Book reviews
International Leadership Development International Baccalaureate World Schools as developers of Human Capital? by Simon Gillett Woodbridge: John Catt Educational (2015) Reviewed by Tristan Bunnell This is a book with an ambitious remit. The author is a former student of an international school in The Netherlands who has taught in schools in nine different countries. This personal experience comes through strongly in the book and provides the back-drop to much thoughtful insight. The main thesis of the book is that international schools are huge providers of human capital and need viewing through a critical ethical lens. The book ambitiously purports to be an exhaustive study on the costs of international schools and asks the interesting question ‘are they economically regressive or progressive?’ (p16). It is asserted that international schools emerged in colonial times, and are expensive, private sector, Englishmedium schools that are rapidly growing but require more critical attention. In particular, ‘the ideologies of leadership by which they are sustained are brought into question’ (p5). Interestingly, perhaps even surprisingly, the book brings with it a strong religious undercurrent e.g. ‘international schools have been closely linked to Christian spiritual leadership’. There is obviously much here that could be discussed, and the critical analysis aim of the book seems novel and topical. In short, the book promises to deliver a lot. Indeed, the blurb on the back page describes it as ‘an important study’. However, the book reads more as an opinion-piece, interesting as that is, rather than as an important academic study. There is, for instance, surprisingly little academic discussion about the term ‘human capital’ even though it sits in the sub-title of the book. This discussion in itself would have been useful, since ‘international schools’ are increasingly being sociologically viewed as arenas of capitalformation. This, in turn, goes much further than mere economic advantage, towards providing symbolic, social and decisional capital as the field becomes more networked, branded and market-led. Although relatively short, the book has 111 pages of text, in 11 chapters. These cover a very broad area of discussion, such as quality assurance, international curriculum, accreditation, and higher education. There is an extensive ‘Thesis Bibliography’, mainly made up of literature with a Spring
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Christian-ethos dimension, or educational leadership sources. However, there is very little material beyond 2012, and very little from mainstream international education sources which will clearly limit its appeal to readers of International School. This lack of material from the mainstream international school literature is evident throughout the book, with scant references to academic works. There is an especially weak sub-chapter (pp 45–50), which discusses the ‘Literature on International Schools’ yet contains few references beyond the 1990s. The book offers numerous statements that are either contestable or require validation. For example, it is asserted that ‘Families generally pay school fees for their children to attend international schools on the understanding that they will benefit financially in the long term’ (p8). This is a statement that may be true to some extent but needs research reference support. Further, it is claimed that ‘a sizeable proportion of international schools are Christian’ (p11). Again, where has this bold claim come from? Third, it is asserted that ‘The population of international schools is, by its very nature, constituted by international students’ (p13). Here
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