Challenges and agency: principals responding to the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanese public schools

ABSTRACT

Since 2011, an influx of Syrian refugees has put a massive strain on Lebanon’s educational public system, which was already stretched before the humanitarian crisis. In an already stressful profession, this unprecedented crisis is testing the limits of principals’ management and leadership capacities. Our qualitative study explores how principals are making sense of and navigating the Syrian refugee student crisis at their schools. Principals are dealing with four general types of challenges: spatial, socio-emotional, cultural, and academic. The findings show that principals are struggling to create a stable educational environment. Instead of focusing on leadership and academic performance, principals in double-shift schools spend most of their time ‘putting out fires,’ resolving urgent issues, and attending to basic needs that typically are taken for granted in other schools. Impacts of the obstacles faced and opportunities for future research are discussed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Julia Mahfouz

Julia Mahfouz is an assistant professor in the department of Leadership and Counseling at the University of Idaho. Her research interests include exploring the social and emotional dynamics of educational settings and their effect on school climate and school improvement. She particularly focuses on applying her research to improving principal preparation programs and enhancing the school administrators’ social emotional competencies and their capacity to cultivate a supportive learning environment.

Nizar El-Mehtar

Nizar El-Mehtar is currently a lecturer of education at Haigazian University and a freelance educational consultant and trainer. Prior to this, he served as chemistry teacher and chairperson, curriculum writer, and academic programs‘ coordinator at an international school located in Lebanon. El-Mehtar’s research and processional interests involve projects and explorations pertaining to science epistemology, interdisciplinary education, and action research as professional development.

Enja Osman

Enja Osman is the Practice Teaching Coordinator and a lecturer at the Department of Education at AUB, and an Educational Consultant. Her wide experience includes science teaching, and consultation on national and international developmental projects, ranging from STEM education to effective school leadership. She has collaborated with the Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education, towards improving Education standards in Lebanon and building vibrant school learning communities that foster creativity and encourages students to become life-long learners who are better suited to meet summons of a rapidly and continuously changing world.

Stephen Kotok

Stephen Kotok is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Administrative and Instructional Leadership at St. John’s University. His research focuses on how schools act as stratifying mechanisms or as levers for opportunity. Specifically, Kotok examines issues of school-level leadership such as school climate and detracking as well as policy-level equity issues such as charter schools, resource allocation, and segregation.