NYKids’ Research Article Alert: Principals’ Discursive Framing and Communications
by Kristen C. Wilcox, Maria Khan, & Aaron Leo
“A crisis that is well-handled can ultimately improve an organization and
entire systems” (Bundy et al., 2017).
NYKids’ recent research project focused on the experiences of New York State educators during the COVID-19 pandemic. As detailed in previous blogs, this study occurred in two phases: a large-scale survey followed by a qualitative study using interviews and focus group data from six schools that participated in the first phase.
One of our team’s goals was to examine how school leaders made decisions during the pandemic and how their leadership styles impacted teachers and other staff members.
We are excited to announce the publication of our latest article, Principals’ Discursive Framing and Communications and Educators’ Job Satisfaction during the COVID-19 Pandemic, in the Journal of School Leadership.
Building from existing crisis leadership research, in this article we present five discursive frames and the purposes of each.
Diagnostic Framing: For sensemaking and engaging with stakeholders in problem identification.- Prognostic Framing: For outlining action items and specifying who needs to do what, when, where, and how.
- Motivational Framing: For reengaging and inspiring staff.
- Regulatory Framing: For describing compliance requirements, assessment mandates, and accountability measures.
- Normative Framing: For identifying contexts, institutional traditions, and preferences.
In the article we illustrate how leaders’ framing of problems and solutions evolved as priorities and expectations changed in response to crises and how their communications impacted school and district staff.
Highlights
The principals of schools with the least change in educator job satisfaction in the first year of the pandemic tended to…
- emphasize anticipatory and contingency-oriented (i.e., prognostic) framing (if this happens we will…) to prime staff to be prepared for dynamic changes.
- use motivational frames (we can and will get through this) in companion with concrete directions about what would be done, when, and by whom based on a variety of stakeholders’ input.
- couple directive/problem-specifying (i.e., diagnostic) and problem-solving frames (prognostic) (this is the problem at hand, and this is what we are going to do about it).
- nurture a normative culture that relied upon multi-way communications to facilitate educators’ sense-making and performance adaptations while in crisis. A finding discovered in prior NYKids research.
A key take-away for school and district leaders, is that the way leaders frame challenges and use communication strategies impacts teachers and staff members differently and is consequential for staff morale and retention. While, thankfully, the COVID-19 pandemic is in our rear-view mirror, school and district leaders can continue to sharpen their crisis-management skills in preparation for current and future challenges.
We hope this research contributes to this preparation and we are grateful to those who participated in this study and all they offered to their schools and communities during the pandemic.
We invite you to read the full article here.
If you have questions, suggestions, or want to learn about our latest study, please email us at nykids@albany.edu
