{"id":407,"date":"2012-03-16T05:46:49","date_gmt":"2012-03-16T05:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/?p=407"},"modified":"2012-03-16T05:46:49","modified_gmt":"2012-03-16T05:46:49","slug":"the-leadership-project-dr-dick-krajczar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/the-leadership-project-dr-dick-krajczar\/","title":{"rendered":"The Leadership Project: Dr. Dick Krajczar"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the first installment of The Leadership Project <\/em>I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Dick Krajczar, the Executive Director of the East Asia Regional Council of Schools, better known as EARCOS.\u00a0 Dr. Krajczar generously discussed a number of topics regarding international education for over an hour, and not surprisingly had much to say about this quickly growing field.<\/p>\n

After over 40 years in international education which included assignments in Afghanistan, Syria, Jordan and Malaysia, it\u2019s obvious that Dr. K has seen international Ed change in many way. \u201c[When] many people started in these schools they generally would come for maybe two or three years\u2026then they\u2019d go home\u2026because it wasn\u2019t as easy to make international education a professional career opportunity.\u201d\u00a0 Certainly the rise in professionalism amongst teachers and administrators has led to a flip in relations between international schools and schools in the states and other developed nations. \u201c[As international] schools get more sophisticated and more refined\u2026many of us [school leaders] feel that we are working in the best schools and we would be a big help to a lot of the schools back in the US or other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where as budget crises and low student performance has been common in the states, international schools, especially in Asia, are performing at high levels and continue to spring up all over the region.\u00a0 When asked whether this was a bubble, Dr. K explained, \u201cmany schools will survive because\u2026[only] 12 years ago in China there were only 20 international schools and today there are over 200.\u00a0 With the economy booming in China and with so many international companies doing business there, the end is not in sight\u2026and the same thing is happening in other countries such as Vietnam, Thailand and India.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. K was hesitant to guess what areas or schools we\u2019ll be talking about in 10 years, saying it all depends on \u201cwhat the economic environment is…if I could forecast the economic environment for the next ten years I\u2019d be a very wealthy person.\u201d\u00a0 However, he did point out that new and opening markets like that in Myanmar could explode if the government allows it.<\/p>\n

This is good news for international educators, since as the industry grows so will the opportunity for more people to step into positions of leadership.\u00a0 When asked what key qualities are needed to be a successful leader Dr. K continued to emphasize one trait…trust. \u201cTrust is forever, you break it and you’re done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. K went on to say that school leaders must trust the people they\u2019ve hired, \u201cyou don\u2019t want to hire people who are clones of you, [instead] it\u2019s best to hire educators who are better than you.\u00a0 Then when you do hire them\u2026you have to listen to them\u2026[and] trust the people you\u2019ve hired [to do their job].\u201d\u00a0 Other traits like being a good listener and being a risk-taker and a team player, are important but they all connect back to your willingness to trust others and be trusted.\u00a0 \u201cYou have to allow people to develop and when you\u2026[give] responsibility to someone you\u2019re working with you have to have the guts to hang with them cause sometimes they\u2019ll be right and sometimes they won\u2019t [but either way] you both learn from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what advice does an experienced Ed leader have for a new generation of international educators?\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t wait until your 50 years old to try and be a principal\u2026and try to envision what the classroom is going to look like in 20 years\u2026[this is the big question in education] yet we keep building the same type of schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

A major criticism of the field of education is that it lags behind other industries in innovation and needed skills.\u00a0 If this trend continues, it could mean that the skills needed for the class of 2030 won\u2019t be fully realized in the classroom until 2040 or later.\u00a0 Hopefully international education can \u201cbuck this trend,\u201d as it continues to place more emphasis on innovation and new ideas.<\/p>\n

However, Dr. K pointed out that many new schools, in a hope to encourage innovation have introduced new programs but failed to deliver the training and support needed to the teachers.\u00a0 Citing the trend in 1:1 laptop programs started in many new schools, Dr. K explained, \u201cA piece of hardware should be the last thing a teacher gets, the first is training.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. K clearly demonstrated that from his unique vantage point as EARCOS Executive Director that the international education industry is not fading away, and as schools and community continue to develop it\u2019s very likely that the next generation of world leaders will come from these classrooms.<\/p>\n

Dr. Krajczar gave some recommendations for whom to interview next, but I also want to hear your suggestions.\u00a0 Post a message or send me an email to nominate the ed leader you believe is gifted at leading schools or grade levels and developing talent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the first installment of The Leadership Project I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Dick Krajczar, the Executive Director of the East Asia Regional Council of Schools, better known as EARCOS.\u00a0 Dr. Krajczar generously discussed a number of topics regarding international education for over an hour, and not surprisingly had much to say about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[82,139,153,244,250],"class_list":["post-407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-leadership-project","tag-earcos","tag-interview","tag-krajczar","tag-the-leadership-project","tag-trust"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5BJbv-6z","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}