ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS IN THAI PRIVATE SCHOOLS

Abstract

With globalization transforming the student and cultural composition of students attending privately operated institutions in various countries, this paper offers a few theoretical perspectives on flexible leadership practices at Thai private schools when cross-border student mobility is high. The issues related to multilingualism, student retention, and leadership potential are becoming problems of such organizations, the second framing defines international students as an issue that needs to be addressed by institutions with more flexibility in management and leadership. Based on the current education administration literature, I come up with an analytical framework of linking responsive leadership and agile leadership as follows, organizational learning, and governance consistency in the context of a private school, Saint Gabriel’s College which is a Catholic college in Bangkok that has a long history and four grades. An illustration of the setting is how adaptive management can be applied to ease globalization but at the same time preserve institutional identity and educational custom as a value-based activity. By clarifying the policy and leadership implications of adaptive management in the context of internationalized private schools, this paper can contribute to educational management. The research contributes theoretically towards understanding how international student diversity may be responded to in the private school setting without compromising organizational coherence or pedagogical quality by addressing governance capacity rather than programs.