International schools in Dubai are among the most culturally layered workplaces anywhere: staff and families arriving from dozens of countries, each carrying their own idea of what a good school, a good teacher, and good leadership look like. Most leadership models weren't written for that. Mine is trying to understand what happens when leadership takes that difference seriously.
"I read widely, write to think, and care about learning that outlasts the lesson — the doctorate is that instinct, formalised."
It grew directly out of the work. Years of coaching teachers and building teams made me notice that the same practice lands differently depending on who's leading and who's being led — and that the leaders who paid attention to that got more from their people. The research is my attempt to test whether that observation holds up under proper scrutiny, or whether it's just a story I've told myself.
What I'm working toward, once the study is complete, is a framework of my own — a Culturally Responsive Workplace Nucleus (CRWN). It would begin where the research lands: a practical model for leading responsively in schools, but built to travel further than that. My hope is that it holds up in any international workplace where difference is the norm rather than the exception, not only in a classroom.
It's ongoing, and that's the point — thinking still in motion. I'd rather share a live question than a tidy conclusion. If any of this overlaps with your own work — leadership, organisational culture, schools, or research itself — I'd genuinely like to talk.