Leadership in a Changing International Culture

IB Conference of the Americas

Dr. Peter J. Samaranayake Ph.D., Ed.D.

(Dr. Sam…)

July 14, 2012

Introduction:

International Schools in general and IB schools in particular have „international understanding‟

both explicitly and implicitly stated in its goals. However, this is not something that will happen

by itself without strategic action and planning. Often National schools that seek to become an IB

school have to change their culture and encourage „international mindedness‟. Often this will

involve changing the very ethos of the school. Hence providing leadership in a changing

international culture becomes key.

Learning Intentions:

At the end of the presentations, the participants will

1. Have an appreciation of the different types of IB schools around the world

2. Understand that an international culture in a school is to be cultivated (despite a

homogeneous or diverse population)

3. Recognize that most IB schools are at different stages of „international mindedness‟

4. Know that moving from a „national‟ school to an international school will only happen

by design

5. Deliberate on the challenges of providing Leadership in a Changing International Culture

The Presenter will use his experience in different international schools in fourteen countries in

America, Europe, Africa and Asia to raise probing questions that the participants may encompass

as they try to provide leadership in a changing international culture. He will use Michael Fullan‟s

“Leading in a Culture of Change” as one of the backdrops of his presentation. He will call on the

individual experiences of the participants to discuss their own struggles in developing

„international mindedness‟ and how Fullan‟s work has helped them in changing the ethos of their

schools in their role as leaders.

The modus operandi will be to give a brief introduction to the issue, then describe a few personal

experiences and then invite participants to deliberate on their own challenges in changing the

ethos of their schools. Most of the session will engage the participants (note I did not use the

word audience) in interactive deliberation. Even though I will be the initial presenter, I expect

that the nature of the topic will enthuse many „co-presenters‟ from within those present and my

role thence will be to be the facilitator. I know how it will begin but I expect to be a fellow

learner and am just as excited to see how it will proceed and end.

Brief Introduction to Dr. Sam…

Having been with the IB since 1980, I am probably one of the few long-time IB-Educators who

is still currently an IB-Head. I imbibe, embody and emulate the best from the East and the West.

Having lived in fourteen countries, travelled in more than a hundred, taught students from over

eighty countries I have experienced a mosaic of diversity and can relate to different cultures and

ideologies. Apart from depth, I have breadth in that I have studied across a wide spectrum of

disciplines (physics, mathematics, psychology, philosophy to drama and IT). My International

School Experiences and Credentials include:

Currently Principal at Rufus King International School. This school has been an IB

school since 1978 and is one of the largest and oldest Public IB schools in the USA. It

was ranked as #1 in the State of Wisconsin and 130th

in the Nation, by US News and

World Report. My role here is to increase participation in the IB Diploma and gain

Authorization for the MYP Program.

Center Principal and Consultant at Beijing National Day School, Beijing China. Advised

the school on the Application Process for the IB and developed IBDP curriculum.

Participated in the IB Pre-Authorization Visit from Asia Pacific Region.

Head of School at Virgin Islands Montessori School and International Academy. During

my tenure we got authorized to offer the IBDP Program, and the Middle Years Program,.

Served as consultant for prospective IB schools (Horizon School in Myanmar and

Woodlands Academy in Woodlands, Texas.)

Head of Education (Superintendent of four schools) at the Aga Khan Education Service

in Tanzania. During my tenure, we became an IGCSE school, attained, PYP Candidate

status and also became an Authorized IB Diploma School.

Founding Principal and Educational Consultant for Hanoi International School (K-12),

the first IB school in Vietnam. I also taught Mathematics and TOK.

Deputy Director (K-12) and Head of Secondary School (6-12) at International College

Spain, Madrid. I also taught IGCSE Drama and TOK. I played a leading role in getting

the school accredited with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges in MA.

Served at the United World College of the Adriatic in Trieste, Italy. Taught Physics,

Mathematics, TOK, and was coordinator for the Community Service Program. Was part

of the team from the UWCAD that was responsible for introducing the IB to various

schools in Slovenia.

Served at the Kodaikanal International School in India. I was the Head of the High School

(9-12), the Science Department, and the Drama Department, Member of the School Board.

IB Educator: Consultant, Trainer and Workshop Leader

Diploma Examiner in Physics

Doctoral degree in International Education and Development with major emphasis in

School Administration from Columbia University, New York

Leadership in a Changing International Culture

IB Conference of the Americas

Dr. Peter J. Samaranayake Ph.D., Ed.D.

