Policy Demands, Expectations, and Changed Leadership Roles During the COVID-19 Crisis: Critical Comparative Case Studies from Denmark and Iceland

The global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education has been considerable and Nordic countries were not excluded. The everyday operations and practises of almost all the organisations within education were disrupted. The pandemic threatened the health of students and school staff at all school levels as, well as the financial, operational, and reputational situation of the majority of schools. School leaders played a significant role in the process of deinstitutionalisation of traditional schooling and adapting to the new reality of crisis management e.g., by communicating and coordinating actions with all stakeholders, mediating the information given by school authorities and managing the various dilemmas repeatedly occurring during the pandemic. The aim of this chapter is to present a historical timeline for a one-year period that reflects the policy demands that were imposed on school leaders in compulsory education in Denmark, and upper secondary education in Iceland, by analysing formal policy-instructions sent via e-mails to the school leaders. In particular, the chapter critically analyses the roles and demands placed on school leaders when facing everchanging social structures and ambiguous policy expectations stipulated by the educational authorities from both countries. This we did by drawing on theoretical concepts from neo-institutional theories, critical discourse analysis, and critical policy theory. Three role categories were evident in the data with substantial sub-categories explaining the complex processes of deinstitutionalisation taking place during the research period and new and changed role of school leaders; the first traditional crisis management roles, the second contemporary safety management roles, and the third is linked to educational roles conventionally guiding the education systems. The identified leadership roles are related to an overall social order defined by the crisis. Here, the traditional, Nordic democratic values that uphold the education system, such as social deliberation, decentralisation, and trust between school leaders, professionals, students, and their families, were challenged as well as various issues of social justice.