Why white men still rule in international school leadership

A few years ago, in this magazine James Hatch argued there was an “elephant in the room” with regard to hiring practices in international schools.

Hatch’s view struck a well-rehearsed discord. Over the past two decades we have heard reports of fundamental changes to the field of private K-12 international schooling, especially with regards to ethos, values, geography, demography, ownership, and governance.

However, one aspect of activity remains surprisingly and stubbornly constant, and a Western-white-male hegemony seemingly prevails despite growth and developments of the field. This creates an arguably embedded “leadership nobility” .

Reports on the diversity of senior leaders (traditionally titled “directors”) of international schools has always revealed a bias towards hiring Anglo-Western educators, largely from Britain and North America.

At the same time, evidence, arguably quite limited in size, going back to the 1990s has always tended to show that most are men. This enduring, seemingly structural, condition has always seemed contradictory given the fact that most schools claim to promote, respect, and celebrate “diversity”. In other words, diversity does matter and needs discussing. It is a core value of most international schools.  

This enduring, seemingly structural, condition has always seemed contradictory.

However, to compound the long-established and relatively under-discussed “diversity of leadership paradox” issue, little is known about the race (colour) or social-economic (class) background of the leaders, although it is assumed they are “birds of a feather”, hailing from a white, middle-class background. Studies have consistently shown that 80-90 per cent are white adding weight to Slough-Kuss’ assertion that “the profile is somewhat male and Western”.

A 2021 study uncovered the dominance of “white men”. The survey Determining the Diversity Baseline in International Schools by the Council of International Schools, International Schools Services, and George Mason University reported on 175 senior leaders and showed that 75 per cent are men, and 84 per cent are white. Put simply, the senior leader is 5.3 times more likely to be white than any other race.

Building on that report, attention was recently focused on the over-looked and fast-growing “non-traditional” body, catering largely for local parents within a branded, corporate, and profit-driven paradigm of activity. At the centre of this activity is the Dubai-based GEMS Education, and London-based Nord Anglia, and the smaller groupings of quasi-replicated British private schools overseas pioneered in the 1990s in Thailand by Dulwich College, and Harrow. Market intelligence from ISC Research in 2022 reported that over one third (38 per cent) of all schools belong to branded groupings.

WIth a colleague, I conducted a 2024 survey of the websites of 247 schools belonging to ten major groupings. It revealed from photographic evidence, that 88 per cent of senior leaders are white, and 64 per cent are “white men”.

Incidentally, there was not a single Black senior leader. Therefore, put together with the earlier study into the traditional types, we now have strong evidence from 422 well-established and well-regarded international schools regarding the diversity of senior leader in terms of race and sex. Together, the combined total of senior leaders who are men equates to 68.5 per cent (seemingly unchanged since the 1990s), whilst the white proportion is 83 per cent.

Incidentally, there was not a single Black senior leader.

This constant, non-budging “elephant in the room” regarding diversity of senior leaders has much further scope for critical inquiry. Recent reports shed light on the “race” (White) and “sex” (men) of the leaders.

However, we still know very little about other identifiers such as “ethnicity”, “gender”, “social class”, and “accent”. I actively encourage further research here, but I have a worrying feeling that future inquiry into this will not bring positive news.