Educational Leadership Programs Research Articles

Building High Performing Coach-Athlete Relationships: The USOC’s National Team Coach Leadership Education Program (NTCLEP)

The purpose of the present article is to share the design and impact of a coach-athlete relationship coach education seminar. The seminar is part of the United States Olympic Committee’s (USOC) National Team Coach Leadership Education Program (NTCLEP). Development and delivery of the seminar is facilitated by The People Academy (www.people.academy). Impact results from participation in this seminar are drawn from coaches and athletes from USA Archery and USA Cycling. The article is organized into three sections. In the first section an overview of the coach-athlete relationship building component of the USOC’s high performance coach education program is provided. Two case summaries are then presented on the impact of the program on coach-athlete relationships and athlete performance. The third and final section is used to offer suggestions for future coach education initiatives and coaching strategies aimed at enhancing coach-athlete relationships.

Transformational Leadership Educational Program for Head Nurses and its Effect on Nurses' Job Performance

Head nurses` who apply transformational leadership find innovative approaches that enhance staff nurses` performance at their highest level to achieve a vision of quality health care. Also, transformational leader has a major impact on the staff nurses' behavior to achieve health care organization goals as, this leader setting new direction, inspiration, and behaviors for their health care organization. Aim: to assess the transformational leadership educational program for head nurses and its effect on nurses' job performance. Research design: A quasi experimental design. Setting: The study was conducted in all units at Benha University Hospital. Sample: all the available head nurses and their assistants (103) and the convenient staff nurses (138) from the above mentioned setting. Tools: Three tools were used: (1) transformational leadership knowledge questionnaire, (2) the multifactor leadership questionnaire Form 5X Short (MLQ leader form), and (3) nurses’ job performance evaluation (Observation Checklist). Results and Conclusion: showed that there was highly statistically significant improvement in head nurses` knowledge scores and skills regarding transformational leadership immediate post program and three months follow up the program than pre program scores. Also, there was highly statistically significant improvement in scores of job performance elements among staff nurses immediate post program and three months follow up the program than pre program scores as observed by the researcher. Recommendations: Conduct continuous in-service training and education programs for refreshing and increasing head nurses’ knowledge and skills about the transformational leadership style.

Surrendering to Gender in Education? Complacency and the Woman Leader

The purpose of our study was to better understand the role of gender performance for aspiring school leaders through a reflection of their journey through the administrative pipeline. The transformation of professional aspirations throughout and following the certification process and during employment was also analyzed. Also, the appealing factors of a nontraditional administrative preparation program were evaluated. Using heuristic qualitative methods, women graduates of and expedited certification for educational leadership program participated in focus groups and a select group returned for individual interviews. Coding was employed to analyze the data. Our participants entered into school leadership as a result of an external catalyst, a mentor, which inspired a process of self-empowerment that led to their pursuit of administrative certifications and positions. This process was cyclical. The nontraditional program and its appealing characteristics added to the realization of their current leadership positions. The recommendations we make in the areas of policy, research, and practice, each speak to a need for enhanced encouragement, by diverse means, of women school leaders at the national, state, and district levels.

The Teaching, Learning, and Being of Leadership: Exploring Context and Practice of the Culturally Relevant Leadership Learning Model

With a holistic approach in mind, the current article explores how the culturally relevant leadership learning (CRLL) model can be put into practice to enhance the inclusive nature of leadership education programs. Keeping context at the forefront, the teaching, learning, and being of leadership are fluid and dynamic processes, where educators constantly have to keep the complexity of this work in mind. Using a house metaphor, we argue for careful consideration regarding how we build leadership education programs to be welcoming, and structurally stable enough to provide safety for all who enter. Finally, the article provides a practical example of how one of us enacts the CRLL model, with particular attention to teaching, learning, and being as critical in creating immersive and engaging teaching and learning environments.

#BlackGirlsMatter: A Case Study Examining the Intersectionality of Race, Gender, and School Discipline

Nationwide, African American girls have the highest suspension rates among all racial and ethnic groups. Furthermore, they are the most severely, disproportionately affected by school discipline policies and practices when compared with other girls. This case study was developed for use in education leadership programs to critically analyze school discipline policies and practices that disproportionately affect African American girls.

