Birds of a Feather: Senior International Baccalaureate International Schools Leadership in Service

Abstract

This article presents original research into International Baccalaureate international schools’ directors in Western Europe, based on multiphase contact with six director participants over two years and employing an aspect of critical-phenomenology. Successful leadership in this context responds to market demands with a commodification of Anglo identity. Service emerges as central to leadership, closely linked to cultural identity. Female participants appear as more successfully balanced directors. Directors indicate societal values as being more important than the International Baccalaureate Learner Profile.

International schools: leadership reviewed

“…Bunnell concludes that ‘it is clearly high time that the scholarly community viewed leadership in international schools as a diffuse and distributed phenomenon.’ (Bunnell, 2005, p. 62). Gardner-McTaggart (2018a, b, c, d) provides research findings that challenge this assertion, finding the pool of senior leaders to be culturally and epistemically monotone; White, inner circle English and often Christian; mostly transactional with a veneer of empowerment discourse.…”

“…This has wider implications for leadership and conceptions of global mindedness, especially given the debate surrounding the gravitational pull of the Anglo-European outlook in this debate. Gardner-McTaggart (2018c) finds senior leaders in this context share rich ‘English’ cultural capital, and market this feature as successful directors of international schools. Such culturally distinct leadership is telling in schools which are becoming the distinctive vessels for privileged internationalism and cultural replication/laundering.…”

A Single School Case Study Exploring Teachers’ Perceptions of the Impact of Leadership on Teacher Retention at a British International School in Saudi Arabia

“…The focus on the impact of leadership in supporting teacher retention has been a focus of a number of other scholars in education. Wallen and Tormey, (2019) focused on the impact of leadership on teacher agency; Gardner-McTaggart (2018) called for further research in to leadership models that empower teachers; Lee and Walker (2018) placed emphasis on teachers' perception of leadership; Jones & Watson, (2017) called for further research in to which leadership behaviours specifically affect teacher retention and Keller (2015) emphasised on the importance of leadership on teacher motivation. This study explored teachers' perception of school leadership strategies and the effect that this had on their retention.…”

“…Educational leadership in International schools has been an interest to scholars of educational leadership recently (Gardner-McTaggart, 2018;Lee & Walker, 2018;Jones &Watson, 2017 andKeller, 2015). This study seeks to explore their call for further research in to the perception of leadership in international schools with a contextual lens in a British International School in Saudi Arabia.…”

“…This study seeks to investigate Gardner-McTaggart's (2018) call for further research in to international schools' "leadership models that empower" teachers (Gardner-McTaggart , 2018, p.152). This study seeks to focus on teachers' perceptions of international school leadership and the effects it has on their retention at the school.…”