Cross-cultural leadership development

There has been much debate about the types of leaders needed in tomorrow’s schools and about the optimal forms of leadership preparation. This study examined the applicability of the Boundary-Breaking Leadership Development Model to a cross-cultural travel study programme for Canadian and New Zealand graduate students in educational leadership programmes at two universities. The Canada–New Zealand travel study exchange was designed to foster participant understandings of educational issues that are prevalent in education internationally. Grounded theory data analysis techniques were used in the study. The information contained in the journals, field notes, reflective commentaries, and surveys was sorted and re-sorted into related categories until four broad groups of findings emerged. The categories focused primarily on the effects of the cross-cultural exchange on the graduate students’ learning. The categories were the emotional experience of learning, the culture of critical enquiry, moving beyond self, and developing agency. The study of the use of the Boundary-Breaking Leadership Development Model demonstrated and reinforced several key points. Firstly, in-depth reflection by students on their personal educational contexts is enhanced through examination of other educational contexts, both locally and internationally. Secondly, the breaking of boundaries between theory and practice, between university professors and students, between two nations, and between self and others, can foster the development of critically enquiring leaders. Finally, the article concludes that these leaders are likely to be critically reflective about the quality of education in their schools and to demonstrate the belief that they are able to make a difference to the quality of education offered.