Cross-cultural educational partnerships to prepare global leaders: Training teachers, teacher candidates, and school principals to teach students in the multi-cultural classroom

Abstract

With the growing incidents of terrorism, war, and warlike situations around the globe, academic achievements, physical and mental well-being of affected children in schools have become a major concern for the educational stakeholders. This paper discusses three key issues. Firstly, the article discusses the emerging role of school teachers and leadership in supporting students affected by war and terrorism in a cross-cultural context. Secondly, it focuses upon similarities between Canadian and Pakistani classrooms, and the challenges that school teachers and leaders encounter while educating students affected by war and terrorism. Thirdly, the article proposes the establishment of a cross-cultural learning community connecting the school leaders and teachers from both countries through the train-the-trainer model. This paper also contributes to the existing body of literature on the role of school leadership in teaching multi-cultural classroom.