Evaluating a Museum-Based Professional Learning Community as a Model for Art Education Leadership Development

In alignment with the National Art Education Association’s (NAEA) 2015-2020 Strategic Vision, Enid Zimmerman conducted an evaluation of Summer Vision DC (SVDC), an NAEA-sponsored, museum-based art education professional learning community program. The purpose was twofold: to provide feedback to the leaders of the program (including Renee Sandell, program director), and to create a model for art education leadership programs in school and museum settings. Background information about the program is followed by a description of the evaluation design and research process, including a conceptual framework, data analyses, interpretations of an online survey and focus group meeting, and feedback from the program leaders. We conclude this study with explanations about the impact of the program and revisions and outcomes that were initiated to reinforce quality leadership in a professional learning community. We offer recommendations for further professional development using the SVDC leadership model for developing personal, collaborative, and public voice that can take place in diverse educational contexts.

Pedagogical Strategies for the Transformation of Church Cultures: An Examination of a Spiritual Leadership Development Program in Korean Immigrant Churches

How do we teach transformative ideas that challenge the conservative culture of a church? This paper explores the process by which a spiritual leadership education program that empowers lay women was conceptualized and implemented in the context of Korean immigrant Presbyterian churches. It pays special attention to the phases through which the program was developed in order to examine the challenges faced at each phase and the pedagogical strategies employed to counter those challenges. The insights gained through such adjustments will be explored in dialog with inspiration drawn from Septima Clark’s Citizenship School work that paved the way for the civil rights movement and Bonnie Miller-McLemore’s work on a maternal feminist epistemology.

Effective Educational Leadership Training for Improving Student Learning Outcomes

In the required course work of many programs in Educational Leadership, doctoral candidates typically engage in various forms of analysis and synthesis about transformative leadership. Coursework in ethical education; transformational learning; creativity, inquiry, and innovative leadership; quantitative research methods; qualitative research methods, and leading organizational change form the basis of many courses of study. Evidence in the literature overwhelmingly support the position that educational leaders are highly effective, when engaging in both transformational and organizational development practices. Their effectiveness can also benefit student learning outcomes. This paper draws from the main points of all of the afore mentioned to illustrate how the effective educational leadership training can benefit student transformative educational leaders. The paper concludes that investment in educational leadership training is a pathway for large-scale education improvement.

Civic Investment Plan: A Case Study Connecting Civic Engagement and Leadership Development

Fort Hays State University (FHSU) has been actively engaged in civic learning and engagement for over a decade. Despite many successes, our civic education initiative faces substantial challenges. The current paper articulates a series of recommendations and changes, driven by an internal audit and best practice research, to expand efforts to reach all students and institutionalize this important work throughout universities. Civic learning and engagement offers opportunities for leadership students and faculty to practice “doing” leadership. By adopting community engagement as a pedagogy and practice, leadership education programs are preparing the next generation of active and engaged citizens. FHSU’s Civic Investment Plan seeks to encourage a wider conversation among leadership educators about the role of leadership education in the development of civic leaders in an effort permeate the work across the entire academy.

Dissertation Completion: Higher Education’s Invisible Problem

Researchers agree that one in two doctoral students will not complete their degree, but there is little agreement on how to support and encourage these students in their scholarship. A qualitative inquiry was used to examine the reasons for delayed or expedited dissertation completion by doctoral students in an educational leadership program at a Midwestern university. Identified challenges of the dissertation process included imposter syndrome, writing anxiety, and overall productivity. Also identified were supports for the dissertation process, including the cohort model and strong mentorship. Findings indicated that doctoral candidates were highly influenced by personal or environmental factors and the perceived value of institutional support. Additionally, once delayed completers overcame their barriers and engaged in the dissertation process, their behaviors and strategies mirrored expedited completers.

