Transforming school culture in the era of Covid-19: narratives of primary school principals leading township schools.

Abstract

Covid-19 brought on unprecedented changes to education and, more specifically, schools. School principals were left with the mammoth task of adapting how they led and managed schools during these unpredictable times. This qualitative study captures the narratives of two primary school principals transforming school culture in a township in South Africa. This study focuses on providing school leaders with successful real-life experiences that may equip them to change school culture during times of crises. The study aims to inform school principals about practices that may benefit those school leaders who are transforming school culture. The central research puzzle this study posed was: What are the lived experiences of primary school principals leading township schools in transforming school culture during the Covid-19 pandemic? The two sub-puzzles interrogate how school principals lead and manage the process of transforming school culture during the Covid-19 pandemic and why school principals lead and manage the transformation of school culture during the pandemic in the way they do. Transformational leadership theory and Handy's four types of organisational culture provide the lens for this study. Narrative inquiry as the methodology employed narrative interviews and collage inquiry to generate data. Data analysis comprised two levels: narrative analysis, which was used to construct the stories and analysis of narratives deconstructed the narratives to answer the research puzzle posed. The study's findings showed the strategies that school principals adopted, including changing leadership styles, drawing on leadership principles of motivation and collaboration, adopting power culture during a crisis period and school teams focusing on the task to transform school culture. Conclusions made in the study outline how transformational leadership, leaders' ability to manage; linking management with leadership; power culture; positive school culture and influence are driving forces during crisis periods. The recommendations that stemmed from this study encourage transformative agency among school teams, building on positive school cultural practices, developing technological skills, and learner-directed learning as practices for transforming school culture.