SLS-9d1 - Case Study: Leadership in the face of the Coronavirus Pandemic

When a program is operating uneventfully issues of leadership may not draw much attention.  Leadership issues become most obvious in times of serious challenge.  When the coronavirus hit in early 2020, it offers a great opportunity to observe leadership - and the consequences of the lack of it - in action.  In Spring 2020, we were in panic mode when the pandemic imposed social distancing.  In turn, that caused the cancellation of much teaching activities. Face to face classes were forbidden. International travel became impossible. Even local projects became very difficult, if not totally impossible.  

At that point, many service-learning teachers simply decided to cancel their classes, without even trying to find alternate ways to carry on.  Some department heads made the decision to cancel the classes for the teachers.  There are also some teachers who are inexperienced or who have not yet developed a strong relationship with community partners, who then find it difficult to make alternate plans when they tried.  The SLLO team worked very hard to help those teachers who tried to save their subjects to make alternate plans, teach online, find new partners and new projects, move their projects online, …  We succeed in saving many of those subjects.  That was important as SL is a requirement for graduation.  Many students depend on taking their desired SL subjects to progress in their studies as planned, or to graduate.  Cancelling a SL subject affects not only the teacher, but also the students.  And there is also the knock-on effect - when a subject is cancelled, the students originally registered in the subject may have to find another subject to replace that, but alternative may not be available.  Even if alternate subjects are found, they may then be overwhelmed, … 

Some teachers worked hard with their partners to seek ways to conduct the services in very small groups, or move online.  Some have to change the service projects drastically, e.g., from direct service to indirect service, research, etc.  Many succeeded.  These are generally those who have experience, who have built up strong relationships with committed, long term partners.  Some developed innovative ways to conduct their services online, even inventing new services, designing new teaching aides, kits for projects, …  Some were even able to conduct services with overseas partners and communities, expanding their reach in the face of the challenge, because of the enforced thinking in a new direction.  Moving online can help us overcome physical distance, connecting with overseas communities without travelling.  Challenges can also become the motivation to be creative. 

Some teachers have been accustomed to spending much of their summer taking students on international service-learning projects, in Cambodia, Vietnam, Rwanda, etc., and many months prior preparing for those trips.  When the pandemic hit, travel were cancelled, projects switched online, and the teachers remain busy.  Yet the cancelling of travelling still suddenly left them with a substantial amount of time and mind-space.  Some used that to analyse the data collected over the years, which they have not been able to attend to properly because they have been so busy.  That generated a burst of research energy, which resulted in the publication of quite a few high quality papers.  Many academic conferences were also cancelled or postponed as a result of the pandemic.  Some researchers regularly publish short versions of their papers at those conferences which are then beef them up as full papers for publication at archival journals.  When the conferences were cancelled they decided to bypass the conference stage and send the full papers directly to archival journals.  Some traditional in-person conferences morphed into online virtual conferences or some other innovative formats.  

Among our students we see at least two types of behaviour in response to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic.  Many complain about the cancelling of in-person classes, the low bandwidth of the Internet in online classes, the poor quality of the audio and video, the lack of person-to-person interactions, the forced change of plans, the uncertainty, etc.  One the other hand, some are determined to make the best of the difficult situation to learn new things, to try new ways to interact with fellow students and the community, to learn new technology.  In short, there are those who feel helpless in the face of adverse conditions, and those who try to find ways to overcome the adversity.  The difference is resilience.  It can also be leadership. We see the same among teachers. There are those who are resigned that the restrictions cannot be overcome, and those who are not. Therein lies leadership.