Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic as a crisis has brought a lot of uncertainty and been highly destructive to human life and the economy. As more facts and insights about COVID-19 are still being revealed, there are no straight out correct answers to inform school leadership’s decisions. Because it causes panic and fear, there is a high potential for those who make decisions to make mistakes, opening up possibilities for actions that are meaningless or functionally stupid. Within the uncertainty of the crisis itself, the Department of Basic Education and school management teams (SMTs) have been trying to respond in a positive way to avoid mistakes during this time and ensure learners and teachers’ safety, while continuing with learning activities. However, with very limited time to plan and implement the necessary COVID-19 prevention measures, along with poor infrastructure and socioeconomic conditions, SMTs’ decision making is at risk of not providing teachers with appropriate guidelines, thus not yielding the necessary results. Therefore, this research explored teachers’ experiences of SMTs’ leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on the notion of functional stupidity and critical leadership studies, the study aimed to establish SMTs’ leadership in producing teachers that utilise their intellectual capacity of reflexivity, substantive reasoning, and justification in ensuring appropriate responses to COVID-19. Teachers from different schools were interviewed in order to reveal how functional stupidity manifested through leadership’s authority during the COVID-19 pandemic. The themes emerging from the study point to both appropriate responses to COVID-19 as well as functionally stupid responses that defeated the primary purpose of protecting lives and saving the academic year. The themes were: pressure from the top; invisible leadership; disregard of teachers’ safety and well-being; and overlooking the challenges of disadvantaged schools. It emerged that the Department of Education and district offices’ power limited SMTs’ cognition in certain situations and forced them to act consciously in such ways that put their colleagues and learners at risk. Furthermore, against the common-sense need for leadership visibility during a crisis, teachers were left to face the ‘danger’ alone without the required guidance, support, and care of leadership.
M.Ed. (Educational Leadership and Management)