Dr Mark Gibson

This paper explores the thesis of de-globalisation in relation to international education. Through interrogating accounts of international school leadership during the Covid-19 crisis, the tension between international expectations and localised realities is charted, with four central tenets of internationalism undermined by the pandemic experience. It is argued that the Covid-19 crisis, ostensibly a single global event, resulted in the fractalisation of international education; the conceptualisation of unified internationalism was undermined by the inherently localised material effects of the pandemic. In place of an internationalism that is unified, transcendent, inclusive and connected, international school leaders’ accounts of leading through the pandemic focused on their sense that their schools were fractured, rooted, privileged and isolated. It is suggested that this international crisis demonstrates the precarious nature of the respatialising of the global that is intrinsic to international schooling.

This paper reports on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the well-being of international school leaders. Drawing on a study of 13 leaders of international schools in 14 different countries, its key findings are that the pandemic resulted in increased stress, trauma and isolation for school leaders, and that school leader well-being is interdependent with the wellbeing of students and teachers. Yet, although student and teacher well-being has become a priority area post the pandemic, school leaders feel there is little or no attention paid to their own well-being. The data presented here suggest that more attention needs to be paid to international school leader well-being, for the benefit of all stakeholders in the school. 

The schooling landscape in England has changed significantly in the past decade as a result of ‘academisation’. Academy schools have moved from being locally administered to being independently run, and directly funded by national government. Conversion to academy status has been encouraged by the government on the premise that headteachers are afforded more autonomy over their schools with more effective lines of accountability. Such schools are frequently grouped in Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs), more recently called School Trusts, which has consequences for leadership practice. The research in this study presents the perceptions of policy impact on the role of the headteachers working within a MAT. The participants include two primary headteachers and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the trust, a role which has emerged as a leadership position over the last decade. This article shares the leaders’ views on education policy trends, particularly how this has changed the central team, the MAT, and how collaboration within the trust has changed the role of the headteacher. This unique research examined a trust that has gone through that process and records the altering dynamics of a leadership team as a consequence.

Although various aspects of school leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic have been addressed in the emerging literature, there is a dearth of studies focusing on the effects of the major assessment changes that took place during this period.Thisarticle reports on a study of three case-study schools in England,analysing leaders’experiences of leading high-stakes assessments. The data suggested that assessment changes during the pandemic impacted several aspects of leadership, especially professional autonomy, moral leadership, the purposes of assessment, managing motivation, and the relationship between assessment and other leadership priorities. None of the leaders wished to retain that approach to
assessment, and each argued that these assessment practices had a negative impact on themselves and/or other school leaders they knew. The authors suggest the context of neoliberal and structural reform created a unique political and educational crisis in England. This small-scale study is indicative of the major impact of these revised assessment practices, and the paper suggests that further research is needed to explore the longer-term impact on leadersand their schools.

This paper explores the discursive construction of race in Malaysian international schools and its relationship with postcolonialism. In response to the expansion of international schooling, it analyses data from a study of international school leadership in Malaysia, a former colony, through a postcolonial lens. It draws on face-to-face interviews with twelve international school leaders, and discourse analysis of sample websites from Malaysian international schools. Malaysia is an ethnocracy, with three distinct racial groups, and ethnicity affects many aspects of life, including education, and it is suggested that international schools offer no exception to this. The data indicate four emergent themes, these being constructions of: school identity; educational expertise; leadership; and Malaysia itself. The authors posit that international schools in Malaysia operate as postcolonial sites. Despite the origins of international schools lying within a movement committed to equality, these institutions are implicated in the construction and replication of racial divisions.

School governance in England has seen considerable change over the last decade as ongoing structural reform has produced a range of models affecting composition and roles of individual schools and the middle tier. Governance is important as school governing bodies have considerable powers and responsibilities for young peoples’ education (Young, 2017). There are some 300,000 governors in England, the largest group of volunteers in England, whose work is prominently hidden from view but make a significant contribution not only to their schools, but also the educational system as a whole (James et al., 2010). The changes in particular have seen a move from a stakeholder to a skills-based model (Connolly et al., 2017), and are aligned with changes in school and middle tier structures (Bubb et al., 2019). We wish to argue that this turbulence, creating a series of crises which although centrally formed, are seemingly organic replicating differences across systems prohibits, or at least restricts, effective school governance. We argue
this through an exploration of two vignette case studies of single Academy Trusts (SATS) and Multiple Academy Trusts (MATs), exploring changes in each and the vacillations in governance discourse.

