title: Towards Interculturalism: Leaders' beliefs and Actions in a Multicultural K-12 International School
Creators: name: Williamson, Yvonne J
Publisher: name: Griffith University
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Interculturalism
subject: Leadership
subject: Governance
subject: Multicultural
subject: Cultural Competence

description: International school leaders are privileged with the task of leading culturally diverse communities, creating a sense of connection and belonging, and ensuring academic success. When international school leadership teams are themselves similarly culturally diverse, skills and practices in intercultural understanding and community relationships become paramount. The study explored the values, beliefs and actions of three local and three international school leaders at a multi-cultural K–12 international school. The theoretical framework adopted for the study, Seiler's Model of Intercultural Leadership Behaviour (2015) from the field of military leadership, describes five factors that influence leader's behaviour including individual competence, the group, the organisation, the context and the situation and was used as a lens through which to conduct the study. The study sought to answer the following questions: • What are the values and beliefs of an international school leadership team in relation to interculturalism and family-school-community relationships? • How are these values and beliefs enacted? To accurately capture the various perspectives of the leaders, a qualitative case study design including a demographic survey and individual semi-structured face-to-face interviews was employed. Participants were invited to share their personal reflections and self-reported actions in response to the interview questions. Using thematic analysis, the data was analysed with four broad themes emerging: cultural difference within the school community, the complexities of communication, the connection between leadership and interculturalism and the impact of external influences. The findings indicated that leaders had a clear sense of personal values and beliefs that guided their individual actions and of those that supported working across difference both in the team and in the community. Leaders were aware of the cultural diversity of parent expectations and beliefs in relation to learning, engagement, trust and communication, and shared both positive strategies and challenges that they encountered. Although this study set out to explore leaders’ values and beliefs in relation to interculturalism and family-school-community relations, the findings suggested that the predominant focus of leaders was around the cultural complexities of working as a multi-cultural team. iii Both local and international leaders expressed a strong desire to be successful individually and collectively in relation to interculturalism. However, the findings indicated that all leaders felt a degree of tension around interpersonal communication within the team when difference was seen as a liability rather than a benefit. Different cultural norms and beliefs around the ideas of power and hierarchy were noted as factors that inhibited open and effective collaboration. While the findings confirmed that all school leaders were familiar with the idea and necessity of individual intercultural competence, the exacerbating stress-effect of the pandemic could not be ignored. One of the local leaders shared that her belief and practice in Confucianism assisted her in striving for harmony during challenging interactions. The findings indicated that external influences such as duality of culture and governance, a perceived lack of internal and external support, and the pressures and uncertainties resulting from the pandemic had a significant effect on the attitudes and responses of individual leaders. These were notably different in several instances between local and international participants and at times, were seen to have a negative effect on relationships within the team and with the ability of the team to function with maximum efficiency and effectiveness. The overwhelming implication from this study is that international schools and leaders need to intentionally and actively engage with the concept of interculturalism in order to successfully meet the social, emotional and academic needs of culturally diverse communities. The findings of the study support Seiler's framework and in doing so, the study contributes to the field of international school leadership by presenting a more holistic conceptual understanding of the complexities inherent in working as part of a multi-cultural team within a multi-cultural environment. In this study, the researcher was also a full participant in the study. While not without challenges, I hope this study will encourage other international school leaders to engage in critical research in order to further illuminate effective strategies to build interculturalism in international schools.