ABSTRACT
Our interest in the complex and often confusing area of societal culture stems predominantly from our personal experience as academics working in Universities and with school leaders in different parts of the world. While attempting to make our work meaningful to our students within, what to us, were often unfamiliar contexts, we stumbled repeatedly as our theories and underlying assumptions failed to address the problems and specificities that comprised the different societal contexts and cultures in which we worked. Moreover, resorting to the literature for answers only revealed how contextualized the field is in English-speaking Western countries. Yet, in the absence of alternatives, we, along with many of our colleagues, base much of our teaching and research on these decontextualized paradigms without considering how the culture and context within which school leaders operate may influence their beliefs and actions.
