OPINIONS REGARDING THE CONFLICT OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS WORKING IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN CONTINUING EDUCATION DURING THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

ABSTRACT

         The purpose of this research is to examine the views of the primary school principals about the conflicts they have experienced in the continuation of education during the Covid19 pandemic period, the effects of which began to appear in our country in 2020. In the research, phenomenological approach, one of the qualitative research methods, was used. The study group of the research consists of 18 randomly selected school principals working in primary schools in different districts of Balıkesir in the 2021-2022 academic year. While creating the study group, the maximum sampling method, one of the purposive sampling methods, was used. As the data collection tool in the research, the questions prepared by the researcher were reviewed by the field expert and after they were found appropriate, a semi-structured observation form with 8 questions was used. The data obtained were collected by the researcher by making face-to-face interviews with the school principals in appropriate environments considering the pandemic conditions. Content analysis technique, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in data analysis. The findings of the research gather the views of the primary school principals about the conflicts they have experienced in the continuation of education under 8 sub-themes: administrative problems; the methods used in relation to the educational administration during the pandemic process; the problems experienced by school principals during the pandemic process; the measures taken to eliminate learning deficiencies; the solutions regarding access to education; the problems experienced by first grade classroom teachers in the distance education processes in the first reading and writing teaching and mathematics teaching; elimination of the social, emotional and spiritual deficiencies observed in students during the pandemic process and elimination of the behavioral problems observed in students. According to the results of the study, it has been observed that the primary school principals have produced common solutions to a large extent to the conflicts they have experienced in the continuation of education during the pandemic process and coped with the problems. It is observed that the principals of primary schools located in the city center and with very good facilities face fewer problems and have a higher problem-solving ability.

Keywords: School principals, leadership, pandemic, distance education, EBA