(Dr. Sam…) Introduction:

International Schools in general and IB schools in particular have „international understanding‟

both explicitly and implicitly stated in its goals. However, this is not something that will happen

by itself without strategic action and planning. Often National schools that seek to become an IB

school have to change their culture and encourage „international mindedness‟. Often this will

involve changing the very ethos of the school. Hence providing leadership in a changing

international culture becomes key.

Learning Intentions:

At the end of the presentations, the participants will

1. Have an appreciation of the different types of IB schools around the world

2. Understand that an international culture in a school is to be cultivated (despite a

homogeneous or diverse population)

3. Recognize that most IB schools are at different stages of „international mindedness‟

4. Know that moving from a „national‟ school to an international school will only happen

by design

5. Deliberate on the challenges of providing Leadership in a Changing International Culture

1. Having an Appreciation of the different types of IB schools around the world.

Types of IB Schools:

Public (Rufus King International School)

Private

Parochial (St Mary‟s Tokyo)

Independent (Washington IS) (Then there are schools that take on the names of saints but

have no religious origin or intent. Saints Sell!)

Government Sponsored but Private (United World College of the Adriatic)

Church Sponsored but Private (Kodaikanal International School)

For Profit Schools (International College Spain, Madrid) (Some are for lots of profit)

Residential IB Schools

Day Boarding (Beijing National Day School)

Five Day Boarding (American Community School UK)

Full Boarding (Seven Oaks, UK)

Single Gender Schools (Boys only, Girls only) (Doon School, India and St Maur in Yokohama)

Where does your school fit in? [Spend some time identifying the different types of Schools amongst the participants]

2. Understand that an international culture in a school is to be cultivated (despite a

homogeneous or diverse population)

a. What is your understanding on culture of a school?

What is School Culture?

Academicians define school culture along the lines of the shared beliefs and

priorities driving the thinking and actions of people within a school community.

I see school culture as:

Norms: “That‟s just the way things get done around here.” (When “portables”

become “permanents.”)

Default Behaviors: How decisions are made when administrators are off campus.

(Think principal‟s secretary.)

Risk taking: The willingness of staff to try something new. (Do staff and

administrators reinforce risk-taking or risk avoidance?)

Locus of Control: Whether people in your school deal with challenges by finger

pointing or teamwork. (Is the conversation “that‟s not my department” or “they‟re all

our students?”)

The bottom line is that your school‟s culture is whatever “normal” means at

your school—from teacher innovation and administrator expectations to student

attitudes and parent involvement. The more successful “normal” is at your school,

the more successful your school.

b. Can an individual school stakeholder improve their school‟s culture?

Absolutely! School culture improvement is best driven by the people within a school

community. Any school stakeholder can start the process. The key is to create the

buy-in and momentum which ultimately transform the beliefs and attitudes within a

school community. It‟s important to know that dramatically improving a school‟s

culture typically takes 3 to 5 years. However, the sooner you start the process, the

sooner you will see results. (Experience in Tanzania)

*The above text excerpted from 50 Ways to Improve Schools for Under $50. Copyright Jason Ryan Dorsey 2007. All rights reserved. Please contact

info@jasondorsey.com for permission to distribute.

c. What makes a school culture to be international?

a. International Mindedness (not internationalism)

b. International Understanding

c. World Mindedness

d. Global perspective (not Global engagement)

d. What is international understanding?

International Understanding must “…consciously contribute to the ability of man to live with

man, to live with men who differ but are not considered strange, to live with understanding and

empathy, to rise above the restricting concepts of nationalism, racism or fanaticism.” It must

contribute to the goal of creating a world free from war, want and wastage.

e. Wha

t are some of the ingredients that need to be present for a school culture to be

international?

Inter

national population

Worl

d languages

Cele

brate Ethnic Festivals

Arts,

Music, Theatre from around the world

Cuisi

ne

Michael Fullan‟s “Leading in a Culture of Change” (Take stock of how

many are familiar with the book? Thorough? Experts? Encourage

participation)

1. The more complex society gets the more sophisticated leadership must become.

2. Complexity means change, but more specifically it means rapidly occurring, unpredictable,

nonlinear change.

