Abstract

The crisis caused by COVID-19 disrupted education worldwide and intensified the difficulties faced by disadvantaged and low-performing schools, with school leaders playing a key role in developing capacity for organisational learning to face this challenge. Through a qualitative case study, this article explores how leaders of three Chilean schools, with support from external ministry advisors, developed adaptations and innovation in response to the disruption to ensure educational continuity, employing the perspective of absorptive capacity to identify, assimilate, and take advantage of information from external agents. Findings suggest that, during the pandemic, schools faced complex problems related with the disadvantage of their communities and their proposed solutions to these problems were mediated by their internal organisational conditions, the characteristics of external support agents and their interaction. The study discusses how school leaders can develop capacity for organisational learning with support from external agents to lead in disruptive times. Likewise, absorptive capacity provides a framework that facilitates the understanding of the factors that influence the opportunities for generating such adaptive solutions in disadvantaged and low-performing schools, while highlighting the importance of considering schools as part of an ecosystem that can enhance their capacity for improvement.