A Phenomenon-Based Learning Enquiry: University Students’ Self-Leadership Actions on the Social Impact of Covid-19

The aim of this paper was to gain deeper insight into Bachelor of Education Honors (B.Ed. Hons) students’ self-leadership actions in response to the social impact of COVID-19 on their academic lives. Notwithstanding the growing body of literature showing the impact of COVID-19 on education, the social influence of the pandemic on the academic lives of students in higher education institutions (HEIs) remains contentious. Since the implementation of lockdowns and social isolation internationally, COVID-19, as a social phenomenon, has required creative responses from students in HEIs to advance academically. Through a phenomenon-based learning (PhenoBL) enquiry and applying narrative methodology, students’ responses were analyzed by means of McCormack’s (2000) four lenses, namely the lens of language, the lens of narrative processed, the lens of context and the lens of moments. Emails were sent to all B.Ed. Hons students to express their views and understanding of the influence of COVID-19 on their academic lives as postgraduate students. Five students responded and were afforded the opportunity to provide their insights and understanding of the phenomenon whilst exploring self-leadership actions for change toward transformative practices in their learning spaces. The results revealed that, through engaging in PhenoBL activities, students were able to employ adaptive practices and inquiry-based activities to enhance self-leadership abilities through self-influence and self-trust. The paper recommends that HEIs should consider PhenoBL activities for self-leadership as transformative practices of social justice to address the social complexities of the COVID-19 pandemic and its influence on the academic lives of university students. ©Authors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

Transformative intervention strategies for teacher leaders during the pandemic and beyond

The Covid-19 pandemic has created an unparalleled catastrophe with significant challenges for leadership in schools all over the world. The efforts that schools have put in place for training and preparing for teachers prior to Covid-19 seem to be out of step, thus requiring a reimaging and significant transformation to remain relevant for aspiring teacher leaders. This conceptual paper aims at providing transformative intervention strategies (TIS) to empower teachers to become leaders during Covid-19. Having applied transformative leadership theory and integrative literature review (ILR) as method, this paper suggests that teachers should start with transformative listening and learning, whilst taking advantage of opportunities to be empowered to become leaders. To empower teachers to become leaders during the pandemic and beyond, prospective teacher leaders should embrace opportunities which might come from adjustments and which may enable them to better understand the reasons for transformation. As such, this paper aims to provide transformative intervention strategies to empower teachers to use opportunities afforded to them to become leaders in their schools amid the pandemic and beyond. TIS may assist schools in cultivating an environment where teachers actively work together to display transformative emotional intelligence, transformative autonomy and transformative inclusive leadership. The finding revealed that, if purposefully implemented, TIS may encourage teachers to see the value in growth towards leadership, making the process of transformation in schools that much easier. ©Authors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

Re-prioritizing teachers’ social emotional learning in rural schools beyond covid-19

The inception of lockdowns by governments across the globe to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed many disparities in rural societies, particularly on the African continent. The social, cultural, and psychological processes have elicited variations in teachers’ responses to the devastating pandemic, illuminating African cultural realities in the quest for creating quality delivery of teaching and learning in schools. When teachers regard themselves as transformative change agents and not merely as oppressed people, this confirms their social identities and cultures and afford them opportunities to engage in critical reflection on the messages they convey in their classrooms. This case study employs semiotic analysis to explore some socio-cultural messages and emotional behaviours teachers exchange unwittingly in schools. Interviews were conducted via e-mail, as face-to-face contact with the respondents was not possible. The findings indicate that teachers conceive of themselves as disempowered “lay people” who are ill-equipped to respond adequately to situations such as the coronavirus pandemic, but are, nonetheless, “accountable” to the communities they serve. As its contribution, this paper presents teachers with the Social-Emotional coping skills of individual awareness, social awareness, and self-discovery, to help them thrive during periods of uncertainty. A semiotic reflection on the learning environment may empower teachers with inclusive and transformative strategies for ensuring their own and learners’ emotional well-being in a non-threatening learning environment beyond COVID 19. © 2021, Florida Gulf Coast University. All rights reserved.