Community Redefined: School Leaders Moving from Autonomy to Global Interdependence through Short-Term Study Abroad

In times of increased global interdependence, producing inter-culturally competent school leaders who can engage in informed, ethical decision-making when confronted with problems that involve a diversity of perspectives is becoming an urgent leadership priority. Helping school leaders form and internalize a global perspective requires today's leadership preparation programs to assist future leaders in developing the capacity to think with complexity taking into account multiple cultural perspectives. Yet, while an understanding of cultural patterns, social stratification mobility, principles of human development, and racial dynamics are often cited as markers of successful student preparation for leadership for global interdependence, these learning outcomes are often poorly defined and not well integrated into the curriculum for educational leadership. Study abroad, the primary mechanism by which students experience foreign cultures, has become a seminal vehicle for global learning. Education abroad has become an increasingly important educational program experience in global learning and development, intercultural competence, intercultural maturity, and intercultural sensitivity. This article presents a framework for how to use global learning to develop in today's educational leaders the conceptualization and disposition to bring about the revolutionary changes that eliminate marginalizing practices in schools. By providing a global framework to guide this development, tomorrow's educational leaders will be provided with the learning they need to address the problems they will face in the future. Such a strategy aims to revitalize educational leadership preparation programs and increase student engagement by showing the relevance of global knowledge to education's most urgent social, ethical, and civic challenges. (Contains 3 tables and 4 charts.)