Leaving fingerprints: principals’ considerations while implementing education reforms

PurposeTurning an education reform program into school reality greatly depends on the principal. In certain cases, principals choose to implement reform instructions only partially. The purpose of this paper is to explore school principals’ considerations leading to their decisions not to fulfill a national reform’s guidelines in a full and complete way.Design/methodology/approachThis qualitative study is based on interviews with 59 school principals. Generating themes was an inductive process, grounded in the various perspectives articulated by principals.FindingsData analysis yielded three major considerations: adjusting to school reality; caring for teachers; and using discretion.Research limitations/implicationsLongitudinal studies in order to explore how principals’ considerations and mediation strategies evolve and unfold throughout the reform implementation would be useful. The authors suggest complementing principals’ verbally expressed perceptions with more objective measures such as direct observations (recorded on video and then reflected upon), to evaluate their considerations and mediating strategies.Practical implicationsProviding prospective and in-service principals with leadership education programs in order to develop an upgraded understanding of their role as mediating agents between the inner and outer spheres of school-life.Originality/valueAs principals serve as mid-level policymakers who leave their “fingerprints” on policies received from the authorities, exploring these considerations may contribute to both the scholarship and the practice of the leadership role in times of education reforms.

Design and Intervention of an Educational-Leadership Program: Student Voice and Agency, Expectations and Internationalization

This paper explores the lived experiences of a diverse student cohort enrolled in a master’s degree educational-leadership program. The program’s global focus was on the quality of teacher education, prospective teachers’ workplace preparedness and leaders in the workforce in higher education. Internationalization, real-life experiences and student voice served as an enacted intervention curriculum for an educational leadership course designed to reveal the gap between theory and practice. An epistemological diversity lens stimulated critical reflection on students’ participation in the course design and its connection to realities in the field. Diverse higher-education classrooms pose specific challenges for educational leadership programs in including effective internationalization, workplace relevance and improving the generalizability and content validity of the educational leadership course. This small qualitative exploratory investigation provides an in-depth understanding of the value of student voice in informing course and program design. Interviews, observations, two surveys and a document analysis triangulated the data and provided information on the complexities in higher-education classrooms. The findings focus on teacher-educators and higher-education classroom management as well as on the value of critical inquiry, reflection and intervention for existing course designs and transformation.

Creating successful and sustainable educational administrative internship experiences

PurposeWith increase requirements and a more clinical approach for administrator internships in principal preparation programs, universities are taking a look at their internships and how they are implemented. The purpose of this paper is to propose a structure and framework incorporating promising practices from recent literature and explores how to successfully implement new standards and state requirements. Additionally, a framework for practice is included as a foundation for a clinical internship program that applies theory and promising practices.Design/methodology/approachInternships are a critical aspect of the principal preparation program and are crucial to preparing students to fulfill their future leadership roles. This brief reviewed the related literature, which revealed the lack of quality in various educational leadership programs and posited that the internship is an essential element to principal preparation. Key considerations to successful internships, and why they are necessary to overall candidate preparation were also presented. Additionally, a sample program was described that included aspects of both performance and accountability and served as a framework for new and revised internships.FindingsAlthough the internship experience is but one part of a larger curricular sequence, it has a central role in the preparation of future school administrators. School administrator preparation programs have an obligation to allow participants to fully experience the breadth and depth of issues and environments that they will encounter. A structure and framework is needed that incorporates promising practices from recent literature, and explores how to successfully implement new standards and state requirements for a clinical internship program applying current theory and promising practices.Originality/valueCreating and maintaining effective internship experiences is an ever-evolving process that requires dedicated faculty and resources. Learning through internships is a central element of future principal candidates’ overall success. Authentic practice and experience in real school settings ensures that future educational leaders receive the best preparation that universities and faculty can provide.

