Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Category
Social Sciences/Humanities
Abstract/Artist Statement
In an increasingly volatile world, it is paramount to successfully navigate turbulence. The COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020) emphasized the need to enhance educators’ responsiveness. Exploring and understanding the experiences of the school leaders who established new schools, in Central and Eastern European countries, after the Fall of the Berlin Wall (November 1989), and continued leading them to this day, will increase knowledge about effective responses to turbulence. The purpose of this study will be to investigate the lived experiences of the visionary school leaders who created new private and independent schools in the post-Soviet period, and to reveal common threads. Through the investigation of school leaders’ experiences a more cohesive understanding of educational leadership will emerge. Our research will use a descriptive phenomenological strategy of inquiry, guided by the central question: How do successful educational leaders navigate extreme turbulence? The study will be delimited to school leaders that established their schools from 1990s and continued to lead their schools though the COVID-19 pandemic to the present. Participants will be individuals who have, by virtue of their experience, the potential and ability to inform their understanding of school leadership in turbulence, in a number that falls within the recommended range (5-to-25) for a phenomenological study. The researcher will conduct individual semi-structured and open-ended interviews with participants, lasting approximately one hour, via ZOOM. By analyzing, describing, and presenting the shared experiences and knowledge of those who created and maintained schools in Central and Eastern Europe from the 1990s to this day, this study will provide original valuable insight for educators facing extreme turbulence. Our study’s significance lies in the opportunity to revisit past experiences, and to contemplate successful and unsuccessful attempts to navigate turbulence. Assembling perspectives and experiences through reflection can help to deepen and expand our understanding of educational leadership.
Mentor Name
Bill McCaw
Navigating turbulence: a qualitative phenomenological study exploring successful educational leadership in Central and Eastern Europe’s private and independent schools
UC North Ballroom
In an increasingly volatile world, it is paramount to successfully navigate turbulence. The COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020) emphasized the need to enhance educators’ responsiveness. Exploring and understanding the experiences of the school leaders who established new schools, in Central and Eastern European countries, after the Fall of the Berlin Wall (November 1989), and continued leading them to this day, will increase knowledge about effective responses to turbulence. The purpose of this study will be to investigate the lived experiences of the visionary school leaders who created new private and independent schools in the post-Soviet period, and to reveal common threads. Through the investigation of school leaders’ experiences a more cohesive understanding of educational leadership will emerge. Our research will use a descriptive phenomenological strategy of inquiry, guided by the central question: How do successful educational leaders navigate extreme turbulence? The study will be delimited to school leaders that established their schools from 1990s and continued to lead their schools though the COVID-19 pandemic to the present. Participants will be individuals who have, by virtue of their experience, the potential and ability to inform their understanding of school leadership in turbulence, in a number that falls within the recommended range (5-to-25) for a phenomenological study. The researcher will conduct individual semi-structured and open-ended interviews with participants, lasting approximately one hour, via ZOOM. By analyzing, describing, and presenting the shared experiences and knowledge of those who created and maintained schools in Central and Eastern Europe from the 1990s to this day, this study will provide original valuable insight for educators facing extreme turbulence. Our study’s significance lies in the opportunity to revisit past experiences, and to contemplate successful and unsuccessful attempts to navigate turbulence. Assembling perspectives and experiences through reflection can help to deepen and expand our understanding of educational leadership.