Date of Submission
8-30-2019
Document Type
DiP
Degree
Doctor of Education
Department
Education
Keywords
international mindedness, intercultural understanding, transformational leadership, instructional leadership, inclusion, culturally responsive pedagogy
Abstract
As an International Baccalaureate school in a diverse Canadian city, Welton Academy’s (pseudonym) vision is to be a world-class, academic school with a focus on shaping students into globally minded, engaged citizens. The demographics of the school are changing, as the student body is becoming increasingly more ethnically diverse. Currently, one of the school’s strategic missions is focused on international mindedness. Although the school’s vision to promote international mindedness includes global engagement and multilingualism, the area of intercultural understanding is not identified. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) explores a Problem of Practice (PoP) that highlights the need to develop intercultural understanding within the high school context. This OIP incorporates transformational leadership and instructional leadership approaches, as key leadership practices for stakeholders, such as the leadership team and teachers, to employ while identifying the potential for promoting social justice and inclusion. With a global focus, the values Welton Academy shares in the school community should reflect the diverse student population. The goal of this OIP is to provide stakeholders with recommendations to develop intercultural understanding within the school. The solutions in this OIP address all three interrelated dimensions of culturally responsive pedagogy: institutional, personal, and instructional. If implemented, this OIP could result in a more inclusive community at Welton Academy
Recommended Citation
Higginson, M. (2019). Towards Intercultural Understanding and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy: Building an Internationally Minded School. The Dissertation in Practice at Western University, 82. Retrieved from https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/oip/82