A Cross-Cultural Approach to the Study of Educational Leadership: An Emerging Framework 1

Although studies of educational leadership have proliferated over the last decade, they have mostly focused on Western school settings. Leadership in non-Western school settings has largely been ignored, so that little is known about the influence of culture on the beliefs and actions of school leaders across national boundaries. This article builds a case for increasing understanding of educational leadership through adopting a comparative cross-cultural lens. It has three interrelated purposes. First, it presents the argument for strengthening a cultural comparative approach to educational leadership. Second, it suggests a framework for comparing cultural influences on educational leadership across national and cultural boundaries. Finally, it recognizes some of the difficulties of conceptualizing and conducting cross-cultural leadership research. Through achieving these purposes we hope to contribute to the ongoing development of understanding of school leadership.