Internationalizing Educational Leadership: How a University Department Jumps the Curve From Local to International

Abstract

Purpose: This study describes how an educational leadership department transformed its regional identity and localized practices over a ten-year period (1997-2007) to become internationalized in terms of research, teaching, and service. Research Methods/Approach (e.g., Setting, Participants, Research Design, Data Collection and Analysis): A basic qualitative approach (written narratives, interviews and document analysis) was used. All faculty holding tenured, tenure earning, and clinical, non-tenured positions were invited to participate. Fifteen out of 18 department faculty chose to participate. Findings: We found that the success of internationalization rests not only with individual faculty champions and flexible opportunism, but also with collective actions. In one decade, the department shifted from individual, isolated pursuits in the international arena, to a department having an integral, international dimension across research, teaching, and service. Many factors contributed to stages of internationalizing: The role of the department chair was instrumental; having a willing and capable faculty was necessary to reach the more advanced stages of internationalization; international activities were always contingent and voluntary, not mandated or controlled; and, the recruitment, participation, and encouragement of international and internationally oriented graduate students were critical to supporting a bottom-up, top-down synergy. Implications for Research and Practice: The study of internationalization within higher educational institutions, specifically in educational leadership, involves complex theory[ies]. Like Dimmock and Walker before us, we sought to overcome superficial comparisons of attitudes, behaviors and policies which lead to simple, but often misleading correlations. We recommend, instead, a conceptual framework that can account for changes over time and across individual-group interactions, that is, multi-organizational levels.