School Admin Profiles

[falconeer]

In my experience, international school administrators can be some of the most cruel, selfish, manipulative, unethical, dishonest, people I have ever met. They cower to power and have no greater principle than stroking the hand that feeds them. Yes, there are always exceptions but in my experience, they are more the exception than the norm. In your opinion, what it is it about this position that can attract such selfish, unethical individuals? I have wondered if it might be that education, given its relatively low barrier to entry, can be a nest for those with a combination of average talent, low ethical standards and a high need to dominate. But there must be more to it than this....

[santacruzin1]

Perhaps a version of the Dilbert Principle: incompetent teachers are promoted to admin to limit the amount of damage they can do to students.

Maybe a little "bike-shed problem" too: people who can't handle the more complex aspects of teaching (designing quality assessments that aren't multiple-choice tests, keeping up with current research, trying out new instructional techniques, etc.) would tend to focus on the -, such as making very detailed & intricate lesson plans which look nice but no actual teacher would use. This attention to detail on meaningless forms looks good to current admin (who got their jobs in the same fashion), and current admin start grooming these teachers to be future admin because of their form-filling wizardry.

Or it's purely Machiavellian: a school's Board/Owner/Superintendent needs a sadist to play bad cop, to be the school's "hatchet man," and generally do the dirty work, so the Board/Owner/Super can keep their hands clean, play good cop and enjoy all the goodwill from teachers for not being the "bad guy," yet still secretly ruling the school with an iron fist. (can you tell I've been re-watching House of Cards?)

In all seriousness though, there are some really fantastic admins out there (and I've met a few), but they really are few and far between, sadly. The rest, it seems, are good enough at playing politics to have gotten & retain their jobs. The truly good teachers, if they move up, become an instructional coach or something still connected to the classroom - maybe that's by choice though, given their dedication to teaching & learning is what makes them good teachers. Incompetent teachers are on the fast track to VP, provided they are good at politics... Then again you have this same problem in any large organization or bureaucracy - corporations, government, etc.

[reisgio]

I am so thankful to the original poster for creating this thread. I think the reason international school admins are so bad relative to even domestic school administrators is because of the feeling of transience of being international. They think they can be just evil and get away with it because no central authority (national government) is watching them because they are supra-national and in a few years they will be on another continent anywhere. They get away with murder (murder of schools that is) and then get a better gig to destroy another school a few years later. This is not failing up; this is murdering your way to the top.

[sid]

Ouch.
As a school leader, I wish you all much happier experiences in the near future. Whatever happened, I hope bad is soon replaced with good.

[fine dude]

They are just not accountable as very few school boards are proactive. Some administrators live in La La Land thinking of themselves as Fortune 500 CEOs, but the fact is these are former English and History teachers who either got bored, hated the essay-marking, or just plain ambitious to make big bucks before retirement. The funniest part is when they offer you tech advice and lecture teachers about 21st century learning when they hardly can't use an LCD projector or even troubleshoot PowerPoint and they have to run up to the school's tech director for help. Very few of them get good PD to update their professional knowledge and skills, but they will fill their schools' Facebook pages with glossy pictures boasting about 'fantastic PD.'
You ask them a tough question, they either ignore you and your emails or start witch-hunting.

Wish there was a global or regional organization that could renew their admin licenses every 3-5 years based on the feedback from their students, teachers, and the board. Very few would pass.

[Thames Pirate]

Sid, not all of us feel that way or have only negative opinions of admin.

I have worked with some truly awful admin, both at home and abroad--but I have also worked with some amazing ones. Sure, there is griping, and sure, there are shady schools and corrupt or bad admin--just as there are corrupt or bad teachers.

There is nothing about IT (or Int'l Admin) that is inherently bad. We do have more for-profit schools, different governmental/cultural differences in acceptable behavior, etc. that makes it FEEL like there is more of the bad in IT, but when you compare apples to apples, I'd guess it's similar to DE.

[Cooldude]

I have worked with two great principals out of five. The bad ones are usually con artists who take in clueless Asian schoolboards and are on an ego, power and money making trip and will squash anyone who is a threat or gets in their way.

[PsyGuy]

@santacruzin1

I concur

@reisgio

The Game of Thrones effect maybe?

@fine dude

I would hesitate to put too much value in ownership whether an individual or a board. The vast majority of them know nothing about education accept they were once students.
You cant stay in leadership very long if you dont comply with the directives of ownership, right or wrong, the entity will simply replace you with someone that will. Its just as valid that there arent strong regulatory authorities over leadership as there arent strong regulatory authorities over ISs. You cant fix one without fixing the other, you will just place leadership in the position of being "bad" at their job for doing what they were instructed to do by bad ownership.

@sid

You have to acknowledge that there are segments of ILs that are problematic for IE, this site exists because of it. Its not all ITs with an axe to grind.

[Nomad68]

I have had a mostly bad experience with school admin/senior managers. Lots of passive aggression or outright aggression and contempt for faculty. Incompetence and bullying have been rife with self-interest and self-preservation being the default attitudes. This has occurred in so called Tier 1,2 and 3 schools. I have seen local employment laws exploited to the faculty's disadvantage and behaviours that would see administrators facing tribunals or law courts in their home countries. It is one thing to be abused by a home national for whom this is the norm but it really galls when its your fellow countrymen/women who know better but are happy to use the freedoms of the host country to abuse their position. I've had bad managers in my home country but they know they can only go so far before you can call upon your union or lawyer. The lack or rights and job security are one of the reasons why I am starting the move home.