Cases of Principal Leadership Responses in a Volatile, Uncertain and Complex School Environment

*Bongani Sibusiso Mchunu*

## **Abstract**

The findings of a small-scale qualitative study of school leadership responses to the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) school environment performed among secondary schools in the Mpumalanga Circuit are presented in this paper. The article looks at how principals were responding to the pandemic's disruptive effects and how they were planning to mitigate the effects on school operations. It employed qualitative, multiple case-study approaches to collect data from to secondary sample schools in Mpumalanga Circuit, using 10 principals as respondents. The findings illustrate how principals dealt with the issues posed by the implementation of the social distance and COVID-19 regulations in a VUCAoriented school environment. Teacher leave applications contributed to the intricacy, with unexpected results such as teacher shortages and subjects not being taught. Despite these challenges, the principals were able to achieve their goals.

**Keywords:** volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguity, turbulent, leadership

#### **1. Introduction**

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, top management has been confronted with changes that have caused volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) [1]. For the principals, administering the schools in the face of the coronavirus's marauding torrent has been unfathomable. Principals had to deal with systemic challenges such as deteriorating infrastructure, a lack of basic sanitation, and a politicised school atmosphere. In both primary and secondary schools, the unsustainable redesigned classroom was unable to handle the staggered phasing in of all grades. Existing discrepancies between the previous ex-model C and House of Delegates to the township and rural schools added to the woes of the ongoing contestations between the National Education Ministry policymakers and the Joint Teacher Unions, further complicating these complex difficulties. The reports from the Joint Teacher Unions were contradictory.

The responses of school principals in maintaining school functionality in a turbulent, uncertain, and complicated school environment are examined in this research. It looks at how social distancing has affected timetabling, as well as teaching and learning. It examines how each principal in their leadership has chosen the types of models to ensure that all grades are phased in at school. It demonstrates some of the difficulties that schools were confronted with, when teachers or students were infected with the coronavirus. Finally, it highlights the principals'

leadership in ensuring that, despite debilitating conditions and the possibility of the coronavirus, programs for recovering lost time were developed at school.

The following are the key research questions:


We feel that the information gathered while answering all of these questions will be useful in understanding how principals responded to COVID-19's disruptive effects on school operations. It is critical that, before looking for empirically generated answers to these concerns, we review what is currently known in the literature about the pandemic's overall disruptive effect on the educational system.