The number of international schools has increased significantly this century, with new schools predominately situated in Asia and the Middle East. This growth has also seen a shift from not-for-profit to for-profit education, and from such schools being primarily for children of expatriates to being mainly for host nation children.  New actors, such as global chains of international schools, have also entered the arena. This article explores the impact of the contemporary landscape on the professional relationship between international school principals and their governors/ owners, by drawing on a study of twelve international school principals in Malaysia. There were five emergent themes from the analysis: principal autonomy; ownership support; principal accountability; principal affective dissonance and the locus of control.  There were wide ranging levels of autonomy given to principals, significant support from owners in terms of financial backing for areas of development and methods of accountability that ranged from formal to informal. Principals seemingly had affective dissonance over working in for-profit schooling and there were issues surrounding the locus of ownership. There is little research in this area, particularly in Asia and this work appears to be the sole work that includes consideration of leadership in international school chains.

This study sought to examine the pro-organizational attitudes of hotel middle-managers. The ability of hotel middle-managers to contribute to the effectiveness and performance of their hotels is often dependent on their job satisfaction and affective commitment to the organization. By introducing the concept of psychological ownership, this particular study seeks to understand the determinants of hotel middle-managers' job satisfaction and affective commitment. Additionally, this study examines whether the tenure of hotel middle-managers is likely to attenuate the relationship between psychological ownership and pro-organizational attitudes. Empirical evidence is drawn from a sample of 110 middle-managers in a 4- and 5-star hotel chain in Malaysia. Findings from the study add a new dimension and insights into understanding how and when hotel middle-managers are satisfied with their jobs and committed to their organization.

The role of the Head of Department is at the heart of tertiary education; it is where institutional policy and procedure is predominately enacted. The extant literature on the nature and challenges of such roles is almost exclusively from the Western world. The research that this article reports on examined the leadership and management structures and staff progression routes in Bangladesh colleges. The project then explored the roles and challenges facing Heads of Department in the colleges. Four focus groups were held comprising of a total of 26 Heads of Department from Bangladesh colleges. Findings indicate that the Bangladesh higher education system is highly centralised, from the Ministry of Education and the National University. Participants report their role as primarily paper-based administration with little autonomy. The challenges they face involve dealing with acute staffing shortages, student political activists and no preparation and development in the form of training. These roles and challenges differ from roles in higher education in the literature.

Although there is an extensive literature across a range of national contexts concerning the evolving role of the school leader, little has been written about the rapidly expanding world of international school leadership. This paper focuses on the top tier of leadership of international schools by drawing on semi-structured interviews with 12 school principals in Malaysia, during which they reflected on the nature of their job and the routes they had taken to headship. It is argued that although the overwhelming majority had taken a school leadership qualification and found elements helpful, they felt that it did not adequately prepare them for their role. Several ways in which international school leadership differs significantly from educational school leadership in other contexts are identified, with principals needing to pay attention to loneliness, transience, cultural differences, governance, business elements, and managing school composition. By identifying key challenges faced by international heads, and by charting the paths that individuals take towards headship, this article seeks to understand the nature of senior leadership in international schools.

Purpose
High-stakes accountability and continuous multi-faceted pressures of the principalship require leaders to develop a broad range of personal qualities including resilience and personal vitality. Scant research exists on what happens to school principals when careers abruptly and involuntarily end, and the purpose of this paper is sought to hear principals’ accounts of their experiences and to identify whether these personal qualities assist recovery and career re-identification.

Design/methodology/approach
A collaborative English and Australian study of former principals aimed to evaluate effects of involuntary job loss from their own perspectives. In total, 12 case studies involved one-on-one interviews during a two-year period revealing impact of job loss, coping strategies, resilience and personal vitality.

Findings
Successful management indicators were found: personal qualities, including the ability to retain a perspective and big picture view of career journey; an enduring love of teaching; health and fitness; study; getting another suitable post; and psychological and medical support. Time taken to regain pre-existing levels of personal vitality varied significantly based on resilience and contextual circumstances, whilst psychological and social support from family and professional colleagues was invaluable for recovery.

Originality/value
This international study presents an original insight into effects of principals’ sudden job loss – a perspective which has imposing pastoral relevance for employing authorities, professional associations and collegial networks. Aspiring and current principals may feel, “There but for the grace of God, go I”, and it is they who may need ultimately to be prepared for what is an increasingly common occurrence in schools across the world.

