Comparative Perspectives on International School Leadership

Standards and competency frameworks for school administrators: Global, comparative and critical perspectives

“…Leadership standards and competency frameworks have been formulated and adopted in numerous national and provincial/state contexts, and have been used for leadership preparation, professional learning, and evaluation Leadership, 2013). As noted by some commentators (English, 2006;Magno, 2013), these frameworks maintain striking similarities across localities.…”

“…This special issue seeks to contribute to the emerging scholarship on global leadership reform by presenting and comparing cases from multiple national spaces. Research on school leadership has been largely dominated by instrumentalism and has evidenced a lack of critical evaluation of the discourses that shape leadership practice and policy around the globe (Eacott, 2015;Magno, 2013). As leadership reform becomes a global phenomenon, comparative analyses of standardization in educational administration and leadership prove urgent and necessary (English, 2006).…”

“…We believe that a global dialogue about the standardization movement would offer important insights about the origin and uptake of policy ideas in education reform. As noted by Eacott (2015), "'leadership' may be more of a particular socio-geographic construct than a universal" (p. 33), a sentiment that resonates with Magno's (2013) observation that the leadership standards movement, originated in anglophone countries of the global north, rapidly spread out to other national and cultural contexts around the globe. While this could be interpreted as a form of epistemological (Eacott, 2015), cultural, or ideological imperialism, more empirical research is needed to determine the extent by which constructs like "leadership" are adopted, or reimagined, in local policy contexts.…”

“…In order to address, these questions, we adopt a comparative approach that aims to analyze cases from various national education systems. This strategy has been used by Magno (2013) in her analysis of the neoliberal influences in the policyscape of school leadership. Drawing upon five cases (Azerbaijan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Switzerland, the United States), Magno's study underpins the global forces that have influenced the education leadership reform agenda, namely decentralization, accountability and international assessments.…”

Comparative and critical analysis of competency standards for school principals: Towards an inclusive and equity perspective in Québec

“…Since the choice of standards was made from an analysis conducted for the OECD, only school systems of member countries of this organization are considered. By limiting the analysis to Anglo-occidental countries, our study may contribute to the convergence and dominance of leadership theory from these countries (Magno, 2013). Despite our goal of working for equity, inclusion and social justice, this could also serve as a "policyscape" that roots ideology and economic values in education reforms at the international level (Carney, 2009).…”