External Professional Development and Training

Abstract

Many transnational higher education (TNHE) providers have experimented with appointing department and school leaders who either lack direct institutional insights, being externally recruited, are having to step up, or are crossing fields. In these latter cases the leaders are not being appointed for their discipline specific knowledge, but rather because they have the management skills that their superiors feel will help fulfil a role remit effectively. It is also common to see educators jump between provisional stages. School teachers become university practitioners, and TNHE managers transition into K12 to lead departments. In light of transitions such as these, and their increasing common occurrence in the Chinese educational workplace this chapter draws on experiences in a K12 setting where the writer has served in both management and teaching capacities. These experiences were reflected upon and the lessons learnt presented at a prestigious TNHE provider as part of an educational PDQ course on leadership.