Successful leadership in International schools: Lessons from the Asia-Pacific

Across the Asia Pacific, the number of international schools are rapidly rising - many of these schools include large multi-ethnic populations. Typically, they aspire to offer an ‘international’ education and university preparation. They often adopt International Baccalaureate (IB) programs to accomplish these aims (Bryant 2018). Over 180 Australian schools now offer IB programs (IBO 2017). Research shows that effective instructional leadership is essential to implement IB programs successfully (Lee, Hallinger & Walker 2012). This fits with broader insights that leaders influence student learning by shaping teachers’ working conditions and professional relationships and designing schools’ organisational structures (Day et al. 2010). Although research has identified the external and organisational (Bryant et al. 2016; Lee et al. 2016; Rizvi 2014) challenges faced by international school leaders, there is little research on the impact of leadership on student outcomes in IB schools.