Neoliberalism and Western accreditation in the Middle East

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the role of neoliberalism and the accreditation of educational leadership programs in one Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country by contextualizing the accreditation process and closely examining the Educational Leadership Constituent Council (ELCC) standards used by NCATE, now CAEP, to accredit educational leadership programs in the GCC. By using Habermas’ knowledge constitutive interests (KCIs) and evoking notions of floating signifiers, the paper develops an understanding of the use of Western-developed standards in a country that is different than the one in which these standards were conceived and how the discourse of accreditation standards shapes understandings and meanings of educational leadership.Design/methodology/approachA critical discourse analysis of the ELCC standards is conducted using a two-prong strategy that applies Habermas’ KCIs and evoking the notions of floating signifiers as a theoretical framework.FindingsUnderstanding that knowledge is bounded by cultural circumstances, findings indicate that the ELCC standards contain all three KCIs, and various floating signifiers are embedded within the ELCC discourse that are problematic in a culture that is vastly different than the one in which these standards were conceived.Originality/valueThere are a few, if any, studies that have examined neoliberalism and accreditation in a GCC country. In particular, there are no studies that have examined the ELCC standards being used outside the USA. The research provides educators with an insight into the different forms of knowledge and understanding of the surplus of meaning of various concepts that are used within the ELCC professional standards outside the country where the standards were conceived without due regard for contextualization. The study provides discussion on how the discourse of the ELCC standards shapes understandings and meanings of educational leadership and educational leaders.

Teaching Moral Literacy through Critical Pedagogical Bricolage: A Co-constructed Auto-Ethnography of an Educational Leadership Program

In this collaborative auto-ethnographical inquiry, two developing scholar–practitioner educational leaders explore the notion of moral literacy through a lens of critical pedagogical bricolage. This study aims to reveal certain experiences of two doctoral candidates engaged in an educational doctorate, contemplating their identities as emergent leaders from diverse backgrounds. By approaching this inquiry from a qualitative and strictly post-positivist understanding of research, we aim to present critical components of our program and the literature presented in that program that led to our understanding of moral literacy’s role in theoretical and pragmatic provinces of educational leadership. Our analysis is presented in three themes: transformation of the candidate through the teaching of moral literacy, consideration of the interplay between local identity and moral literacy, and the potential of bricolage (or critical pedagogical bricolage) as a catalyst for teaching moral literacy.

Investigating the Use and Design of Immersive Simulation to Improve Self-Efficacy for Aspiring Principals

Aim/Purpose: Improving public schools is a focus of federal legislation in the United States with much of the burden placed on principals. However, preparing principals for this task has proven elusive despite many changes in programming by institutions of higher learning. Emerging technologies that rely on augmented and virtual realities are posited to be powerful pedagogical tools for closing this gap. Background: This study investigated the effects of immersive simulation technologies on principals’ self-efficacy after treatment and the perceived significance of the design of the immersive simulation experience as an effective tool for adult learners. Methodology: The investigator employed a multiple-methods study that relied on a purposive sample of graduate students enrolled in educational leadership programs at two small universities in the southeastern United States. Participants completed a two-hour module of immersive simulation designed to facilitate transfer of knowledge to skills thereby increasing their self-efficacy. Contribution: This paper contributes to a small body of literature that examines the use of immersive simulation to prepare aspiring principals. Findings: The findings indicate moderate effect sizes in changes in self-efficacy, positive attitudes toward immersive simulation as a pedagogical tool, and significance in the design of immersive simulation modules. This suggests that immersive simulation, when properly designed, aids principals in taking action to improve schools. Recommendations for Practitioners: Educational leadership programs might consider the use of immersive simulations to enhance principals’ ability to meet the complex demands of leading in the 21st century. Impact on Society: Principals may be more adept at improving schools if preparation programs provided consistent opportunities to engage in immersive simulations. Future Research: Future research should be conducted with larger sample sizes and longitudinally to determine the effectiveness of this treatment.

Six Sigma at Dominion Resources, Inc.: Investing in Excellence

This note provides information on Six Sigma and business improvement at Dominion Resources, Inc., including many examples of the CEO Tom Farrell's personal commitment and support. It can be used in executive education leadership programs and business courses in operations management in discussions about Six Sigma program elements that help sustain a culture of continuous improvement and deliver extraordinary business results. Ten years after its launch at Dominion Resources, Inc., Six Sigma, is one of the nation's most widely recognized initiatives having been cited for audited hard savings, integration into corporate culture, percentage of employees trained, sustained management support, and employee recognition. Excerpt UVA-OM-1453 Sept. 2, 2011 SIX SIGMA AT DOMINION RESOURCES, INC.: INVESTING IN EXCELLENCE I firmly believe that Six Sigma provides us with a clear pathway to excellence in everything we do—and how we do things every day. —Tom Farrell, CEO of Dominion Resources . . .

