Crisis management in teaching and learning : a case study on educational administrators in a selected institution of higher learning in Malaysia

Abstract

This study examines the experience that educational administrator undergoes when implementing teaching and learning during crisis. Covid-19 pandemic has brought drastic changes in method and approaches of implementing teaching and learning. Besides that, the unpredictable nature of the current climate has also posed a challenge to education institution in implementing teaching and learning due to the prevalent of natural disaster. There is a need for a study to come up with a better policy and method when implementing teaching and learning during this unprecedented time. By utilizing a qualitative research design which targeted subject that consist of educational administrator from various private universities in Malaysia. The subjects were selected from those who held an administrative position in their respective institution such as dean, head of department, course leader and course coordinator. Data was collected by using in-depth semi-structured interviews. The data that was obtained from the in-depth interview were transcribed using thematic analysis and themes were extracted in order to answer all the research questions. The finding suggested that crisis is something that causes changes to the way things are being done and it occurs over a long period of time. The informants from the study also suggested that managing teaching and learning during crisis is challenging due to the various issues that they have to encounter and overcome. Issue with the hardware, adaptation, health of the lecturers and assessment were among the issue that were faced by the informant from the study. The study also suggested different approach to management need to be taken. The study showed that informants applied servant and innovative leadership was applied by the academic administrator in the study. The informant also noted that the method that they employed were effective. The study also found that most informant agree that there is a need for a guideline and plan to better prepare academic administrator to manage teaching and learning during crisis. The study provided a better understanding on how educational administrators manage teaching and learning during crisis. It highlighted the issues that need to be addressed and the method taken to by academic administrator to handle those issues. Further research on the specific issues regarding the health problem suffered by the lecturers need to be explored. Apart from that, future research is commended to see how the method taken by the academic administrator were effective.