The Impact of Covid 19 on School Administrators’ Leadership Attributes in Selected Schools in Jamaica

Abstract

Principals have been called upon to utilize their personal leadership resources in Jamaican schools during the novel Corona Virus pandemic. This crisis has forced a radical shift in the landscape of school leadership and management not only in Jamaica but globally. The purpose of this descriptive quantitative study was to ascertain the impact of Covid-19 on principals’ level of compassion and care, openness and communication, adaptiveness, resilience and courage, consultation and collaboration, empowerment, and decisiveness. Additionally, it sought to assess whether there were differences in these leadership attributes based on school level, region, and gender. A 24-item questionnaire developed and validated by Balasubramanian and Fernandes (2022) and achieved an overall Cronbach Alpha of .84 was used to collect data. The sample included 50 principals and vice principals selected conveniently from the 7 regions 18 completed and returned the questionnaire, 15 females and 3 males. The data were coded and imported into the SPSS, version 27, and were screened, cleaned, and analyzed using weighted means and standard deviations and MANOVA. The mean ranges for interpretation include: 1.00 – 2.33 = Low Attribute; 2.34 – 3.67 = Moderate Attribute and 3.68 – 5.00 = High Attribute. The results showed that the principal participants scored high on leadership attributes. These findings hold critical and practical lessons for handling future crises. They show that effective leaders in many schools can function effectively in a crisis given that the policy makers provide adequate guidance and regulations with a relevant resources. Keywords: Adaptiveness, Compassion and care, Consultation and collaboration, Empowerment and Decisiveness, Openness and Communication, Resilience, and Courage.