What are the professional development needs of Heads of international schools in India and how may they be met?

Abstract

What are the professional development needs of Heads of international schools in India and how may they be met?
Fuelled by almost a decade of high economic growth, the growth in number of international schools in India is at an unprecedented high. Increasingly, schools are opening to serve the long-term resident as well as the expatriate population. The fastest area of growth is in proprietorial schools, owned and governed by business entrepreneurs. Invariably such schools look for an overseas curriculum, usually through the International Baccalaureate programme. International schools are a largely unregulated sector of schooling in India, in fact, not a sector at all. The leaders of such schools are adrift from any India-wide professional support system or system of accountability, beyond the immediate, local level. The culture of schools is competitive rather than collegial, especially within an urban (metropolitan) area.
I am investigating the professional development needs of the Heads of School, developing competencies and standards for them, and proposing ways to offer systemic professional support. My research gathers qualitative data and uses grounded theory techniques of axial coding. My literature analysis is divided into an analysis of the literature about international schools and their origins and their relevance today, about leadership development and thirdly concerning school improvement.
The Heads of School are struggling to cope and flourish professionally. Foreign Heads of School have particular difficulties in adjusting to the work environment of India. The international organisations, one of which, the IB, may have been said to have helped fuel growth without being able to ensure schools have appropriate support or quality assurance, is putting structures in place to support schools. But, no-one has an overview beyond their commercial and professional interest. The optimum way forward, my research concludes, is if an India-wide association is able to work with international partners to use agreed leadership standards and competencies, to support schools in recruiting and developing Heads, including measuring their performance to improve accountability.