EVALUASI IMPLEMENTASI KEBIJAKAN PROGRAM PENDIDIKAN PIMPINAN TINGKAT NASIONAL PADA LEMBAGA KETAHANAN NASIONAL REPUBLIK INDONESIA

National Resilience Institute Republic of Indonesia as education providers focus on the education program cadreled national level, the appropriate duties and functions of educating, preparing cadres and strengthen the leadership of the national level through educational programs, so that the necessary preparation of the infrastructure of education, educational operations, development of educational materials and teacher. In this paper focuses on policy implementation leadership education programs with sub-national level focus include: 1). Supporter infrastructure management education. 2). Preparation of Educational Material. 3) .Governance / educational operations. 4). Performance faculty or holder teachings material. In the evaluative research using the model Discrepancy Evaluation Model (DEM), through the stages of Design Stage, Installed Programs, Process and Product. Based on the evaluation of research in the field, the researcher recommends 1). The need to increase both the quality and quantity of Infrastructures Education. 2). The need to increase the quality and ease of getting material Doctrine. 3). Operational management of the need to improve education. 4). The need to improve the appearance and teaching methods in the aspect of teaching staff personnel and Manpower Professional reviewers. National Resilience Institute of Republic of Indonesia is the appropriate institution be a leading sector in implementing the mental revolution because during this time the duties and functions of the Indonesian National Resilience Institute will educate the nation's leading cadres both from the political parties, the government and private sectors.

EVALUASI IMPLEMENTASI KEBIJAKAN PROGRAM PENDIDIKAN PIMPINAN TINGKAT NASIONAL PADA LEMBAGA KETAHANAN NASIONAL REPUBLIK INDONESIA

National Resilience Institute Republic of Indonesia as education providers focus on the education program cadreled national level, the appropriate duties and functions of educating, preparing cadres and strengthen the leadership of the national level through educational programs, so that the necessary preparation of the infrastructure of education, educational operations, development of educational materials and teacher. In this paper focuses on policy implementation leadership education programs with sub-national level focus include: 1). Supporter infrastructure management education. 2). Preparation of Educational Material. 3) .Governance / educational operations. 4). Performance faculty or holder teachings material. In the evaluative research using the model Discrepancy Evaluation Model (DEM), through the stages of Design Stage, Installed Programs, Process and Product. Based on the evaluation of research in the field, the researcher recommends 1). The need to increase both the quality and quantity of Infrastructures Education. 2). The need to increase the quality and ease of getting material Doctrine. 3). Operational management of the need to improve education. 4). The need to improve the appearance and teaching methods in the aspect of teaching staff personnel and Manpower Professional reviewers. National Resilience Institute of Republic of Indonesia is the appropriate institution be a leading sector in implementing the mental revolution because during this time the duties and functions of the Indonesian National Resilience Institute will educate the nation's leading cadres both from the political parties, the government and private sectors.

A Leadership Education and Development Program for Clinical Nurses.

The Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) Program was designed to transform care at the bedside by empowering clinical nurses as leaders. The heart of LEAD was enhancing communication skills of clinical nurses with clinical colleagues and, most importantly, patients and families. Key concepts of leadership/management were included: personal awareness, personal leadership skills/abilities, leading change, leading others individually and in teams, enhancing the patient/provider experience, and the leadership role in outcomes management. A quantitative, longitudinal, survey design was used with 2 cohorts. The program consisted of six 4-hour sessions for 3 to 6 months. Leadership practices were measured before program implementation, at the end of the program, and 3 months after program completion. There were significant increases in leadership practices sustained 3 months after program completion. A range of other outcome measures was included. There is a need for additional leadership development programs for clinical nurses.