Enhancing school leadership through an international study visit

Abstract

This article explores the outcomes of a school leadership study visit to India. The research critiques the competency-based frameworks common in English leadership development programmes, and argues instead for an approach that challenges assumptions in a fresh context for learning and considers leadership as a process of humanisation. Using Mezirow’s ‘perspective transformations’ as a starting point, the article briefly outlines what was learned on the visit; but, more importantly, the article focuses on how that learning took place. Activities which proved particularly valuable are discussed. Importantly, the research found that informal opportunities for learning sliding into the spaces around formal events were often responsible for unexpected and influential perspective transformations and that these opportunities for learning are often undervalued. The research concludes that international study visits where participants agree their own collective agendas and develop a trusted validating community group are more valuable than transmission models of leadership learning. Finally, the article briefly returns to the notion of leadership as a process of humanisation and suggests that, seen in this way, the pursuit of community becomes a more highly valued outcome for leadership learning.