Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic recently sparked a worldwide economic and social disaster and put schools and other educational institutions under complete lockdown. As a result, there is now a greater need for educational leaders who can function effectively before, during, and after a crisis(Abbas Zaher et al., 2021). School leaders were faced with challenges and were obliged to reassess and reflect upon the nature and degree of change required to assist both teachers and students in adopting technological skills. Leaders had to use and acquire competencies and behavior that stood up to the challenges. The effectiveness of crisis management is directly correlated with leadership, which is seen as the key component in determining an organization's success or failure (Hojeij & Baroudi, 2021).

The UAE education system is relatively new but now considered one of the most advanced in the region. The curriculum is developed in is line with UAE’s goals and values. Despite its strength,COVID-19 had a significant toll the educational system.The educational leaders in the UAE synergistically with the UAE government, were forced to make critical decisions. However, because of the positive outcomes, those leaders became role models of effective leaders who successfully managed the COVID-19 crisis (Dalvi, 2021).
The current paper aims to explore the challenges that educational leaders in the UAE faced during the pandemic. It also aims to investigate what crisis-related leadership practices and skills were used during and after the pandemic.

An exploratory research design with a mixed methodology was adopted in an attempt to construct meaning of the self described experiences of school leaders in the UAE during COVID-19. A purposeful sampling technique was chosen and the following inclusion criteria was used: 1) Being a UAE resident, 2) working in K-12 school and 3) being in a leadership position in an educational institution in the UAE.

The survey questions were collected via survey monkey and were adapted from (McCarty (2012)and Tao et al. (2022). Qualitative data was collected from semi-structured interviews. A total of 19principals enrolled in the study. The majority of the sample were females (68.2%), and 45.5% of participants were between 36 and 45 years of age. 77% of the sample had a bachelor's degree and 60% had more than 10 years of experience. The survey indicated that leaders have good knowledge and were familiar with most leadership practices before, during, and after the crisis except for the ability to conduct threat assessment.

Analysis of the qualitative data yielded 6 themes:
1: The Importance of Rapid Response to Challenges
2: Flexibility and Adaptability
3: Communication Channels
4: Technology Incorporation
5: Safety Protocols
6: Situational Leadership

Finally, school leaders' skills played a substantial role in optimizing school operations and preserving the wellbeing of the school communities. The main skills mentioned were: adequate leadership, quick response during crisis; emergency planning, readiness, and quickness; follow-up and problem-solving skills, and critical thinking. A new model of educational leadership has emerged in the past three years. This new model is situational, distributed, digital, and flexible. Situational leadership gave way to distributed leadership which aided school leaders to face the unpredictable problems of the pandemic and manage their schools effectively to overcome the crisis.

Keywords:

School Leadership, Crisis Management, Leadership Competencies, Leadership Skills.