Date of Submission

8-21-2018

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Degree

Doctor of Education

Department

Education

Keywords

Teacher Retention, Mentorship, Arrivers, Stayers, Leavers, Wellbeing

Abstract

This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) critically analyzes how to create and foster the type of positive organizational culture where new international teachers can thrive in an international school setting. Through teacher and school wide surveys, one-on-one conversations and teacher feedback forms from this organization, data indicates that educators who have moved to teach abroad face obstacles and can struggle to manage their teaching loads while undergoing the mental and emotional stress associated with adjusting to a new home and culture. The proposed plan will focus on organizational culture, defined as the normative values, behaviors and assumptions that are shared by the school community and that shape the leaders and members within it. This will be guided by what it means to be an arriver, a stayer and a leaver in a school (Hallinger & Leithwood, 1996; Harris 2016; Ota, 2014; Schein, 2000). This OIP seeks to gather data and research about congeniality and collegiality, as well as on what individual new teachers need in order to feel support, comfort and belonging when living and working away from home. This plan will draw from multiple leadership frameworks, models and perspectives, including a hybrid of servant leadership and adaptive leadership, Kotter’s (2014) 8-Step Change Model as well as Bolman and Deal’s (2013) human resources and symbolic frames. As a change agent and leader within the organization, my goal in planning is to critically analyze information through a cultural lens to effectively address the identified problem of practice.

Keywords: organizational culture, new international teacher, arriver, stayer, early leaver, leaver, expatriate, congeniality, collegiality, adaptive care, discussion, dialogue

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