This article explores the effects on former principals who have undergone involuntary job dissolution. It draws upon a study of 10 former principals who have experienced involuntary job dissolution in England and Australia; however, none of the participants were dismissed. Hour-long, one-to-one interviews were conducted with each participant and key emergent themes analysed. There was a high level of congruence between data from the two countries and key findings were effects on former principals’ physical and emotional health, self-belief, professional identity and finances, plus a sense of loss of power. The effects of these job losses were significant and long-lasting. The analysis positions these results within the established literature on job loss, particularly with regard to Bowlby’s attachment theory. The manner of departure appears to carry substantial meaning and there are implications here for the management of school principals. Attachment theory suggests people undergo physical and emotional loss when separated from loved ones. The participants displayed a sense of grief akin to loss of a significant other. The authors put forward the concept that principalship involves attachment to the school institution as in a love relationship.

There has been a large-scale structural reform of schooling in England during the 21st Century; new ‘academy schools’ have emerged, the organisation of which differs to schooling in the latter half of the 20th Century. These new schools are independent of the middle tier of local government, the Local Authority, and are often grouped within a multi-academy trust (MAT). This article is a case study of two academy schools within a single MAT. Interviews were held with three participants, two principals and a MAT senior representative. The schools differed in their range of leadership preparation and development (LPD) but welcome practice is indicated particularly within one school with a specific emphasis on middle leader development. The paper concludes that if LPD is important for successful schools, then quality assurance systems for LPD within MATs need to be in place and its provision ought not to be left to the marketplace.

Sponsored academy schools are independent, state-funded schools in England managed by charitable trusts (the ‘sponsors’). Originally created in 2000, they have often replaced underachieving schools in socially deprived areas and have grown significantly in number, and sponsor type, since 2010. This article seeks to explore the relationships and roles of the academy principal and sponsor in newly formed academies. The study is a nested case study with a purposive sample organised by sponsor type. It is qualitative work, and 19 semi-structured interviews were held with key actors, including academy principals and sponsor representatives. A constant comparison method analysis was undertaken and emergent themes were developed. Depending on the relationship between the academy and its sponsor – which can range from autocratic to laissez-faire – a principal’s autonomy can vary significantly from one institution to the next. Two key areas of autonomy are discussed: finance and school curriculum. The article explores implications for policy and practice, indicating that neoliberal structural reforms such as academy schools have implications for the role of the school principal. It concludes that there is a paradox that whilst academies were created to give schools greater freedom from local authorities, the autonomy of an individual principal in certain academies is reduced compared to that of their maintained school counterparts; the sponsor–principal relationship is fundamentally that of employer–employee. 

This article investigates the realization of ethos and vision in the early stages of sponsored academy schools in England. It is a qualitative nested case study of ten academies. Nineteen key actors were interviewed, including principals and sponsor representatives. The nests were organized by sponsor type. Key themes are discussed within the context of the literature. There were common themes across all of the academies and some that were exclusive to individual cases. The conclusions drawn show that the leaders of these schools were initiating several actions simultaneously in order to develop their academies’ ethos and vision. The ethos and vision realization in sponsored academy schools is more complex than other examples in the literature owing to a greater number of actors and the urgency for change. In particular, the role of the sponsor is greater than much of the literature suggests.

Sponsored academies are independent state-funded schools that are unique in England's state school system in that they have an external sponsor. This paper involves two case studies in which 'successful' schools are sponsors for academy schools and are new agents of non-selective schooling. The study is part of a qualitative nested case study of ten academies which aims to investigate the motivations of sponsors, the leadership roles of the sponsor and academy principal, and how the ethos and vision of academies have been realised. This paper discusses the findings from five interviews of key players in the creation of two academy schools. 'Successful' schools that are sponsoring academies are generally those that are selective by examination entrance and/or private fees. Analysis shows a range of motivations for the sponsors and different tensions and relationships between the principals and sponsors. Both academies have utilised the high status branding of their sponsor as a key to transformation. The relationship is unusual in one case in that there is a degree of symbiosis between the headmaster of the 'successful' school and the principal of the academy. The research does not seek to evaluate the success of the initiative. The paper concludes that ethos and vision are at the heart of sustainable school transformation; further work would need to be undertaken to evaluate the long-term success of these academies