EDTHOUGHT
International School Leadership During Tough Times: Reflecting on What Matters By Stephen Chatelier, Elke Van dermijnsbrugge and Mark Harrison
It’s not easy being a leader. Of course, anyone involved in school leadership already knows this. But with the many challenges that have confronted us in 2020, this has perhaps become clearer than ever. For many international school leaders, particular issues emerge from the complex transnational spaces in which they operate. In this article, we briefly describe some of these challenges and suggest that this unusually difficult situation has provided an opportunity for school boards and leaders to reflect on some important questions about the nature of their roles. The impact of Covid-19 on international schools While Covid-19 has affected school leaders across the world, including those working in local schools with local children, the challenges presented have often been of a different nature for those involved in international school leadership. Leaders of schools that serve families from different parts of the world have encountered a plethora of challenges as a result of the pandemic. Many schools have witnessed a decline in enrolment as families have either been stranded in their home countries due to travel restrictions or have even lost their jobs as multinational employers have reduced or ceased operations. Others have made the decision themselves to take their families back to their home countries, seeking the support of family and the sense of comfort that often comes with being in one’s own country. Mirroring the reality that the effects of globalization over the past three decades have not been even, Covid-19 has also impacted the world unevenly. Some countries have been affected in large numbers, while others have managed to mostly contain the virus. This has meant that some international schools, depending on their student demographics, have been more impacted than others. It also means that in many international schools with diverse student populations, the challenges and concerns being faced by some families are markedly different to those of others. 24 EARCOS Triannual Journal
Some international school leaders are working in countries that have imposed significant border restrictions and conditions for opening schools. For example, here in Hong Kong, the many “cross-border” students who travel each day from the Mainland have been unable to continue their education with their classmates. Under similar conditions, international school leaders across the world have been forced to consider whether they should offer learning that is fully online, offer a hybrid arrangement of asynchronous online and face-to-face lessons, or offer face-to-face lessons where students outside of the country “participate” live from their computer screens, to name just some of the options (you can see a map of school closures from UNESCO at-- https://en.unesco.org/ covid19/educationresponse) In addition, these leaders have often had to unexpectedly delve much more deeply into their school’s financial position, making predictions about what kinds of operating losses can be sustained and for how long. They have also fielded requests – perhaps demands – from parents for reductions in tuition. Perhaps some of the hardest decisions have involved staffing. Can we keep paying them? If so, can we do so at full salary? And, boards and leaders in countries where staff have been stranded outside the country, have had to confront the prospect of telling their staff – many of whom have been loyal employees and even friends – that they no longer have a job. Given the gravity of the events of 2020--and given their particular significance for international schools--we wonder: have international school leaders been adequately prepared for the unique challenges they have now been asked to face? What might 2020 teach us about international school leadership? We offer the following questions and observations for reflection and as an encouragement to share practices and responses. We do not offer anything like an exhaustive list of questions and
