Leadership for impact: the importance of the global and of the local

Abstract

The world of education is and should be a constantly evolving endeavour of discovery, experimentation, application, collegiality and reflection. This evolution means that over the last three decades education has been ‘strongly affixed to global norms and rules about what education is and how schools should operate’. As such, in a growing number of education systems the globalization of education has ensued, whereby reforms in curriculum, pedagogy and assessment have occurred to appease national mandates to become more globally competitive. Yet globalization as an outcome, especially within education, remains a contentious issue. This article presents discussion that responds to this contention through exploration of the concept of glocalization as a means to promote both the global and local in the education of our young people. The development of an education leader’s glocal literacy will be discussed, along with the actions of an education leader to glocalise her learning community, as well as macro/meso/micro level examples of glocalization within a school.