Moving school leadership beyond its narrow boundaries: Developing a cross-cultural approach

Although scholars of educational administration and leadership persistently recognize the place and influence of organizational culture and its relationship with leadership and school life, the field lags behind other disciplines in understanding the influence of societal culture on leadership and organizational behavior. The field is also constrained by an over reliance on theories and practices predominantly developed by a relatively culturally homogeneous cadre of scholars from English-speaking backgrounds. Our salient argument in this chapter is that societal culture is a significant influence on school organization and leadership in different societies because it helps shape school leader’s thoughts about concepts such as leadership, followership, communication and learning and teaching. We suggest that the field of educational administration and leadership should look to societal culture for at least partial explanations of school leaders’ behaviors and actions. We further submit that cross-cultural understanding may be usefully pursued through a comparative approach — one that allows administrative and leadership practices in different societies and cultures to be seen in relation to each other. Copyright © 2002 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.