Teaching organizational theory in a way that bridges to leadership practice is vital to preparing deft educational leaders who understand the organizational behavior of schools and districts. Organizational theory guides understanding of the complexities of schools and districts and can be a basis for collaborative and effective decision making.…

Calls for changing educational leadership preparation have led many state policy makers to initiate program redesign efforts; the governor of Alabama constituted a working group to examine the situation and develop recommendations. This article details the school leadership preparation program redesign process in Alabama from the perspective of…

This article argues that a framework of educational leadership must be so designed as to specifically speak to the transitioning demographics in schools in the United States. Particularly salient is a framework that addresses the issue of race within a broader context of social justice. The article outlines five ingredients of such a framework,…

This article addresses the leadership preparation line of inquiry developed in the past decade by the University Council for Educational Administration/Learning and Teaching in Educational Leadership Special Interest Group Taskforce on Evaluating Leadership Preparation Programs, and it particularly addresses the series of survey instruments…

To prepare 21st Century school leaders, educational leadership professors need to learn and teach the utilization of increasingly sophisticated technologies in their courses. The co-authors, a professor and an educational specialist degree candidate, describe how the use of advanced technologies--such as Wikis, Google Docs, Wimba Classroom, and…

This paper describes the use of advanced computer technology in an innovative educational leadership program. This program integrates full-motion video scenarios that simulate the leadership challenges typically faced by principals over the course of a full school year. These scenarios require decisions that are then coupled to consequences and…

This paper describes the ways that feminist theories, history and pedagogies can be infused into leadership preparation programs in educational administration. This work is situated with the larger movement of leadership for social justice. The authors describe the theoretical frame for this work and the organization of a feminist leadership…

Heeding the advice of Young, Petersen, and Short (2002), the Educational Leadership Program at Auburn University included a variety of stakeholders in the reform of its preparation program. Collaborative partnerships were formed with school districts, local and state educational agencies, and with a variety of other educational stakeholders. This…

The purpose of this paper is to describe Auburn University's story of developing an innovative field-based master's level principal preparation program. Our goal was to align the program's curriculum and internship experiences with state and other accrediting agency standards, current leadership preparation research, and local educational agency…

Programs designed to develop future educational leaders must include practical learning experiences that connect the theoretical content of university coursework with the realities of the K-12 workplace. Internships, which offer a common method of providing these experiences, have been generally lacking in the degree to which aspiring leaders…

The Auburn University Educational Leadership Team and its K-12 practitioner and community partners collaboratively developed a comprehensive, on-going evaluation plan to assess a newly implemented field-based graduate program. The purpose of the present manuscript was to describe the evaluation guidelines and plans. The leadership team and…

This article is framed in two ways. First, by an editorial concern regarding the Americentricity of a special issue for the "Journal of Research on Educational Leadership" on leadership preparation. And second, Jean-Marie, Normore, and Brooks' (2009) desire for a "new social order" for a "multinational dialogue" as expressed in their paper…

Literature on leadership and change suggests that leaders help drive and sustain first- and second-order change and that they help to motivate people towards a vision based on common values; therefore, leaders do need to be prepared for significant responsibility. Leaders should ask, what "grand narrative" are today's leaders, this including…

At the dawn of the 21st century, there has been an increased focus on social justice and educational leadership (Bogotch, Beachum, Blount, Brooks & English, 2008; Marshall & Oliva, 2006; Shoho, Merchang & Lugg, 2005). This paper explores and extends themes in contemporary educational research on leadership preparation in terms of social justice…

Differences in values and socio-economics, issues of diversity and equity, and changing educational expectations and structures challenge leadership preparation programs, particularly those in urban environments. This article focuses on discerning major urban education issues, defining constructs of leadership for urban schools, and identifying a…