3. Moreover, the pace of change is ever increasing.

4. How do you lead in a culture which seems to specialize in pell-mell innovations?

5. This is the leader‟s dilemma.

6. On the one hand, failing to act when the environment around you is radically changing leads to

extinction.

7. On the other hand, making quick decisions under conditions of mind-racing mania can be

equally fatal

8. According to Robert Steinberg, “The essence of intelligence would seem to be in knowing

when to think and act quickly and when to think and act slowly.”

9. How leaders can focus on certain key change themes that will allow them to lead effectively

under messy conditions?

10. How leaders can foster leadership in others and thus make themselves dispensable in the long

run?

11. How we can produce more leaders of leaders?

12. There are deep theoretical reasons why change occurs as it does

13. Fullan goes on to describe five powerful themes. The better we understand them the better we

will be able to influence them (not control them) for the good of the school

14. There are five themes:

a. Moral purpose

b. Understanding Change

c. Developing Relationships

d. Knowledge building

e. Coherence making

15. Leadership must be cultivated deliberately over time and at all levels of the school.

16. Two things to aid our pursuit of effective leadership

a. Knowledge base for what makes for success under conditions of complexity is

getting better, deeper and more insightful

b. There are more case examples of large-scale transformation in both business and

in education

17. G.K. Chesterton: “The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable

world, or even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is that it is

nearly reasonable, but not quite. Life is not illogicality; yet it is a trap for logicians. It

looks just a little more mathematical and regular that it is; its exactitude is obvious, but its

inexactitude is hidden; its wildness lies in wait.”

18. Change is a double-edge sword. Its relentless pace these days runs us off our feet.

19. Yet when things are unsettled, we can find new ways to move ahead and to create

breakthroughs not possible in stagnant societies. (NPR: Choice of living for ever and living with

birth, life and death?)

20. Brain storm words to describe change:

Negative terms: fear, anxiety, loss, danger, panic

Positive terms: exhilaration, risk taking, excitement, improvements, energizing

21. For better or worse, change arouses emotions and when emotions intensify leadership is key.

22. Charismatic leaders inadvertently often do more harm than good because, at best, they provide

episodic improvement followed by frustrated or despondent dependency.

23. Superhuman leaders also do us another disservice: they are role models who can never be

emulated by large numbers

24. Deep and sustained reform depends on many of us, not just the very few who are destined

to be extraordinary.

25. Homer Dixon: “We demand that leaders solve, or at least manage, a multitude of

interconnected problems that can develop into crises without warning; we require them to

navigate an increasing turbulent reality that is, in key aspects, literally incomprehensible

to the human mind; we buffet them on every side with bolder, more powerful special

interests that challenge every innovative policy idea; we submerge them in often unhelpful

and distracting information and we force them to decide and act at an ever faster pace.”

26. Leaders must have a moral purpose: Moral Purpose in our school means acting with the

intention of making a positive difference in the lives of our students and society as a whole.

27. Leaders must understand the change process: Leaders who combine a commitment to moral

purpose with a healthy respect for the complexities of the change process not only will be

more successful but also will unearth deeper moral purpose.

Six guidelines that provide leaders with concrete and novel ways of thinking about the process of

change:

a. The goal is not to innovate the most

b. It is not enough to have the best ideas

c. It is important to appreciate early difficulties of trying something new

(implementation dip)

d. Leaders must redefine resistance as a potential positive force

e. Re-culturing is the name of the game

f. Never a checklist, always complexity

28. Leaders must be consummate relationship builders with diverse people and groups-

especially with people different from themselves. Effective leaders constantly foster

purposeful interactions and problem solving, and are wary of easy consensus. The single factor

common to every successful change initiative is that relationships improve.

29. Leaders commit themselves to constantly generating and increasing knowledge inside and

outside the organization. The role of knowledge is related to the previous three themes.

a. People will not share knowledge unless they feel some moral commitment to do so

b. People will not share knowledge unless the dynamics of change favors exchange

c. Data without relationships merely causes more information glut.

Turning information into knowledge is a social process and for that you need good

relationships.

30. All these complexity keeps people on the edge of chaos. It is important to be on that edge

because that is where creativity resides, but anarchy lurks there too. Therefore, effective

leaders tolerate enough ambiguity to keep the creative juices flowing, but along the way they

seek coherence. Coherence making is a perennial pursuit. Leadership is difficult in a culture of

change because disequilibrium is common ( and valuable, provided patterns of coherence can be

fostered. (Coherence making is making sense of it all, identifying patterns)

31. In summary, moral purpose is concerned with directions and results; understanding

change, building relationships, and knowledge building honor the complexity and

discovery of the journey; and coherence making extracts valuable patterns worth

retaining.

