Chapter 11: The Australian Educational Leadership Experience: Program Coordinator (PC) Partnerships in a Sunburned Country

Bill Bryson, author of In a Sunburned Country (2000), treats readers to his own travelogue of Australia. Bryson visits major cities, mining towns, the Great Victoria Desert in Western Australia, and the largest coral reef in the world. He speaks to the history, indigenous cultures, and some of the most unusual wildlife in the world. With 66 of the most venomous creatures, 21 of the 25 most toxic snakes, and saltwater crocodiles reported over 17 feet and 3,000 pounds, it is an amazing place. In Bryson’s (2000) words:

Imagine living for two weeks in one of the most interesting international cities in the world, Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Imagine lunch in front of the Sydney Harbor Bridge and drinking champagne at the Sydney Opera House while on intermission from a classical symphony experience of Chopin. Imagine koala bears and kangaroos in the wilderness as your travel van motors through eucalyptus forests on the way to the Blue Mountains. Imagine morning tea at an elementary school as the children play at recess in their sun hats and school uniforms. Imagine a high school visual arts festival, a sustainability center for children to learn about taking care of their Australian environment, or a principal explaining why the community center across the street from the school is an integral part of the educational support system for children and their families. Imagine being an Auburn University graduate educational leadership student and having the opportunity to share this experience with your peers and professors. Imagine being a K–12 teacher or administrator from Alabama and being present to cultural immersion, which contains some of education’s most important questions. “Who am I?” and “What kind of world do I want this to be for our children?” As their professor and the program coordinator (PC) for the educational leadership preparation program, imagine the PC’s thoughts as she watched their expressions and listened to their reflections.