Reflections on leadership practice during COVID-19 lockdown in India
July 14, 2020
This blog post has been contributed by Professor Jaswinder K. Dhillon, University of Worcester.
This blog reflects on leadership practice during COVID-19 lockdown in India in response to the global pandemic. The reflections emanate from my experience of visiting India from March-May 2020 as part of an IPDA funded research scholarship. I draw on Schön’s distinction between reflection in action and refection on action (Schön, 1983) and Kolb’s experiential learning cycle (Kolb, 1984) to analyse my observations and experience and relate them to professional practice. These theoretical tools provide a frame for professional learning and development of research-based practice. In this blog, I apply them to a point in time during an unprecedented global event to reflect on implications for leadership in diverse educational settings using insights from my research experience in India.
My project, A comparative study of leadership practice in England and India focuses on educational leadership in different national and local contexts. The lead partner in India is Professor Bawa, from Central University of Punjab and President (HQ) of the Global Educational Research Association. The project extends my work on stakeholder perceptions of outstanding leadership in England (Dhillon et. al., 2020) and investigates the impact of national and local contexts on leaders and leadership practice.
As I prepared for fieldwork in India, I was excited and really looking forward to exploring the effects of gender, ethnic group, class and caste on leadership development and practice. My collaborating partner had contacted university, college and school leaders who were willing to participate in the study. I had visited India before but this was the first time I was going for a research project so I was anticipating a different role and experience. As it turned out, it was quite an exceptional and somewhat traumatic experience. The contrast between the first week of my fieldwork in early March and the remainder of my forced stay due to the draconian lockdown in India (Biswas, 2020) could not have been greater.
On arrival in India I was struck by the noise, colour and vibrancy of the environment. This cultural experience never fails to hit you; it conveys the cheerfulness and relaxed practice which co-exist alongside chaotic adherence to rules and regulations that would be alien in a British context. Despite the apparent chaos, amazingly things still get done and without undue stress, something that educational leaders in other places might welcome. My reflection on this practice is that things get organised quickly due to professional trust amongst leadership teams and their willingness to put people before rigid organisational procedures.
As I was driven to different educational settings by Professor Bawa, her colleagues and IPDA (India) member Vijay Kumar, I reflected on the disparity of resources and learning environments available to school and college leaders. These ranged from one smart board in a state funded school, a reward for achieving outstanding results, to leading edge IT facilities in private institutions which exceeded those available in schools in England. The meagre facilities at the state school were a sharp contrast to an elite private school where we saw confident boys playing polo in the school grounds, immaculately dressed on well-groomed horses. In the distance security guards at the school gates vetted everyone coming into the school grounds. I felt a bit out of place, like an ‘outsider’ looking in but was made to feel very welcome by the headmaster. This is truly a reflection of ‘two Indias with one at home doing yoga,…and the other…fighting for survival’ (Sibal, 2020).
From 25th March a strict lockdown was imposed across India and disturbing images of police enforcing lockdown circulated widely. Noise and laughter were replaced by eeriness in streets, empty buildings and fear in people’s eyes above the mandatory face masks worn during COVID-19 lockdown. I finally managed to get a repatriation flight back to the UK in May and reflected on the educational challenge for us all – re-imagining learning after pandemic experiences.
References
- Biswas, S. 2020. Coronavirus: India’s pandemic lockdown turns into a human tragedy https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-52086274
- Dhillon, J. K., Howard, C., & Holt, J. 2020. Outstanding leadership in primary education: Perceptions of school leaders in English primary schools. Management in Education, 34(2), 61–68 https://doi.org/10.1177/0892020619885942
- Kolb, D.A. 1984. Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice Hall.
- Sibal, K. 2020. One India at home doing yoga, other fighting for survival’, Sibal takes a dig at govt https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/2-indias-one-at-home-doing-yoga-other-fighting-for-survival-sibal-takes-a-dig-at-govt-64132
- Schön, D. 1983. The Reflective Practitioner: how professionals think in action. Basic Books.
