System-level educational leadership as a resilience building mechanism: The case of Greece

This paper explores the resilience of education systems in the face of the challenges that have arisen in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and emphasizes the urgent need for educational institutions to prepare for uncertainties and unforeseen challenges. The paper highlights the shortcomings of education systems in ensuring educational equity for disadvantaged students during the pandemic, emphasizes the limitations of current research on the resilience of education systems, and argues for the need to consider the resilience of the education system alongside the resilience of students and teachers. Drawing on the insights of the organizational and social-ecological approaches to resilience, this paper argues that the resilience of schools ultimately depends on their ability to ensure organizational learning. This study examines the barriers to organizational learning (OL) in Greek secondary schools using quantitative data from teachers. The research findings reveal structural, systemic and cultural barriers that hinder the promotion of OL and thus the resilience of schools. Building on previous research on nested systems and system leadership, the paper argues that schools are at the forefront of promoting resilience in the education system. It emphasizes the need for system-level educational leadership (SLEL) as a mediating governance mechanism that promotes interaction between schools and the wider education system to ensure the establishment of a meta-capability of learning at all levels. This research contributes to the discourse on educational leadership by emphasizing the importance of schools as resilience pillars capable of strengthening resilience across the education system.