Special Journal Issue

Special Journal Issue School Leadership in International Schools: Perspectives and Practices Peabody Journal of Education

Theme	This issue explores the complexity of leadership challenges, practices, and effects in international schools conceptually and empirically. We hope the papers collected here can act as a platform for further research into school leadership issues in international schools around the world and broaden the scope of research beyond local schools. We would like to thank the external reviewers for sharing their insights and critical feedback on the articles included in the issue.

Issue Objectives	To illuminate some of the key features of leadership practice as enacted in international schools located in a number of different regions. Our aim is to offer a platform for researchers to further navigate ways to theorize and investigate empirically leadership practices in international schools. Through doing this investigation we hope that this issue can help to develop a broader, longer-term agenda for research on leadership and school improvement in international school settings.

Issue Co-editors		Professor Allan Walker Joseph Lau Chair Professor of International Educational Leadership Dean of Faculty of Education and Human Development Director of The Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change The Education University of Hong Kong China : adwalker@eduhk.hk	Professor Lee Moosung Centenary Research Professor University of Canberra Australia Senior Research Fellow Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change The Education University of Hong Kong China : MooSung.Lee@canberra.edu.au

Contributors	Professor Lee Moosung University of Canberra Australia Professor Allan Walker The Education University of Hong Kong China School Leadership in International Schools: Perspectives and Practices https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2018.1515828
	Professor Allan Walker The Education University of Hong Kong China Professor Lee Moosung University of Canberra Australia Weaving Curriculum Connections in International Baccalaureate (IB) Schools https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2018.1515837 Abstract In this article we discuss how school leaders address challenges when implementing innovative international education curricula, namely International Baccalaureate (IB) programs. Specifically, we frame challenges in curriculum implementation of and transition between IB programs from a “disconnection” perspective. We have often noticed when innovative programs are parceled together without preparation and thrust at great speed at schools, they become disconnected. The hasty implementation of multiple IB programs simultaneously at a school also causes disconnection. Drawing on extensive interview data from principals, mid-level leaders, and teachers in five IB schools adopting multiple IB programs in Asia, we detail curriculum disconnection facing IB schools and how school leaders, including teacher leaders, address such challenges by weaving various disconnected points, namely instrumental, intellectual, cultural, professional, and communicative disconnections. Based on findings from the multisite case study, we argue that school leaders in the case of IB schools adopt a range of leadership strategies to weave disconnection points. We reframe the leadership strategies as two aspects of distributed leadership: distributed instructional leadership and teacher leadership. In conclusion, we suggest that a central facet for successful leadership of IB schools that adopt multiple IB programs is about finding, focusing, and facilitating ways to address disconnections in curriculum implementation of and transition between different IB programs.
	Dr Paul Tarc Western University Canada “Walking the Talk”: A Conceptualization of International Mindedness to Inform Leadership in International Schools https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2018.1515835 Abstract In many of the most highly regarded international schools, international mindedness (IM) represents an overarching value orientation and a “mindset” to be developed in students. Over the last 2 decades, there has been increasing attention to both understanding and supporting IM in the explicit and formal curriculum in international schools; however, the theorization of the more implicit or hidden curriculum of international schools has been much less engaged. This article presents a broad conceptualization of IM from a synthesis of the most recent IM literature and, more specifically, digs deeper into the implicit forms of learning and subjectivity via a “post-informed” analysis of a critical anecdote of international school teaching. The article seeks to inform leaders of how they might more robustly understand IM and work to walk the talk of IM through a more open embrace of human difference and cultural conflict under complex, power-laden, and sometimes fraught social relations.
	Dr Richard Caffyn International School Telemark Norway “The Shadows Are Many . . .” Vampirism in International School Leadership: Problems and Potential in Cultural, Political, and Psycho-Social Borderlands https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2018.1515817 Abstract Bram Stoker talks about the beguiling nature of the vampire; the manipulation, the desire, and the threat. This article looks to outline some of the factors in international schools that impact the organization, especially leadership, and that drain energy. It utilizes the folkloric and literary metaphor of the vampire to illustrate, understand, and discuss how individuals, systems, and structures can take away the life force of the organization. In particular, the international school with its vulnerabilities and issues of identity is prone to boundary attacks both from within and from the outside. The article uses research particularly in organizational management, international schools, school leadership, and folklore. The discussion offers a way of understanding vampirism as a metaphor to describe the forces both internal and external to a school that drain energy and positivity. These forces originate from a myriad of diverse factors such as individuals, groups, structures, and a school’s own unique history and location. In developing a theory of vampirism and applying it to an international school, I explore why such schools are especially vulnerable, what can be done to negate such energy draining, and the areas of school life where it can occur—the shadows where vampirism thrives.
