VIRTUAL: Applying Education

Abstract

This study will focus on the primary question: How have four senior educational leaders in AB and BC managed uncertainty to continue student participation in learning during COVID-19? The conceptual framework arises from insights into and understandings of the impact of uncertainty as context for system change; and from the application of complexity leadership theory to explore the actions of the superintendent. It is proposed that the uncertainty created by COVID-19 was subjective and required the emergence of novel and adaptive solutions to continue student participation in learning. This research will test the notion that a “newly emergent order” (Lichtenstein & Plowman, 2009, p. 626) has developed in school districts through the entanglement of three functions of leadership described by Complexity Leadership Theory as administrative, adaptive, and enabling leadership (Uhl-Bien et al., 2007 & 2009). Further questions will focus on sources of uncertainty, responses by management to uncertainty, and actions taken by Superintendents toward continuing student participation in learning during their lived experience of the pandemic. The primary unit of analysis will be the work practice of district Superintendents to gain an understanding of the processes used in managing uncertainty when implementing principles from provincial guiding documents.