The COVID-19 and education in Malta (Cov-EM) study : perspectives of leaders in primary schools, kindergartens and childcare centres - research report 5

In an attempt to contain the spread of COVID-19, like in many countries worldwide, the educational establishments in Malta were ordered to temporarily close their doors to face-to-face teaching and learning and switched to online teaching in March 2020. The pandemic caused an instant disruption and change of routines involving the entire education sector operations. The Early Childhood Education (ECE) and primary school leaders in Malta, like many of their colleagues around the world, found themselves in a challenging position where they relied on guidance about COVID-19 responses from higher authorities. Simultaneously, they dealt with changing staffing situations and teaching/learning arrangements. As all this was unfolding, five female academics from the Department of Early Childhood and Primary Education (DECPE) within the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta decided to embark on a collaborative research project. The objective was twofold: to find out how the COVID-19 impacted different stakeholders in Early and Primary Education and to gather, share and produce knowledge collaboratively to develop and own their identities as academic researchers. This research report focused on leaders of childcare centres (0-3-year-olds), kindergarten (0-5-year-olds), and primary schools (5-11-year-olds). The other four reports focused on early childhood educators (ECEs) (0 -5-year-olds), primary school educators (5 to 11-year olds), students following initial teacher education study programmes at the University of Malta and parents of children in early and primary education. Another report on children in early and primary education will follow at a later stage. Methods: An online survey was chosen as a safe, reliable, and effective way to collect data throughout the pandemic. The initial survey was carried out in September 2020. Given the turn of events, the research team decided to release a second, modified survey version in September 2021 as the pandemic persisted. Some questions were only included in the first survey while other new questions were added to the second survey. The questionnaires measured respondents’ attitudes, opinions, or perceptions. They were composed of multiple-choice items with a few open-ended items. The data was extracted and imported into SPSS for analysis. The participants were primary school leaders, and childcare centre managers living in Malta. A total of 126 participants responded to the first survey in September 2020, while 40 participants responded to the second survey in September 2021. In both surveys, the majority of participants were female (94.1% and 90%, respectively) and Maltese citizens (96.8% and 97.5%, respectively). The average age of the participants was 43.4 and 43.8, respectively. [Excerpt from Executive Summary]peer-reviewe