Principals’ sense-making and sense-giving of their professional role tensions: School leaders’ professionalism and creative mediation strategies during Covid-19 crisis

Abstract

School principals are located at the interface between competing demands by a wide spectrum of stakeholders leading to tensions and ambiguities in their role. Understanding principals’ role tensions within organizational and occupational professionalism during Covid-19 crisis is of considerable importance for improving the capacity of school leadership. This qualitative study examines Israeli principals’ considerations and creative mediation strategies while facing competing accountabilities via the theoretical framework of sense-making and sense-giving in times of crisis. Using a collective case study design, data were collected via semi-structured interviews with 16 elementary and high school principals and policy documents, and analyzed thematically via ATLAS.ti software. The analysis surfaced three strategies and two considerations: (1) school leaders’ sense-making processes yielding protective mediation strategies based on retaining moral discretion; and (2) school leaders’ sense-giving processes transferring collaborative and contrived mediation strategies based on establishing the school's moral-professional cultural orientation. The contribution of this study to the research literature suggests contrived mediation as an innovative school leaders’ strategy. We provide practical implications within training and professional development programs for school leaders advocating principalship mentoring valuing uniqueness to experienced and novice principals.