Principal perceptions of the staying power of changes made in response to COVID-19

Beginning in early 2020, schools around the world experienced an unprecedented disruption to teaching and learning: the COVID-19 pandemic. Leading schools during this unprecedented time has undoubtedly been challenging, and school principals have been tasked with making sense of these challenges and adopting many new schooling practices in response to the pandemic. While research is beginning to emerge on how principals engaged in leadership during the early stages of the pandemic, questions remain about the future of schooling. Specifically, what changes to schooling made in response to the pandemic have the potential to remain post-pandemic? To investigate this topic I applied a narrative research design and conducted 40 interviews with 15 traditional public school principals in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The findings of this work indicate principals made significant changes to schooling as a result of the pandemic. These principals believe many of these changes have staying power, which will result in the profession becoming more virtual in the future. These findings yield several practical implications including the need for states, districts, and leadership preparation programs to make intentional efforts to support principals as they evolve into 'virtual' leaders.