**5. Conceptual framework**

This research sought to examine the principals' experiences, challenges and achievements in the application of policy guidelines for managing and preventing the spread of COVID-19 infection in school premises. To achieve this objective, it is necessary to understand the type of leadership that principals needed to respond to the immediate demands of spatial organisation, policy adherence and management of the school. Therefore, we adopted two theoretical constructs to explain the kind of leadership, place and space in this context: geographies of place and situational leadership. This concept will explain how the learners are placed in classrooms in consideration of the social distancing measures. Second, we have considered situational leadership as the befitting perspective to understand how principals played their roles in implementing the COVID-19 policies in a turbulent and unpredictable environment. The two concepts are defined below.

#### **5.1 Geographies of place: organisation of schooling spaces during COVID-19**

The notion of geographies focuses on the observation, the study and the interpretation of people's lived experiences within their places. Place can be understood as a socially constructed space where people 'belong' and interact to share resources. Physical contact occurs easily amongst people within close geographic locations [6, 7]. Schooling communities exist within close proximity, hence [8] description of schools as 'contact zones'. Social distancing measures compelled schools to review their spatial settings to discourage the sharing of personal properties and enforce the wearing of face masks. The spatial manoeuver became important in the management of COVID-19 in places where teachers and learners have to coexist [9]. These new arrangements to influence behaviour within the school require the school leadership to respond with a clear awareness of the situation [9–11]. School leadership, especially principals, was expected to understand all the risks involved in dealing with a highly contagious disease in a space that is dominated by human contact. Managing COVID-19 demanded that principals perform different tasks that included communicating with different stakeholders such as parents, teachers, district officials and learner transport operators. Ensuring that all PPE for the school is available and monitoring human movement within the school was a huge responsibility. A task-oriented form of leadership was therefore required to successfully perform these tasks. To achieve this, principals had to delegate duties and manage personnel [2, 11, 12].

#### **5.2 Situational leadership: responding to the COVID-19 crisis**

South Africa took a 'risk-adjusted approach' when reopening schools under the prevalence of the epidemic. It was then necessary to understand the risks involved *Principalship Educational Policy Challenges in the Management of a Turbulent School… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108504*

and how to manage them [13]. According to Ref. [11**]**, situational leadership is best suited for understanding the attended risks and for immediate decision-making. That requires sound awareness of the situation or crisis and a provision of a response that is clear, appropriate and effective. Situational leaders apply flexibility when they respond to the presented challenges. They prioritise the development of individual team members in the workplace. Situational leaders may be task-oriented where they are directly involved by giving instructions and directives mostly to inexperienced individuals. On the other hand, they may play a supportive role especially with matured and experienced team members. It is expected that situational leaders respond to the situation appropriately and with integrity while respecting the structure and the culture of the organisation they represent. Having clarity of vision as to what needs to be attained within particular situations encourages situational leaders to devise innovative and adaptive strategies to achieve their goals [11, 12].

#### **5.3 Methodology**

The purpose of the study is to understand the experiences of principals in implementing COVID-19 policies in a school environment that is characterised by turbulence and unpredictability. Survey questionnaires which contained open-ended questions were distributed to the sampled 30 schools. A qualitative approach was used to solicit the views of principals on their experiences, challenges, successes and lessons learned in managing the policy implementation at the school.

### **5.4 Sampling strategy**

Random stratified sampling was used to choose 30 schools representing all quintile rankings from all 17 circuits of UMgungundlovu District. Stratified random sampling is part of a larger family of non-probability sampling [14]. It ensures that different groups or segments of a population acquire sufficient representation [15]. In the context of this study, we sought to ensure balance amongst rural, urban and township schools that constitute the education district. From these intended groups, individual schools were randomly selected for the study. Random sampling ensures that everyone has equal opportunity of being selected for participation in the study [15].

### **5.5 Data collection and analysis**

Hard copies of the questionnaires were sent to school principals after obtaining authorisation from the Head of Department (HOD) of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education and UMgungundlovu District Director. The principals completed the questionnaires and returned them to the researchers at the district office. A box had been prepared for this purpose. The study was qualitative in that it captured and interpreted the narratives of the individual principals who had been randomly identified. We used qualitative research content analysis which focused on the participants' responses to the questions. Key ideas were elicited from the responses, and thereafter, similar ideas were grouped together into themes [16].

### **5.6 Ethical issues**

We observed all the necessary ethical considerations including seeking written permission from the HOD of the provincial Department of Education and the District Director of UMgungundlovu to conduct the study. Consent letters from these authorities accompanied the questionnaires to participating principals who had been requested to sign their own letters of consent to participate in the study. Schools were allocated pseudonyms to conceal their identities.
