Educational Crisis Management: A Modified Delphi Study of Public School Leaders' Perceptions on Effectively Continuing Education during a Pandemic

The March 2020 coronavirus outbreak disrupted educational operations at all levels, and the continuation of learning was dependent upon school leaders' abilities to combine organizational change management theory, transformational leadership theory, and crisis management theory in the midst of an unprecedented and unannounced crisis. There is a gap in the literature regarding the most effective principles of the aforementioned theories to implement when facing unexpected crisis situations so that learning can continue when students are unable to physically attend school or are expected to attend school during an ongoing crisis. The purpose of this mixed method modified Delphi study was to determine the most effective principles of organizational change management, transformational leadership, and crisis management for leaders to implement to support continued learning during an unexpected and ongoing crisis. Criterion sampling yielded 16 participants who were public school principals in southeast Texas. Data were collected through the use of questionnaires and analyzed using a concurrent quantitative-dominant mixed analysis. The expert panel found three organizational change management strategies, six transformational leadership strategies, and seven crisis management strategies effective in continuing education during an unprecedented, long-term crisis. Implications of the results for practice focus on informing school leaders of the connection between strategies across theories. Recommendations for further research include building on the present study to gain the perspective of additional campus stakeholders, finding additional information regarding school administrators' understanding of organizational change management strategies, and studying school leadership preparation programs' methods for preparing principals to support schools through ongoing crises. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]