	Dr Ian Hill International Baccalaureate Organization Switzerland A Subjectivist Model of School Leadership for International Schools: Greenfield Revisited https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2018.1515827 Abstract Greenfield’s subjectivist approach to the construction and interpretation of social reality is examined and applied to school organizations in an attempt to demonstrate that such organizations may be advantageously viewed as entities constructed and sustained by ideas in people’s minds. The path to understanding schools and their administration lies with the interpretation and analysis of the experience of people in these institutions rather than in the use of overarching theories of educational management. International schools have always provided education for the ever-increasing flux of people across frontiers, either temporarily because of job postings (globally mobile families) or more permanently because of migration. The high degree of cultural diversity in these schools augments the complexity of leadership because staff, students, and parents bring their own cultural heritage, experience, and expectations to bear, together, in a single school setting. This also increasingly applies in government schools in many countries because of migration. Ethnic cultural repertoires play a major role in the creation, deciphering, and juxtaposition of individual social realities and have an important bearing on organization culture. The article concludes with the importance of communicative and cultural competencies as the main tools for effective school leadership in international schools.
	Dr Warangkana Lin I-Shou University Taiwan Professor Lee Moosung University of Canberra Australia Professor Geoff Riordan University of Canberra Australia The Role of Teacher Leadership in Professional Learning Community (PLC) in International Baccalaureate (IB) Schools: A Social Network Approach https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2018.1515833 Abstract This study aims to illuminate how professional interactions among teachers form different types of teacher leadership in schools, which, in turn, shape different levels of teachers’ involvement in activities related to their professional learning community (PLC). To investigate certain patterns of teachers’ interactions that contribute to the formation of teacher leadership and thereby the development of PLC, two international schools that offer a full continuum of three International Baccalaureate (IB) programs were purposively chosen. The schools have similar numbers of students and are located in two different countries in East Asia. Using a mixed-methods research approach, the patterns of teacher professional interactions were first examined using social network analysis. Next, the degree to which teachers in the case study schools enact practices related to PLCs was assessed and compared through a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) test. Further, based on findings from social network analysis, in-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with selected key participants to understand the linkage between teacher leadership and teachers’ involvement in their PLC in each case school. From the findings, we propose four conceptual types of teacher leadership that explain how teacher leadership shapes different levels of teachers’ engagement in PLC in the two case
	Dr Tristan Bunnell University of Bath UK Social Media Comment on Leaders in International Schools: The Causes of Negative Comments and the Implications for Leadership Practices https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2018.1515815 Abstract The diverse body of international schools continues to grow and develop. Yet, the realities of being a leader in such a school continue to be neglected by discussion and research. It is acknowledged that international schools are complex organizations to lead and manage, with numerous boundaries, transient stakeholders, and opposing priorities. They exist as very challenging arenas for leadership, ripe for conflict and tension. This article uses anonymized comments on the social media website internationalschoolreview.com (ISR.com) to explore how and why teachers might post negative comments on school leaders. The framework of the “toxic triangle” is used as an instrument for presenting the comments. The article then discusses the implications for leadership practices. In particular, the comments on ISR.com reveal how isolated international schools are, with seemingly few options for teachers to release the “pressure valve” if unhappy or unsatisfied by what they might deem to be unethical and immoral leadership behavior. Further, the comments show how loosely coupled and fragmented the schools are, and many of the teachers themselves exist in a precarious state of anxiety. Overall, the comments add substantial weight to the argument that international schools are complex and challenging leadership environments.
	Professor Lee Moosung University of Canberra Australia Professor Allan Walker The Education University of Hong Kong China Dr Darren Bryant The Education University of Hong Kong China What Leadership Practices Are Associated with International Baccalaureate (IB) Student Achievement? An Exploratory Study of IB Schools in Southeast Asia https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2018.1515831 Abstract This article explores what leadership practices are associated with International Baccalaureate (IB) student achievement. Using a combined data set of Diploma Program (DP) exam scores and teachers’ survey responses about school leadership from 29 schools in Southeast Asia, the article reports certain leadership practices (i.e., strategic resourcing, monitoring classroom teaching and curriculum, encouraging teacher learning and development) exercised in the sampled IB schools that are significantly associated with student academic outcomes. This article contributes to empirical literature on school leadership effects on student learning in international school settings, which is an underresearched inquiry in the field.
	Dr Xiu Cravens Vanderbilt University U.S.A. School Leadership in International Schools: Perspectives and Practices https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2018.1515818 Abstract This commentary reviews the papers in this special issue, highlights the importance of understanding the nature, prevalence, and potential impact of leadership in international schools, and provides a set of guiding questions for the reader to reflect upon the relevance and implications of the findings.