Co-Leading Multicultural School Competencies for an Inclusion and Integration Reform in Times of Crisis

Leading an inclusion and integration reform during COVID-19, educational leaders embraced a multicultural approach responsive to students’ uniqueness. This qualitative study explores how elementary school principals and counselors developed multicultural school competencies (MSC) during the pandemic to promote inclusive multicultural education. Interviews with 25 Israeli educational leaders yielded three main themes: (1) demonstrating multicultural commitment; (2) building relational skills; (3) fostering social-emotional learning. Findings indicate that school counselors played a critical role in developing MSC during the pandemic. We outline a new model that enables multicultural school leaders, principals, and counselors to re-skill and up-skill MSC in a post-pandemic environment.