International Trends That Should Be On Our Agenda

Presentation by David Wylde, Headmaster of St Andrew’s College in Grahamstown, South Africa and President of the International Confederation of Principals, at the recent SAHISA / ISASA conference.

Introduction:

This topic is undertaken on the assumption that understanding, and being part of the global context in education brings us the benefit of the thinking of others, a sense of measuring where we are and benchmarking best practices elsewhere. What it doesn’t do is necessarily make us better or lesser principals. There are some very good principals who just keep their heads down, apply time on tasks and follow their instincts.

I am one of those who has always found the thinking of others stimulating and I share it with you from that point of humility. This presentation cannot be comprehensive, I have not trawled the whole world, nor travelled it - so have selected one key element. This is the people issue - staff, pupils and parents.