A New Way to Facilitate Discourse with School Leaders: Use a Video-Based Simulation

This study used a video-based educational leadership simulation to create a safe environment for professional discourse with school leaders. The researchers used a simulation about teacher-to-teacher bullying with actors of different genders as a prompt. Two simulations were used in this study, and both simulations followed the same script. However, the twist in this study is that one simulation was filmed with only male actors, and the other simulation was filmed with female actresses and male actors. Participants from both simulations were brought together after experiencing one of the two simulations. This study utilized a sequential explanatory mixed methods approach and post-simulation focus groups revealed three themes: some school leaders would treat females differently than males, some school leaders believed the leadership style was a factor, and some believed that gender was less of a factor than the unique teacher-principal relationship. The first conclusion of this study is that the relationship between the principal and the teacher is critical to how the principal responds to a scenario. The second conclusion is that facilitating simulations is an effective method to model a safe environment for discourse centered on sensitive topics.