Leading, teaching and learning
Making Best Practice International By Richard Mast
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s teachers and administrators, we seek to improve our knowledge and skills, and our expertise manifests in what can be called ‘best practice’. That is, we aspire to improve, refine and apply the full range of skills in all of our roles in a school. Best practice becomes the hallmark of our identity. We become proud to be excellent practitioners. Teachers and administrators who venture overseas are sought-after because they are experts. That expertise is manifest in their ‘best practice’. Private schools and international schools that offer an international curriculum for host country students are eager to have access to this cohort of international experts. The expectation is that because the curriculum is ‘international’, the teachers need to be ‘international education experts’ in order to teach it. The administrators who are brought in are expected to facilitate the processes of implementing the curriculum and to take responsibility for school operations. This is particularly the case when some sort of accreditation process is anticipated. It is not a surprise, therefore, that teachers and administrators launch into their roles and apply their skills and knowledge based upon their experience and the expectations
18 | International School | Spring 2022
of the schools: being hired as the international expert means demonstrating that ability. However, educators in this situation are from a culture different from that of the school community. Just because a person is an excellent teacher in their home country does not mean that they will be an excellent teacher of Vietnamese or Indian or Angolan or Arabic students, particularly when they are teaching those students in their home countries. And just because a person is an excellent administrator of schools in one cultural context does not mean they will be an excellent administrator in other contexts. What is being experienced is the
