Leaders of International Schools: Key Traits in Times of Crisis - Essay Sample

Introduction

International school leaders require leadership attributes and skills in times of crisis that are different from those that they need during a typical school environment. When leaders have strong school leadership, they are able to position the school for the future, and they empower and support the staff in pursuit of teaching and learning excellence. School leaders play a significant role, mostly when a crisis occurs.

There are many factors that put international schools' head of school, superintendent, and principals at risk, ranging from a natural disaster, revolution, political unrest, economic recession, devaluation of the currency, and terrorism (Holt and Wood, 2017). These are the main forms of crisis that may make the school leaders apply different strategies. When problems occur in an international school, the leader must exercise some form of cultural sensitivity because his or her decision is not only for the safety and concern of the expatriate teachers.

The research will review the experience of international school leaders, including the former and current heads of schools and principals, to take note of the incidences of crisis and how they handled the cases in terms of the leadership strategies that they put into use. The results will identify why crisis leadership is relevant for future international school leaders because they will have a better understanding of how to handle danger, and faculty and staff emotions, in critical life and death situations (Boin et al., 2013). Thus needing to manage their own emotions and what decision they will need to adapt and avoid during a crisis. The goal of this study is to understand how international school leaders cope during times of crisis and to develop a way to help international school leaders muddle through challenging times.

Literature Review

The role of schools is to pass education to the students, providing appropriate access and the right curriculum for everyone. Leaders have a unique position in turbulent times. Followers look to their leaders for actions, solutions to the crisis, and for explanations that will help them to interpret and respond to perceived threats and uncertainties (Holt and Wood, 2017).

Principals are the heads of schools and are tasked with the responsibility to lead with the best of their ability as they give the students an excellent foundation to live productively. Only a few of the school leaders are well-trained and supported for the role of leadership, and even fewer have the guidelines concerning the expectations, especially during disaster response as well as recovery.

The current times are different from the past, and there is the case of changing the nature of crisis; hence leaders need to be able to think in a way that helps them understand the circumstances that might be different than the norm. An example is the current case of COVID-19 that has had school leaders make a decision on how to run the schools online. It has been difficult transitioning to ensure that all students participate actively in their semesters. Therefore they will have to frame the event differently to past experiences. Leadership positions become more complex; they, in turn, become less attractive.

A modern-day crisis needs more than a ready-made answer as a solution. Emerging problems call for other paradigms and other strategies. It is my goal that this paper will be a potential resource for future leaders who are facing a crisis (Dowell et al., 2011). International school leaders are working with a diversified community of parents, faculty, and staff. Therefore, they find themselves taking responsibility for a vastly diverse community of people with very different sets of values and expectations, many of whom look to the school for support and a sense of belonging.

Despite globalization and the increase of unprecedented crises during the past twenty years around the world, there is very little research on the topic of international schools and their leaders during times of crisis. Thus these leaders can only be as influential as the leaders above them.

The statistics show that 67% of international school leaders report that workplace stress impacts negatively on their professional performance, with a similar number reporting interference with their personal lives (Dowell et al., 2011). A third of the international school leaders say that they have felt close to breaking point at some point. It is clearly a significant issue that is in the interests of the whole international school community to address (Holt and Wood, 2017). It is vital to know how to prioritize school leader wellbeing and provide international school leaders with the support they need.

Given the impending leadership challenges and the future of the crises, the state of international schools will depend partly on the competencies the next generation of school leaders possess. It is well established that competencies are a combination of skills, abilities, knowledge, and personal attributes. Leaders need to understand the behaviors and actions that will support a successful response to the crises.

Methodology

The research will include qualitative methods to obtain information on how international school leaders cope during times of crisis because the goal of the study is to explain the phenomenon by relying on the perception of people's experience. The participants of the research will be former and current heads of schools and principals. The number of participants will be 12, and they will include both male and female.

For the purposes of this research, the data collection tools for conducting the research will involve the use of a semi-structured questionnaire and interviews. For the interviews, the participants will participate in 45 minutes to an hour, semi-structured, open-ended interviews that were audiotaped, transcribed, and thematically coded for analysis. A research consent form and letter of request would be sent to each individual participant. The researcher developed specific questions whose aims is to identify participants feelings and opinion regarding the research questions.

In this study, the sample members who were selected had a special relationship with the phenomenon of cases of crisis under investigation, sufficient and relevant work experience in the field of international school leadership around the world. Within this context, the participants of this study were current and former international school leaders.

Results and Discussion

The research shows that in crises, leaders must possess the ability to identify the critical decisions only they can make and delegate lower-tier decisions to the appropriate level. The research will likely show that a certain percentage will report that they found leading an international school emotionally challenging work. Leaders experience difficulties and challenges when performing the duty of being responsible for a large number of students across cultures where they all report to the leader (Boin et al., 2013). It can be tiresome to individually handle cases of students when conflicts arise, and it is even more complicated when the leader has to do it every other day.

Another percentage will show that feeling emotionally challenged at least two to three times per week when they have to deal with a large population of students. There will also be a percentage that will report encountering these challenges on a daily basis. The complexities of dealing with cross-cultural relationships and the emotional climate generated by the constant transition of an internationally mobile population pose specific challenges for international school leaders who are not encountered elsewhere. Loosening rather than tightening communication and decision-making structures during a crisis may be more appropriate.

In other questionnaires, leaders may report that the relationships with parents are somewhat challenging, citing cultural dissonance around parents' expectations as the main reason for conflicts arising. These include issues relating to dissatisfaction with the current educational program or proposed curriculum changes (Boin, 2016). International school leaders may also report significant parent pressure to deliver learning in traditional ways with the overemphasis on the importance of core skills development and testing, and hostility towards 21st-century approaches to learning.

Conclusion

It is with serious concern that the head department of education looks keenly into the matter of how international school leaders respond to crises. The leaders will need to be trained to handle crises in a different manner than their average day environment at school. If faced with such a situation, the first enemy is the barriers in the leader's mind. These barriers may present themselves in many ways, such as anxiety, fear, instability to comprehend and thus create an emotional toll on the leader. The research understands how international school leaders cope during times of crisis by strategizing properly and using practices that are competent for the students and the entire staff.

References

Boin, A. (2016). The Transboundary Crisis: Why we are unprepared and the road ahead. J Contingencies and Crisis Management. 2019;27:94–99. https://doi.org10.1111/1468-5973.12241

Boin, A., Kuipers, S. and Overdijk, W. (2013), "Leadership in times of crisis: a framework for assessment," International Review of Public Administration, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 79-91.

Dowell, G. W. S., Shackell, M.B., and Stuart, N. V. (2011). Boards, CEOs, and surviving a financial crisis: Evidence from the internet shakeout, Strategic Management Journal, 32(10), 1025-1045.

Holt, S.S. and Wood, A. (2017), "Leadership and emotional intelligence," in Marques, J. and Dhiman, S. (Eds), Leadership Today: Practices for Personal and Professional Performance, Springer, Berlin, pp. 111-138.