Following lockdown in March of 2020 schools in all OECD countries needed to find a way to fulfil their mission and ensure that the education of pupils continued, in spite of the fact that schools were predominantly closed. In order to do this, schools engaged in digital learning, to varying extents. Innovations emanated from both teachers and leaders, some were already innovating in this area and brought forward and implemented their strategic plans, whilst others had not previously engaged in digital learning. This paper builds on our previous work on sensemaking (Baxter and John, 2021, Baxter and Floyd, 2019), to examine whether the pandemic has effected a shift in school leaders’ perceptions of the role of digital learning in English secondary education. Drawing on theory of sensemaking, and schema change during unprecedented events, (Maitlis and Sonenshein, 2010; Weick, 1988), The paper uses qualitative data from 50 interviews with school leaders in England to examines to what extent covid has changed school leaders schema-frameworks of understanding, on the role of digital learning in secondary schools. In so doing it adds to the literature on school leaders’ sensemaking activities during crisis, whilst also contributing valuable, internationally applicable insights on the role of digital education, and school leader vision of digital education in secondary schools.

The paper draws on data from a funded project to which examined school leaders’ approach to the management and strategic planning for digital learning before, during and within the post pandemic era (taken as July 21 in England-the end of all restrictions). It uses an adapted model of strategic integration of digital learning , (Baxter et al., 2021 ), and builds on our previous work on strategy as learning, (Baxter and John, 2021; Baxter and Cornforth, 2019; Baxter and Floyd, 2019) to examine the following research questions:

-Is there evidence that school leaders’ understanding of the role of digital learning in their schools, changed during covid, and if so, in what way ?

-If school leaders understanding of the role of digital learning in their schools, has changed, what are the reasons for this ?

-Has school leaders’ vision for digital learning in the future changed, and if so what enabling factors are inherent within this ?

Deprivation can be defined in various ways, but for the purposes of this paper, it refers to the level of socio-economic deprivation within the school catchment area. In educational analysis, the main measures for deprivation are the income deprivation affecting children index (IDACI) and pupils recorded to receive free school meals (FSM), this applies if parents / carers are in receipt of certain benefits and have applied to claim FSM from the local authority. Our interviews drew from 50 schools, 40% of which are located in socio economically deprived areas, whilst 60% of the sample derived from schools with average or below average on the FSM indicator. Online Interviews, carried out via teams, were semi structured and lasted between 1-1.5 hours and took place over one year. The school leaders interviewed, included both heads of single schools and CEO’s of multi-academy trusts, (groups of schools with one executive headteacher along with individual school heads). A pilot was carried out in January 2021 and a code book derived from the researchers each coding a sample of three scripts within the pilot. This involved all researchers reading and coding each transcript individually, then discussing, merging and reflecting on these codes to form larger categories and emerging conceptual themes, then further analysing these themes by comparing and contrasting them across the data sets and to the study’s conceptual framework. Transcripts from the main study were subsequently coded in Nvivo, by a single researcher, and the results grouped into categories; before covid, during, covid and within the post covid period. (July 2021). A narrative approach to analysis was adopted, drawing on key themes emerging from both a documentary analysis of the 50 school websites and interview data. Having successfully adopted the narrative approach in other research which investigates strategic discourse in MATs, and sense making on governing boards (Baxer and Floyd, 2019) in which we draw together, ‘independent and disconnected elements of the narratives, into a whole.’ (p, 456). In so doing we also drew on Linde’s coherence system of narrative (mentioned earlier), as ‘a discursive practice that represents a system of beliefs and relations between beliefs,’(Linde, 1993: ,p.163).

The project has revealed substantial evidence to suggest that the pandemic has effected a considerable shift in school leaders’ schema in relation to their thoughts, understandings and vision in relation to digital learning. In cases in which leaders were already integrating digital learning into their strategy, they built on this and effectively rolled out digital learning during the pandemic. However, even in these cases, the extent of the innovation and initiative taken by teachers, very often expanded leaders’ own understandings, colouring their vision for the future of digital learning. However, leaders in areas of high SED were often concerned that ethically, digital education could only be justified in times of crisis, and that the ‘epidemic’ of mental ill health, emerging as a result of the pandemic, enhanced their belief that learning should take place on campus, a feeling enhanced by resistance from exhausted staff, who were keen to return to business as usual. This is not unexpected, as Reich reports, ‘teachers often teach as they were taught,’( 2020: ,p,10), and education has not embraced digital teaching to the extent anticipated by the tech researchers of the late 1990s. Where schools were already embracing digital, the leaders’ shifting schema have renewed impetus to convert much curriculum into digital offerings. This was provoked in part, by necessity to effectively deliver the curriculum during the pandemic, but also, by practices and innovations that emerged during lockdowns. Insights emerging from the project are important in understanding how school leaders envision the future of education, pointing to the need for a wider, international study on how school leaders and their teams, envisage, or fail to envisage the digital future of their schools. An important part of this will be in the investigation of digital poverty and the ethics of digital engagement in secondary schools internationally.

Baxer J and Floyd A. (2019) Strategic narrative in multi‐academy trusts in England: Principal drivers for expansion. British Educational Research Journal 45: 1050-1071. Baxter J and Floyd A. (2019) Strategic narrative in multi‐academy trusts in England: Principal drivers for expansion. British Educational Research Journal 45: 1050-1071. Baxter J, Jewitt K and Floyd A. (2021 ) Digital integration in schools: building on Puntedura's model for digital integration, in educational settings under reveiw. Baxter J and John A. (2021) Strategy as learning in multi-academy trusts in England: strategic thinking in action. School Leadership & Management: 1-21. Baxter JA and Cornforth C. (2019) Governing collaborations: how boards engage with their communities in multi-academy trusts in England. Public Management Review: 1-23. Linde C. (1993) Life stories: The creation of coherence: Oxford University Press, USA. Maitlis S and Sonenshein S. (2010) Sensemaking in crisis and change: Inspiration and insights from Weick (1988). Journal of Management Studies 47: 551-580. Reich J. (2020) Failure to disrupt: Why technology alone can't transform education: Harvard University Press. Weick KE. (1988) Enacted sensemaking in crisis situations [1]. Journal of Management Studies 25: 305-317.