This study explores how Lebanese public school principals enact leadership during war amid overlapping crises. It examines how their moral, relational, adaptive, community-engaged leadership practices sustain education under protracted instability and institutional fragility.
Using an interpretive phenomenological design, 17 semi-structured interviews were conducted with principals across five Lebanese governates severely affected by war. Thematic analysis was applied to identify patterns of leadership sensemaking, moral practices and community engagement during crisis.
Five themes emerged that focused on (1) leading amid permanent crisis, (2) Leading through community, (3) Bureaucratic Constraints and informal agency, (4) Leadership as service and sacrifice and (5) Hope and rebuilding.
The study provides insight into leadership sensemaking during war; future research should extend this work through multi-stakeholder and cross-regional analyses.
Findings highlight the need for professional development on leadership during crisis especially for principals in Lebanon.
Leadership in crisis emerges as an act of moral resistance and human solidarity redefining educational leadership as a collective practice of survival and hope.
This study extends crisis leadership literature introducing new understandings of moral agency, communal trust and hope under conditions of war.
