To be an effective leader in today's community college requires a sophisticated set of skills that are often learned through on the job training, mentoring, and professional development activities. Using case study methodology, this study examined how community college leaders in California use their skills to implement a state mandate related to…

Using Bereiter and Scardamalia's (1993) hidden expert knowledge, we explored what knowledge counts from the perspectives of working small school-district superintendents and the ways in which they gain that knowledge. This qualitative study used focus groups as its primary data collection method. Participants were 37 superintendents of districts…

The purpose of this essay is to examine and respond to Tom Glass's (2000) assertions about the dearth of women in the superintendency using the lenses of new data (from two large national studies) and analysis--an analysis that primarily focuses on women superintendents' and central office administrators' formal, experiential, and personal…

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…

Leadership preparation programs find themselves in a state of flux, experiencing changing demands, and increasing scrutiny and accountability. New challenges and definitions of leadership preparation coupled with expanding demands for increased abilities of school leaders in ever larger numbers create the necessity to examine, question, revise,…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to learn what motivated students to enroll in the first formal training program in educational administration in the history of The Bahamas. This research considers the intersections of motivation, career paths, and educational histories of those who live and work in schools in The Bahamas. Open-ended,…

The author argues that leadership is a cultural construct embedded in symbolic processes. By culture, the author refers to the informal codes and shared assumptions of individuals who participate in an organization. An organization's members shape and are shaped by the symbols and rituals of the institution as well as the unique history from which…

Leadership, like diversity, is often used in education as an all-encompassing notion, applied to a wide variety of situations, or at times, used rather loosely. The danger with such an approach is the lack of specificity. Yet, specificity can set the boundaries so narrow that one is led to believe one approach is better than another or that "one…

Leading the modern university in the twenty-first century is a nearly impossible task. According to Parker Palmer (2006), the answer for all university presidents and faculty alike lies not in looking outward at competing demands, but in facing inward. Palmer would agree that new leadership is needed for new times, but it will not come from…

As individuals contemplate a new worldview of leadership education, they must step back to reflect on what now shapes and constrains leaders in schools. Their understandings of traditional leadership are rooted in organizational theory that is focused on rationality, effectiveness, and efficiency of bureaucratic institutions, defining the…

Leadership education has become the public education reform strategy of the new century. Spotlighting leadership education presumes that improved leadership preparation and development will yield better leadership, management, and organizational practices which, in turn, will improve teaching, student learning and student performance in schools…