Teachers’ Perception of Leadership Styles during the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis

This study addressed the important role of leaders during a time of crisis. The specific context of the study was the lockdown period during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, educators had to move their teaching and learning to online platforms. Such a change was unforeseen and therefore became an educational crisis. In order to execute the change in teaching strategies, teachers expect a set of behaviour from their leaders to facilitate and support these changes. This survey study used the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) to investigate 124 teachers' views about their preferred and perceived effective leadership behaviour and actions that would have supported them and the challenges they faced with their teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Findings indicated that the preferred leadership style was transformational. Findings also indicated that there was a significant difference between teachers’ preferred leadership and teachers’ perceived experience of leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.