Objectives Although Bulgaria has been marked by inequality, depriving many Roma students of fundamental right to education (Zahariev et al., 2013; UNESCO, 2020), this presentation highlights the role of educators, who exhibit adaptive leadership, in taking responsibility for meeting Roma students’ education needs in the context of elevated complexity—at the intersection of socio-political Europeanization, historical Roma’s disadvantage, and a pandemic health crisis. Context and Theoretical frame Despite several National Roma Integration Strategies (2012–20), the 2020 European Commission’s monitoring report indicates that based on data from the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science, every fifth educational institution is fully segregated and more than 17% are mixed but advancing towards secondary segregation—a process of transformation of ethnically mixed schools outside Roma neighborhoods into segregated schools with only Roma students. The report states that “deepening of the social distances and the increase of antigypsyism are the main reasons” (p. 9). Yet, the study we report on presents evidence that some teachers provide leadership in the struggle to create more equitable learning contexts in high-poverty Roma-only schools. Such cases can be seen as examples of the role teachers, as “organic intellectuals” (Gramsci, 1971), can play in addressing persistent structural challenges by empowering the disempowered in society. Teacher leadership theories, particularly the lens of adaptive leadership frame (York-Barr & Duke, 2004) provide a theoretical frame for understanding how during transitions, individuals in complex organizations (such as high-poverty Roma-only schools in this case) may be propelled to “move themselves and their organizations into unfamiliar territory” (Heifetz et al., 2009, xii). Methods We utilized a basic qualitative research design (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016) and gathered open-ended interviews with six educators in an elementary Roma-only school in Southeast Bulgaria. The interviews were conducted in Bulgarian using a virtual meeting software (Microsoft Teams and Viber), translated to English verbatim, and analyzed for emerging themes. Results and conclusion We identified several dimensions of adaptive leadership practices, for instance, nurturing a culture of success (e.g. collaborating with Roma educational mediators; delivering individual lessons outside of the regular curriculum) and translating ideas into systems of action (e.g. initiating fundraisings among local businesses). Supported by the principal, these educators functioned as organic intellectuals who brought a radical social imaginary into the practice of the school. We conclude that during the current socio-political transition, teacher leadership emerged as an approach to tackling structural problems.

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