Accepting Educational Responsibility: Preparing Administrators to Lead Inclusive Schools

Educational leaders are expected to lead schools for increased outcomes for all students. Effective leadership of inclusive schools requires certain skills and dispositions. However, many principals do not have background in special education and there is criticism that educational leadership preparation programs are inadequately preparing aspiring school leaders. In this study, we surveyed graduate students in a leadership preparation program to understand their perceptions of their knowledge and skills related to leading inclusive schools. The results of the study contribute to the body of research regarding curricular and experiential changes needed in preparation programs to prepare leaders for inclusive schools.

Disrupting Dysconsciousness: Confronting Anti-Blackness in Educational Leadership Preparation Programs

This article examines liberatory pedagogical practices utilized in graduate level courses offered within an educational leadership preparation program (ELPP). The research explores how these tools support the development of culturally responsive school leadership and actively anti-racist leaders in a program purporting to develop social justice-oriented school leaders. The author analyzes data collected from student course evaluations (SCEs) and assignments in courses taught across two years. Findings indicate that students perceived the liberatory pedagogical practices employed within the course to be vital in pushing them towards disrupting the pathologies of racism and anti-Blackness cultivated during their primary through post-secondary schooling experiences. The findings also indicated that students responded positively to the use of liberatory pedagogical practices and frameworks that centered race and explicitly used race language.

A Principal’s Approach to Leadership for Social Justice: Advancing Reflective and Anti-Oppressive Practices

This case study explores an urban elementary school principal’s efforts to advance reflective and anti-oppressive practices to counter teachers’ beliefs and behaviors toward their Black male students. Data collected and analyzed include five in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, observations of the school, classroom and professional learning meetings, and document analysis of policies, improvement plans, and weekly faculty agenda. The findings revealed that data-informed leadership was the impetus to the principal enacting social justice leadership, which involved anchoring systemic professional learning opportunities to teachers’ core values and beliefs and developing the collective consciousness of teachers individually and collectively. Lastly, the principal utilized strategies and instituted structures in and outside of the school to propel a cultural paradigm shift in how students in general, and Black males in particular, were served and cared for. Implications for principal professional learning and educational leadership preparation programs are shared. This article offers recommendations on how social justice leaders can coach teachers and advance practices that engender respect and dignity for Black male students.

Preparing leaders for wicked problems? How the revised PSEL and NELP standards address equity and justice

The past 20 years have seen a shift in school leaders’ work that can best be characterized by an increasing complexity in expectations and greater demands for accountabilities. Educational leadership preparation programs and professional associations responded to these shifts, in part, with the development and proliferation of standards for both pre-service (ELCC and NELP) and practicing (ISLLC and PSEL) educational leaders. Both sets of standards have undergone significant revision in the last five years, largely in response to shifts in the work required of school administrators in today’s 21st century schools. However, what remains an open empirical question is whether the leadership standards are robust and pragmatic enough to tackle the various educational issues that school leaders face. In other words, do various school leadership standards prepare and assess school administrators appropriately? Using the wicked problems framework, we examine the extent to which the revised PSEL and NELP standards capture the challenging work required for school leaders to act as inclusive leaders and “equity-oriented change agents” (Maxwell, Locke, Scheurich, 2013, p. 1). We utilize qualitative content analysis (Weber, 1990) to analyze the content of the leadership standards, focusing in particular on the ways those standards represent evolving conceptions of equity and justice. These analyses suggest that although both sets of standards have changed considerably from their predecessors, they may not go far enough to help leaders determine how to implement the proper administrative authority to solve complex issues. This is particularly true as it relates to the persistent, wicked equity problems facing our schools.

How Exemplary Educational Leadership Preparation Programs Hone the Interpersonal-Intrapersonal (i2) Skills of Future Leaders

John P. Kotter argues that business schools continue to prepare leaders for 20th century needs, as they typically teach students how to manage an organization, rather than how to lead one. In this article, we explore how Kotter’s assertion applies to educational leadership preparation programs. We examine the ways a purposive sample of exemplary programs structure and implement learning experiences for aspiring educational leaders. Leveraging our findings from these cases and the literature on transformational learning and leadership, we argue that today’s programs should include “powerful learning experiences” that challenge and coach leadership candidates to build the skills and capacities necessary to both manage and lead organizations. If educational leaders are the “driving subsystem” for school improvement efforts, then leadership preparation must move aspiring leaders beyond technical competence and toward the more transformational aspects of leading.

The Role of the Educational Leadership Program Coordinator (PC) in University–K-12 School District Partnership Development

The researchers explored educational leadership program coordinator (PC) roles in developing university–K-12 school district partnerships. Little is known in regards to the PC’s role in educational leadership preparation programs, and there is even less evidence of the PC’s role in K-12 school district partnership development. This burden appears to have fallen in the educational leadership PC’s wheelhouse. Using the Barnett et al.’s partnership model as the framework, the researchers examined the PC’s role. Facilitating and hindering factors of sustainable partnerships were identified and investigated. Study outcomes suggested the PC is the chief collaborator in fostering K-12 school district partnerships.

Leadership Preparation Programs: Preparing Culturally Competent Educational Leaders

The demographic profile of the United States has been rapidly changing; by 2020, minority students will constitute the majority of the public school student population nationwide. This makes cultural competence a necessity for today’s school leaders. Educational leadership preparation programs are responsible for preparing culturally competent leaders; however, few programs assess their students’ cultural competence. The purpose of this quantitative, cross-sectional, causal-comparative study was to examine whether graduates of educational leadership preparation programs had significantly different cultural competence than those beginning their respective program. The findings of this study suggest that matriculating through a principal preparation program positively correlates with educational leadership students’ overall cultural competence, cultural beliefs and motivation, and cultural knowledge. However, there appears to be no significant relationship between completing the program and students’ cultural skills.

What Do Students Have to Do With Educational Leadership? Making a Case for Centering Student Voice

The purpose of this article is to illustrate the value of educational leaders intentionally including students in shaping the policies and practices that affect young people’s schooling experiences. First, we share the literature on student voice and introduce Principal Orientations for Critical Youth Educational Leadership as a conceptual model, advocating ways leaders can engage young people in school governance. Second, we share an empirical example from our research that holds promise to build caring, equitable, and responsive classrooms and schools by centering students’ voices. Finally, we consider what our findings mean for educational leadership preparation programs.