ERIC Number: EJ1471220
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1360-3124
EISSN: EISSN-1464-5092
Available Date: 0000-00-00
The Cultural Capital of Senior Leaders in Elite Traditional International Schools: An Enduring 'Leadership Nobility'?
International Journal of Leadership in Education, v28 n3 p574-592 2025
The number of schools delivering a non-national curriculum in English outside an English-speaking nation has doubled in size since 2012 and numbered 12,000 by 2021. However, the well-recognized paradoxical situation of how these supposedly values and ethically driven institutions can continuously discriminate in favor of certain types of educators (largely native English-speaking Anglo-Saxon educators from Britain and North America) has eluded research inquiry. Using data taken from adverts on a prominent recruitment agency website seeking senior leaders globally in the well-established body of 'elite traditional international schools' (ETISs), we will inquire into the type and character of the sought-after senior leader. Utilizing Pierre Bourdieu's (1998) notion in his book "The State Nobility" that an elite school's "field of power" is made up of actors with a distinctive and common set of attributes and style, we will explore the cultural capital traits (the 'objectified', 'embodied', and 'institutionalized' forms) that are sought in the prospective senior leader of the ETIS. We can see from this analysis that a distinct circuit of privilege seems to exist and be encouraged, aiding and (re)producing a "field of power" occupied by certain (already privileged) actors. An enduring 'leadership nobility' does seem to be evident.
Descriptors: International Schools, Advantaged, Leadership Role, School Administration, Administrator Characteristics, Cultural Capital, English (Second Language), Language of Instruction, Ethics, Social Discrimination, Native Speakers, Recruitment, Web Sites, Job Applicants, Power Structure, Advertising, Foreign Countries, Institutional Characteristics, Classification
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom; North America
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1University of Bath, Bath, UK; 2University of Manchester, Manchester, UK