The Challenges of School Leadership Span Cultures

Making my fourth visit in a year to the West Bank as part of a leadership development program for Palestinian private school principals (heads) from Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem, Jericho, and surrounding villages. Every day is a lesson in leadership for Judy Schechtman and me, rather than the other way around.

We visited our friend Ali Manasra, head of the Abdullah Ibn Masood School in Bani Nayim near Hebron, on Sunday, and toured the amazing Ibrahimi Mosque complex in Hebron's Old City. Ali's leadership of Ibn Masood, like many others we have met in this part of the world, superbly illustrates Jim Collins's concepts of clearly understanding the brutal facts one faces, while at the same time never relinquishing one's core beliefs.

While circumstances here are far different from those in North America or Europe, we keep hearing about a familiar set of challenges leaders face (albeit within a context of greater constraints):

The struggle to finance the school;
Recruiting a retaining good teachers, especially in science, math and languages;
Encouraging teachers to implement pedagogical change;
Cultivating sustainability across multiple dimensions; and
Global connectivity.

Sound familiar?

Underneath it all, we struggle with the same things the world over. It's just amazing that school happens in Ramallah, or Bani Naim, or New York, Los Angeles or St. Louis. That it does is testament to leadership. And I still believe that it can change the world.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad.

Location:Ramallah, Palestine