In an era of escalating global climate emergencies and humanitarian challenges, school leaders may find themselves at the epicentre of crisis leadership with little or no warning. A crisis is an unanticipated event that poses significant risks to activities within schools, ranging from natural disasters—earthquakes, fires, floods, cyclones, and tornadoes—to traumatic incidents such as the death of a member of the school community. Crisis leadership involves navigating these high-risk situations that are marked by uncertainty and urgency (Mutch, 2014; 2020). Recent literature on crisis leadership signals a growing recognition of emotional labour as pivotal in managing crises (Longmuir, 2021; Wilkinson et al., 2021). Emotional labour refers to the internal management of feelings and the outward display of empathy, reassurance, and calm (Hochschild, 1983). This presentation reports on a scoping review of emotional labour in crisis leadership literature. Six interrelated practices recur throughout: stress, vulnerability, care, anxiety, agency, and wellbeing. These practices underscore how leaders’ internal experiences intersect with their responsibilities to provide support and stability to their communities. By illuminating the emotional dynamics of school leadership during crises, the presentation offers insights into the cultivation of leadership practices that acknowledge both personal resilience and collective care.

The findings highlight a ‘doubleness’ inherent to emotional labour. This is where leaders balance personal coping strategies with the outward focus on staff and student well-being. This twofold focus is amplified in crisis conditions where time for reflection is compressed, decisions must be made swiftly, and community members look to leaders for confidence and care (Thornton, 2021). Addressing the conference’s theme of leading amid today’s contestations and difficulties, this work underscores that leaders who are attentive to the dual demands of emotional labour can help schools not only respond but also adapt proactively to crisis events. In so doing, it speaks directly to how leadership, as a relational and situated practice, is essential in fostering wellbeing and navigating the shifting landscapes of contemporary times.

Given the breadth of literature on leadership during crisis, we elected to build on the work of Striepe and Cunningham (2022) to undertake a scoping review focusing on practices of emotional labour. Scoping reviews offer a synthesis of evidence that leverage rigorous and transparent methods so that results are trustworthy (Munn et al., 2018). Rather than making analytical comparisons through synergising data from various sources, they curate and clarify concepts and characterisations in the literature, identifying gaps in current knowledge and summarise evidence on a topic (Khalil et al., 2021; Peters et al., 2022). The presentation will map published research, highlighting the core themes related to the emotional labour of school leadership during crisis. A three-step process was deployed of (1) article identification, (2) screening, and (3) thematic coding, guided by the research question: What are the practices associated with emotional labour are helpful for leaders as they lead through crises? To capture pertinent studies, five electronic databases were searched—A+ Education, EBSCO, ERIC, Scopus, and Web of Science. Our search terms combined two conceptual domains: school leadership (e.g., “school”, “secondary”, “lead*”, “admin*”, “mang*”) and crisis (e.g., “trauma”, “catastrophe”, “fire”, “storm”, “damage”, “flood”, “climate change”, “tornado”, “typhoon”, “hurricane”). All searches were limited to peer-reviewed journal articles written in English and published between January 2000 and November 2024. While no geographic constraints were imposed, only research on primary and secondary school contexts were included. Books, reports, interviews, purely conceptual pieces, and literature reviews were excluded to maintain a focus on empirical studies. Both qualitative and quantitative investigations of emotional dynamics were considered. After removing duplicates, articles were initially reviewed by title, abstract, introduction, and conclusion. Each member independently assessed the relevance of identified studies. Studies were excluded if they: • discussed only theoretical attributes of crisis leadership (i.e., what leaders should do, without empirical backing). • focused on general emergency preparedness without detailing the emotional and practical dimensions of a current or recent crisis in a school. • presented evaluative frameworks centred solely on leadership traits rather than leaders’ lived experiences. Following individual screening, the team convened to resolve discrepancies and finalise inclusions, leading to a shortlist of 22 empirical articles that addressed the tangible emotional challenges and leadership responses during crises. In the third phase of our review process, NVivo (qualitative coding software) was used to undertake a thematic analysis of the 17 articles to extract insights on emotional labour (Saldana, 2021)

School leaders are regularly tested by unforeseen critical incidents that challenge not only their managerial capacities but also their emotional resilience (Mutch, 2015; Striepe & Cunningham, 2022). They are required to draw on their contextual knowledge, capacity and skills to respond and their personal fortitude. (Striepe & Cunningham, 2021). In this scoping study the dynamics of emotional labour included addressing stress, anxiety, vulnerability, building trust, and the need to be responsive to the changing nature of decision-making practices. There are however emotional labour trade-offs. The expectation that leaders can and will manage emotional surges and monitor. Procedurally, prepared leaders need to also be attentive to the impact of emotional labour so they can attune to their own emotional needs (Williams & Liou, 2024) as well as those of staff (MacGregor et al., 2023). Emotional labour can be understood as a doubleness: the experience of leader self-care and, secondly, the outward care for the larger community. Leaders are required to have the capacity to control and manage emotions, their own and others. Simultaneously they are monitoring and actively engaging in other facets of the crisis event such as critical decision making, effective communication and analysing outcomes. The wellbeing of school leaders was dependant on keeping a balanced approach, providing supportive structures and enacting care for all members of the community. The energy required to do this is substantive. Leaders are on high alert and attentiveness to the emotional labour of this work is essential. The articles indicate that the emotional labour school leaders face can involve feeling isolated, having self-doubt, findings the means to cope with stress and mental and physical exhaustion. It was clear however that not all leaders responded in the same way, while some can be temporarily immobilised, others effectively draw on both personal resilience and external resources.

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