How Do Leaders Implement Effective Virtual Learning in Saudi Schools?

Abstract

Covid-19 pandemic to be a great source of international danger on January 30 2020, educational systems in many countries closed schools, universities, and colleges. One of the first countries to close schools was Saudi Arabia, where the Ministry of Education announced the temporary suspension of studies in all regions of the country from the ninth of March, 2020 until further notice and the advent of distance learning for all educational levels (Ministry of Education, 2020). This study sought to determine the attitudes and perceptions of secondary and middle school leaders in Saudi Arabia through their experiences with educational leadership online during the closure period. The importance of this study lies in shedding light on factors that have the potential to impede virtual education in Saudi Arabia and ways to address them. In this study, the researcher used the mixed approach to allow for a deeper understanding of difficulties that school leaders faced in terms of communication and performance as well as the most strategies that they found to be most useful for leading schools online. 253 leaders participated in this research through an online questionnaire and an interview was conducted with seven of these leaders and deputy leaders of middle and high schools. The results revealed that the challenges facing leaders and their deputies in terms of online leadership are mostly related to technical issues, teacher performance, and poor connection with parents. The results also indicated the importance of emotional and social aspects, teamwork, development, training, and good use of the virtual school ‘Madrasati platform’ in successful leadership.