School Leadership in International Schools: Perspectives and Practices

The International School Consultancy as of October 2017 estimates that there are now 9,200 international schools, 5 million students, and 463,000 staff scattered around the globe. This estimate represents a fourfold increase in international schools between 2000 and 2017 worldwide (see the ISC website). This dramatic increase has been driven mainly by the rise of International Baccalaureate (IB) schools in Asia Pacific and the Middle East (Lee & Wright, 2015). Despite the rapid growth of school numbers in the global K12 sector, research literature on leadership in international schools is thin on the ground. In this issue of the Peabody Journal of Education, we aim to illuminate some of the key features of leadership practice as enacted in international schools located in a number of different regions. Our aim is to offer a platform for researchers to further navigate ways to theorize and investigate empirically leadership practices in international schools. Through doing this investigation we hope that this issue can help to develop a broader, longer-term agenda for research on leadership and school improvement in international school settings