Leadership During Disruptions: “Leading And Managing ECE Education During Covid-19 Pandemic”
Keywords:
COVID-19 disruption, school leadership team, early childhood educationAbstract
Covid-19 affected many facets of life, including schooling, in addition to causing health and medical emergencies. Even in the best of conditions, just 20% of children in poor nations attend preschool, making the early childhood education sector particularly vulnerable. ECE was more severely harmed by COVID-19. ECE students were deemed much too young to use technology for learning, according to the majority of parents, school administrators, and teachers in Pakistan during the COVID-19 disturbance. As such, the rationale for keeping them out of the teaching and learning process was established. It was difficult for ECE students to continue their studies in light of these environmental and perceptual constraints. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to investigate how school leadership teams led and oversaw early childhood education in Pakistan during the COVID-19 epidemic. In this regard, the current study aimed to address the following research question: how did the school leadership team (HT, ECE coordinators, ECE teachers, Admin lead, IT lead), and parents lead and manage the learning of ECE students during the COVID-19 disruptions, what obstacles they faced? What strategies the stakeholders employed? How those strategies were modified? And how this affected the learning of students in the subsequent COVID-19 disruptions? The study was conducted using a qualitative research technique that used an exploratory approach. Furthermore, focused group discussions (FDGs) and semi-structured interviews were two of the study instruments employed to gather the data. Parents, ECE coordinators, admin leads, IT leads, lead teachers/principals, and instructors themselves provided the data. For the data analysis, the Creswell Model of Qualitative Analysis was used. The study yielded two main sets of results. Firstly, the school leadership fostered a culture of teamwork among teachers and parents; second, they looked into online tools like Flip Grid, Kahoot, and Google Classroom to encourage active participation from ECE students. Lastly, they increased digital connectivity and resource availability by using multiple network devices. In a similar vein, parents helped their young children learn via technology by enrolling in courses with them to assist and strengthen their areas of weakness. For parents, teachers, and students alike, the COVID-19 epidemic presented a dilemma. However, the parents and schools found a way to keep their children studying via online instruction. Finally, although the study's exclusive emphasis is on ECE leadership in poor countries, its conclusions may have differed for schools in rich nations.
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