32. Another way of describing effective leaders is that they all possess energy-enthusiasm-

hopefulness

33. There is a dynamic and reciprocal relationship between them

34. Energetic-enthusiastic-hopeful leaders causes greater moral purpose in themselves, bury

themselves in change, naturally build relationships and knowledge and seek coherence to

consolidate moral purpose.

35. Leaders immersed in the five aspects of leadership can‟t help feeling energetic,

enthusiastic and hopeful.

36. Effective leaders make people feel that even the most difficult problems can be tackled

productively. They are always hopeful- conveying a sense of optimism and an attitude of never

giving up in the pursuit of highly valued goals. Their enthusiasm and confidence (not certainty)

are infectious and they are infectiously effective, provided that they incorporate all the five

leaderships capacities in their day to day behavior

37. External commitment

38. Internal commitment (Blind commeitment)

39. Generating internal commitment over external commitment and external commitment

over bind commitment is the mark of effective leadership.

40. Outcome of effective leadership:

a. Enhanced student performance

b. Increased capacity of teachers

c. Greater involvement of parents and community members

d. Engagement of students

e. All-round satisfaction and enthusiasm of going further

f. Greater pride for all in the system

g. Fewer aborted change efforts

h. Less demoralization of employees

i. Fewer examples of piecemeal uncoordinated reform

j. Lot less wasted effort and resources

41. How new leaders can be developed

42. How to be more effective as a leader

43. How to foster a large number of leaders

44. Good leaders foster good leadership at other levels. Leadership at other levels produces a

steady stream of future leaders for the system as a whole.

A. Moral Purpose:

1. You don‟t have to be Mother Theresa to have moral purpose

2. Moral purpose is about both ends and means.

3. In education an important end is to make a difference in the lives of students

4. But the means of getting there are also crucial.

5. To strive to improve the quality of how we live together is a moral purpose of the highest

order.

6. GET THE PARTICIPANTS TO LIST THREE PERSONS THAT THEY KNOW

WHO THEY THINK ARE AUTHENTIC LEADERS. (From history or form

personal knowledge.)

7. The chances are that they will mention

a. Integrity

b. Moral excellence

c. A sense of purpose

d. Firmness of conviction

e. Steadiness

8. Character is the defining characteristic of an authentic leader.

9. At the loftiest level, moral purpose is about how humans evolve over time, especially

in relation to how they relate to each other.

10. Ridley: “Cooperative groups strive and selfish ones do not, so cooperative societies

have survived at the expense of others”

11. Motivational Pluralism: the view that we all have both egoistic and altruistic ultimate

desires and it is futile to argue one way or the other.

12. Moral purpose does not automatically attract people to do good things

13. Acting with a moral purpose is highly problematic in a complex world.

14. There are many competing „goods‟ which cannot all be pursued

15. Moral purpose is problematic because in must reconcile the diverse interest and goals

of different groups

16. To achieve moral purpose is to forge interaction and even mutual purpose across

groups 17. Yet the problem is that people are not equal and the privileged have a vested interest in

the status quo as long as it works in their favor.

18. Organizations without a moral purpose die sooner rather than later.

19. Moral purpose has a tendency to become stronger as human kind evolves

20. Thus in evolutionary terms, moral purpose has a predestined tendency to surface.

21. Effective leaders make moral purpose a natural ally.

22. Although moral purpose is natural, it will only flourish if leaders cultivate it.

23. Moral purpose and sustained performance of organizations are mutually dependent.

24. Leaders in a culture of change recognize this.

25. The “theory of Sustainability” is that it is constituted by a trinity of

a. Environmental soundness

b. Social justice

c. Economic viability

26. If any of these are missing, then that practice will not prove sustainable over time.

What does Moral Purpose mean when you are in a changing international culture?

B. Understanding Change.

1. A culture of change consists of great rapidity and nonlinearity on the one hand, and

equally great potential for creative breakthroughs on the other.

2. The paradox is that transformation would not be possible without accompanying

messiness.

3. Understanding the change process is less about innovations and more about

innovativeness.

