies and practices. In this way, the pandemic “brought out the best in school leaders, who have reacted in creative and equitable ways” (Virella & Cobb, 2021, p. 2). Before the pandemic, principals might not have taken such a proactive stance in challenging inequitable policy and practices.…”

Virtual professional development on conflict management for school leaders

“…Since there are inherent disagreements, conflict seems inevitable between two or more individuals. Additionally, as schools closed during COVID-19, unanticipated crisis (e.g., school shootings, hurricanes, and wildfires), racial and social injustices became part of the national and international news [e.g., George Floyd, the border wall, criminal policies of (in)equity, (in)equality, and (in)justice], in addition to on-going technology issues in schools, all added emotional weight and turmoil to the public psyche, regardless of which side of the issues people espoused (Watson et al, 2019;Algar and Feis, 2020;Goldstein, 2020;Heitner, 2020;Hodges et al, 2020;Wilkerson, 2020;Reyes-Guerra et al, 2021;Virella and Cobb, 2021). Thus, conflicts will not cease to exist, however there are skills that can and should be taught via professional development that can provide opportunities to manage conflict, resulting in productive and constructive solutions (Coldwell et al, 2012;Jacques, 2012;Cohen et al, 2017;Watson et al, 2017;Hemmer and Elliff, 2019;Scott et al, 2021;Urick et al, 2021).…”

New principals in the COVID corridor: an exploratory case study

“…Overview Data for this study came from a larger study conducted on principals' responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The primary goal of the larger study was to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic crisis presents possibilities for equity and access in the long term (Virella and Cobb, 2021). As part of a broader study on principals' responses to the COVID-19 crisis and equity leadership (Virella and Woulfin, 2021), principals were interviewed from across the country to determine how they responded to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.…”