How to run an empty school : the experience of Slovenian school heads during the COVID-19 pandemic

Ermenc, Klara S. (author), Kalin, Janica (author), Mažgon, Jasna (author)

In mid-March 2020, Slovenia declared the COVID-19 epidemic, which led to the closure of schools and the transition to remote education. This article presents the findings of a study conducted during the lockdown among school heads in primary and secondary schools. The authors identify the challenges and issues the school heads faced in the first weeks of the epidemic and examine the positive experiences that may represent examples of good practice for dealing with similar problems in the future. The study was carried out through an online questionnaire containing 12 single-answer and multiple-choice questions and one Likert-type scale. The school heads were free to write their answers to two open-ended questions. The findings show that schools responded quickly to the changed circumstances and continued to deliver education to their students without interruption, although their approaches differed significantly. A great deal of improvisation was observed, as was to be expected, as the state did not have a pre-prepared plan and was not able to provide a quick and adequate response.

• Language: English
• Keywords: school heads, school management, COVID-19 pandemic, education, pedagogy, Slovenia
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2021
• Number of pages: 12 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 11, iss. 3
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-144160
• UDC: 37.048.2
• ISSN on article: 2158-2440
• DOI: 10.1177/21582440211032154
• COBISS.SI-ID: 70994435
• Publication date in RUL: 02.02.2023

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: SAGE open
• Publisher: SAGE
• ISSN: 2158-2440
• COBISS.SI-ID: 2586967

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: vzgoja in izobraževanje, vodenje šol, ravnatelji, pandemija COVID-19, pedagogika, Slovenija

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: P5-0174
• Name: Pedagoško-andragoške raziskave - učenje in izobraževanje za kakovostno življenje v skupnosti