Redefining International Education: Inclusive, Relevant, and Future-Ready

The Global Positioning of International Schools – Current Scenario

Globally, international schools are witnessing some interesting changes. One impactful trend is that schools are attempting to become more authentic for students and engaging them in real-world experiences that are relevant to the world in which they live. We are also seeing a move towards personalization. It is becoming less acceptable for teachers to drive what they think students need to know, understand, and be able to do. Instead, we're seeing an attempt to place the child at the centre of the learning experience. 

The child is now able to ask and answer four critical questions: 

What is it that I need to know, understand and be able to do? 

How am I going to demonstrate that I know it? 

What am I going to do when I'm not learning?

What am I going to do, when I already know it? 

Teachers and schools have asked these questions for decades, and now we're seeing students being given the opportunity to ask those questions for themselves as a part of the learning process.

Non-negotiable qualities of a Leader

I believe that there are two non-negotiable qualities leaders must have to lead during these ever changing and uncertain times: confidence and humility. 

Leaders need to be confident enough to know what they believe about teaching and learning, what makes great schools, what allows students to learning and engage at the highest levels, and what helps keep students safe in our schools. 

Leaders also need to be confident enough to admit when they don't know something. That's where humility comes in. They need to be able to be humble enough to know that they need to surround themselves with a diverse team of colleagues that are possibly even stronger than they are, to make the best decisions. They must be humble enough to collaborate with a team to get the best results. 

Significant Shifts in International Education

There have been significant shifts in international education over the last decade. A massive shift in international education that we have observed is that schools are moving away from the idea of being selective, university-prep schools, to becoming more inclusive community schools. And likewise, there are shifts in teachers’ mindset; earlier, many teachers went overseas with the belief that they had a superior model of education, and that they were going to replicate what they had been doing in their home country and offer that into another context.

I think educators today are going into international education with a lot more humility and the recognition that they are going to learn a lot from their international immersion. Teachers are going overseas with a receptivity to the idea that they are going to become better themselves by being exposed to other ways of thinking and other methodologies. 

The Stakeholder Collaboration

There is no doubt that the education sector is in crisis right now. Even more so in the last two to three years, with the introduction of AI and some other factors. Teachers are no longer wanting to move into the industry, and students are seeing schools as less relevant to their future. It is high time that schools make some radical changes to meet the real needs of our students. Schools must equip students to thrive in, and contribute to, the real world of today. This can only happen through developing strong community and corporate partnerships. 

We must entirely rethink schools and create a course of study that is actually relevant to today's children. Many schools and school leaders continue to believe that students must learn the things that made our generation successful. While some of these things still have some value, many of these things are completely obsolete and irrelevant skills in today’s world. If schools continue to push an irrelevant educational experience onto children, they will become irrelevant and ultimately obsolete in the form we know them today.

Sustainability and social-emotional learning 

I believe that many of our efforts in the social emotional learning space have actually backfired on us as schools, families, and educators. We have emphasized emotional health, mental health in such a way that we have created a generation of children who see themselves as victims and are emotionally and mentally weak. I believe that we need to help our children understand that they actually can become stronger, emotionally, physically and mentally, through the challenges in their lives. And that the intersection of adversity and relationships in their lives is the key to developing strength, resiliency, character and compassion. 

I think our society has attempted to remove all aspects of adversity from our children's lives. At the first sign of adversity, difficulty or failure, they fall apart and become victims. I believe that we've done our kids a disservice, and I think there needs to be a paradigm shift in that area.

The Road Ahead

In order for international education to remain relevant and resilient in the next decade, there needs to be some significant changes. 

First of all, I think over the past 60 years, international schools were founded on principles of elitism and colonialism, which created hyper-selective, university-prep schools that have served the elite few. I do not believe that this model is sustainable or even desirable for international education. We have to move away from the notion that our schools are for the elite and move more towards an idea that all children must learn how to learn and that global citizenship and international mindedness will be key contributors to peace and prosperity in this world. 

We must expand the reach of international education so that it's accessible to all children. This is one way through which we can ensure that international education will continue to be relevant globally and resilient for the years to come.