International Education in Manitoba: Exploring Leadership Practices in Policy Contexts

International education has become an increasingly important, yet complex policy sector in Canada. With shared responsibilities and competing interests across governments and educational institutions, the need for policy coordination emerges. This study focuses on the province of Manitoba and its policy coordination practices across K-12 educational stakeholders. Drawing on the concept of distributed leadership, a framework is proposed to examine policy processes focusing on the dynamics of 1) actors - leaders versus followers and their context-specific situations; 2) process - examining collaboration and cooperation through interdependence of activities; and 3) outcomes understood as evidence of policy change or organizational change leading to improved learning experiences of students. Data for this study was collected through a qualitative case study approach applying document analysis and semi-structured interview techniques. Findings suggest that leadership practices go beyond single institutional structure, having increasingly a shared nature involving school administrators, governments and membership organizations. Characteristics such as shared stakeholder interests, formal power position and interdependence of resources play an important role in fostering the distributive leadership practices in policy contexts.