Abstract:
International students in school education are something of a little understood issue for educational scholars, policy makers and the general public. Leadership is seen as pivotal in the success of schools’ internationalisation program. By applying a mixed-method approach to collect data from an online Qualtrics survey (N=42) and semi-structured interviews (N=5) with independent school leaders in Victoria, this paper reports how school leaders understand Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC) international students’ linguistic, cultural and educational contributions to schools, and their experience in supporting the international students to adapt into the new educational environments through various programs and strategies. This article also advocates that it is vital to respect the international students’ educational subjectivities generated in their ‘home’ countries when providing support programs to help them engage with new educational contexts in “host” nations.