Eugene McDermott Headmaster David W. Dini has been named the head of the International Boys’ School Coalition (IBSC). The IBSC is a non-profit membership organization that includes schools across the globe and strives to connect educators and foster a global community. 

Tejas: When did the relationship with the IBSC and St. Mark’s start?

Dini: It started about 30 years ago. The organization began in the early to mid 1990’s, and it’s approximately 30 years old. St Mark’s was involved from the very early days of the formation of the coalition, which initially was quite small. There were a limited number of schools that were involved in the formation, only a couple of boy’s schools. It was very informal in the beginning. It was just organized by volunteers who were heads of small boys’ schools. And there were some informal gatherings in the beginning years, and St Marks was engaged in that process from some of the earliest conversations. Since the inception of the coalition, the school has been engaged in that dialogue. 

Tejas: What do you think is the importance of the IBSC? 

Dini: There are educators from all over the world, so it’s been a wonderful association for St Mark’s. Having had the opportunity to host the conference, we always send a big group of faculty to the conference every year. We send about 15 or so teachers to the conference. This year in England, we always have faculty members that are doing action research work. They do sort of two-year research projects on various topics. We have a number of teachers now that are doing that, and we always have faculty members that present at the conference.

Tejas: How does the IBSC foster a global community?

Dini:  We foster a global community by providing support for all of those schools. To provide resources and support for educating, participating in the best practices and the sharing of ideas and experience at the same time to be a voice for those schools, so for the organization to be a representation of their voices is one of our goals.