Leadership of cultural education in the current age: an exploratory investigation of culturally responsive capacity through the lens of transculturalism

A key features of the globalised environment of the twenty-first century is that populations across a range of societies have become more diverse in culture, heritage and identity. In turn, this has led to further emphasis on the teaching of cultural understanding in schools, as exemplified by the Australian Curriculum and their equivalents in countries such as Singapore, India and New Zealand. However, educational research has tended to focus on cultural education for the students, with relatively little consideration given to the attributes required by both teachers and school leaders to frame and deliver cultural education that meets the multiple needs of twenty-first century cultural environments. This paper comprises an initial exploration of the connections between the educational concept of transcultural dispositions and culturally responsive leadership behaviours of school leaders as they work to deliver a form of cultural education that is relevant to the context of the twenty-first century.