4. It is less about strategies and more about strategizing

5. And it is rocket science, not least because we are inundated with complex, unclear, and

often contradictory advice from change gurus, (Charlatans)

6. Change cannot be managed. It can be understood and perhaps led, but it cannot be

controlled.

7. The best way to manage change is to allow for it to happen. “To be pulled by the

concerns out there rather than being pushed by the concepts in here”

8. It is not that management books don‟t contain valuable ideas---they do--- but rather that

there is no “answer” to be found in them

9. Change can be led and leadership does make a difference.

10. The goal is to develop a greater feel for leading complex change, to develop a mind-set

and action set that are constantly cultivated and refined.

11. Fullan describes six key principles to understand change.

a. The Goal is not to innovate the most

b. It is not enough to have the best ideas

c. Appreciate the implementation dip

d. Redefine resistance

e. Re-culturing is the name of the game

f. Never a checklist, always complexity.

C. Relationships

1. If moral purpose is job 1 the relationships are job 2 as you cannot get anywhere without

them

2. A successful school is not just because of the „people‟ but also because of their

relationships. It is relationships that make the difference.

3. It is time to bury the cynic who said; „leadership is about sincerity and once you learn

to fake that, you‟re got it made”

4. School‟s capacity is based on :

a. Teacher‟s knowledge skills and disposition

b. Professional community

c. Program coherence

d. Technical resource

e. Principal‟s Leadership

5. Development of individuals is not sufficient.

6. New relationships (as found in a professional learning community) are crucial but only if

the work at hard task of establishing greater program coherence and the addition of

resources.

7. The role of the Leadership is to cause greater capacity in the organization in order to get

better results (learning)

8. Relationships are not ends in themselves

9. The most effective leaders are not the smartest in an IQ sense but are those who

combine intellectual brilliance with emotional intelligence.

10. Five realms of EQ:

a. Intrapersonal (self-awareness, actualization, independence and self-regard

b. Interpersonal (empathy, social responsibility)

c. Adaptability (problem solving, flexibility)

d. Stress management (stress tolerance, impulse control)

e. General mood (happiness, optimism)

11. If relationships are almost everything, a high EQ is a must.

12. Emotional intelligence can be learned

13. The absence of conflict can be a sign of decay

14. It is important to allow and even foster negative feedback.

15. Respect those you wish to silence

D. Knowledge Building

1. Knowledge building, knowledge sharing, knowledge management, knowledge

creation

2. Information is machines. Knowledge is people. Information becomes knowledge only

when it takes on a „social life‟

3. Knowledge lies less in its databases than in its people

4. It is people in their communities who ultimately decide what it all means and why it

matters.

5. Information only becomes valuable in a social context

6. Leading in a culture of change does not mean placing changed individuals into

unchanged environments

7. Rather changed leaders work on changing the context, helping create new settings

conducive to learning and sharing that learning.

8. It is a kind of chicken or egg issue: which comes first, the learning culture or the

exchange of knowledge.

9. Exchange impact the culture rather that the culture to change.

10. Examples in education:

a. Intervisitation and Peer networks

b. Instructional consulting services

c. Assessment for learning

d. Mentor teachers

E. Coherence Making

1. The ultimate goal in chaotic societies is to achieve greater reining in.

2. The world is not chaotic it is complex

3. Four principles of a living system:

a. Equilibrium is a precursor to death. When a living system is in a sate of

equilibrium, it isles responsive to changes occurring around it. This places it a

maximum risk

b. In the face of threat, or when galvanized by a compelling opportunity,

living things move towards the edge of chaos. This condition evokes higher

levels of mutation and experimentation, and fresh new solutions are more

likely to be found

c. When this excitation takes place, the components of living systems self-

organize and new forms and repertoires emerge from the turmoil

d. Living systems cannot be directed along a linear path. Unforeseen

consequences are inevitable. The challenge is to disturb in a manner that

approximates the desired outcome.

4. In a school system the main problem is not the absence of innovation but the

presence of too many disconnected, episodic, piecemeal superficially adorned

projects.

5. Schools are suffering the additional burden of having a torrent of unwanted,

uncoordinated policies and innovations raining down on them from hierarchical

bureaucracies.

