The Phenomenon of Leading without Guidebook: Educational Leadership Practices of Philippine School Principals in Virulent COVID-19 Times

The school principals play a pivotal role in leading educational institutions. Their lived experience as leaders the context of virulent crisis, however, is largely unexplored. This paper sought to discover essence leadership practices current COVID-19 crisis. Following phenomenology research design, researcher explored world six Filipino through interview procedures. analysis method developed by Colaizzi (1978) was used. results revealed emerging themes during crisis follows: 1.) navigating with adaptive leadership; 2.) cultivating management; 3.) managing machine; 4.) freezing standards and patterns; 5.) promoting inclusivity new normal; 6.) caring first for what essential. These form basis description structure phenomenon offered at end paper. Considering present scarcity knowledge on how respond times this provides insights into within situation.