Educational Leadership

• Prepare democratic leaders who engage in issues of equity, ethics, and social justice to create solutions to complex problems of educational practice.
• Prepare leaders who can construct and apply knowledge to advance democratic principles to benefit diverse individuals, families, organizations, and communities.
• Provide opportunities for leaders to develop and demonstrate collaboration and communication skills to work with multicultural, multilingual communities and to build partnerships with and for those communities.
• Provide field-based opportunities to analyze problems of practice by integrating intellectual, moral, and craft knowledge to develop meaningful solutions.
• Engage in the scholarship that integrates intellectual, moral, and craft knowledge, linking theory with systemic and systematic inquiry.
• Emphasize the generation and use of professional knowledge and practice to prepare leaders to transform organizations while navigating cultural, political, and policy contexts.
• Inspire engagement with citizens and stakeholders, and embrace technology innovations for improving communication, curriculum, and leadership.

Students will be able to:

• Describe and utilize theories and principles of justice and equity relevant to the problems of P-12 educational institutions.
• Articulate concepts and multiple perspectives on democratic life and democratic governance as related to P-12 institutions and communities.
• Use conceptions of cultural identity and cultural diversity to collaborate with diverse individuals, families, and communities in their school or district.
• Collaborate and communicate across diverse contexts to work with multiple constituencies and communities in partnerships.
• Relate theory and abstract thinking with concrete, applied analysis of problems of practice.
• Utilize tools to generate knowledge that can transform educational organizations within cultural, political, and policy contexts.
• Demonstrate an understanding of technological literacies for school and community leadership.

You’ll have the option to select an area of focus for nine credit hours. These courses could lead to principal licensure, superintendent licensure, or enhance your opportunity for leadership at another focus area.

1. Leadership is an intellectual, moral, and craft practice situated in the cultural, political, and social contexts of institutions and societies.
2. Educational leadership is both positional and non-positional in form; it is a process of power-sharing rather than power-imposing which works toward collaboration, emancipation, and empowerment.
3. Educators make a commitment to community. The building and development of diverse, inclusive communities is never assumed and should be continuously nurtured, interrogated, and supported.
4. Educational leaders understand and navigate the present environment in order to work towards transforming organizations and the individuals within them to become more democratic and socially just.