6. There are two concepts in complexity science:

a. Self organizing and

b. Strange attractors

7. Hidden coherence making features

a. Lateral accountability (as opposed to hierarchical accountability)

b. Sorting process embedded in the knowledge creation and knowledge sharing

activities

c. Shared commitment to selected ideas and paths of action. People, stimulate,

inspire and motivate each other to contribute and implement best ideas and

best ideas mean greater overall coherence

8. Highly interactive systems with moral purpose have great cohesive powers built in.

9. With such powers in place, what we have left to worry about is complacency, blind

spots and groupthink, so we seek new diversity and new disturbances.

1. The lessons for developing leaders in a culture of change are:

a. Slow knowing

b. Learning in context

c. Need for leaders at all levels

2. Claxon: Recent scientific evidence show convincingly that the more patient, less

deliberate modes are particularly suited to making sense of situations that are intricate,

shadowy or ill defined.

a. Hare brained is about chasing relentless innovations

b. Tortoise mine is about absorbing disturbance and drawing out new

patters.

3. Keats: Negative capability—the capacity to cultivate the ability to wait—“They also

serve who only stand and wait”---To remain attentive in the face of

incomprehension

4. To wait in this kind of way requires a kind of inner security; the confidence that one may

lose clarity and control without losing one‟s self.

5. “his problem is that he is so bright that he stops listening as soon as he has

understood the point” Not a good way to build relationships or to pick up ideas that

you may have missed.

6. Paradoxically, slow knowing does not have to take long.

7. It is more a disposition that can be acquired and practiced.

8. Learning in the setting where you work is learning with the greatest payoff.

9. For the individual the explicit value to be internalized is the responsibility for

sharing what you know.

10. For the Leadership, the obligation is to remove barriers to sharing, create

mechanism for sharing and reward those who do share

11. Leadership creates the conditions for individuals and organizational development to

merge.

12. What is gained as a group must be shared as a group

13. Yaneer Bar-Yam: “the level of complexity of modern human society has recently

overtaken the complexity of any one person belonging to it…so as modern human

society becomes more complex than we are individually, it begins to exceed our adaptive

ability. In effect we have too short a repertoire of responses to adjust effectively to our

changing circumstances”

14. Our only hope is that many individuals working in concert can become as complex as the

society they live in.

15. Ultimately, our leadership in a culture of change will be judged as effective or

ineffective not by who we are as a leader, but by what leadership we produce in

others.

Concluding Remarks

I believe that as the as school leaders, we have several important roles.

1. One is to always keep in mind the vision and mission of the school. Thus focusing

on this and ensuring that our team also focuses on this will be key.

2. A second role is to never lose sight of the big picture and understand that 'it takes a

village'. We know and appreciate that we will be just one member of a collaborative

team that will take our schools to new heights.

3. However I believe that the most important role of an administrator would be to

ensure that we also provide pastoral care for the students. This is an implicit

recognition that we educate the whole person. We need to care not just for their

intellectual and academic development but also for their social, aesthetic, physical,

spiritual and ethical development.

Learning to learn and learning to discern are the goals of every educational engagement. Over

the years, I have come to believe that to teach is to touch a soul for a lifetime. I have come to

love and care for my students as my own children and have gained their love and respect in

return. I have had an impact on the lives of many students around the world. I have seen this to

be the case with many colleagues with whom I have had the privilege to serve. We make a

difference to the lives of our youngsters.

In order to implement the mission of our schools, our students will need to be less passive and

more academically active. They must take responsibility for much of their learning! If they wish

to be knowledge workers of the 21st Century, they must not only be willing to work harder but

also learn to work smarter. They will now have to compete with the best in the world as

political boundaries will give way to the infiltration of knowledge workers from around the

world in cyber space. The protectionism that used to buffer the less smart from his smarter

counterpart in other countries will no longer be available nor will it be meaningful in

cyberspace. As Thomas Friedman puts it in his “The World is Flat”, the old notions of

“command and control” must give way to “connect and collaborate”.

We have a commitment to raising achievement and the quality of learning for all students by

„promoting skills of higher order thinking and problem-solving; by appreciating their unique

individuality; by engaging only in authentic learning tasks and by working towards equality,

spirituality, well roundedness and thus striving for excellence”. We must take the students

where we find them and teach to suit their different learning styles. We must treat our students

as individuals and both teach them and learn from them.

The future graduates of our schools are going to inhabit a „flat world‟ that is becoming more so

every day. As educators, providing leadership in an international culture of change means that

we must provide a quality international education to enable our students to be successful

citizens and contributors in such a world by inspiring excellence in education and in life.