Ten years and counting: salient doctoral program design and delivery  (Page 4/10)

As a precursor to program development, as a doctoral faculty council, we identified tenets of our program as an emphasis on social justice, reflective practice, scholar-practitioner leadership, an ethic of care, and democratic leadership. The over-riding theme is scholar- practitioner leadership, and students are challenged in the orientation, in courses and in evaluative processes to consider,“What does it truly mean to be a scholar-practitioner leader?”An emphasis is on each student’s construction of the term’s meaning. In a paper in the first course, students are asked to define scholar-practitioner leaders. In the internship evaluation questions, students are asked to consider ways the internship encouraged growth as a scholar- practitioner leader. In focus groups at the end of the year, students are asked to reflect upon the value of the portfolio process in their development as scholar-practitioner leaders, the value of the internship, and the value of the courses. Major tenets of the program, such as, of social justice and an ethic of care are reinforced through the portfolio process in which students make portfolio presentations sharing three to six themes that have emerged for them in their growth as scholar practitioner leaders. An emphasis of the program is reading, writing, dialogue, reflection, research, critical inquiry and positive action.

I serve as a member of the doctoral faculty in a doctoral program for educational leadership that was first approved in 1997 to offer classes to the first cohort of students and have taught in the program since its approval. The program was designed in a decade of reform to incorporate many recommendations stemming from the Danforth funded educational leadership preparation reform efforts, such as, cohort grouping, portfolio assessment, and a curriculum focused on development of critical inquiry skills, social justice and ethical practice as scholar-practitioner leaders, and these programmatic features have endured.

Ten cohorts have participated in the program through the initial coursework that begins each summer and continues with sequenced coursework throughout a two and a half year time period prior to the dissertation course hours. The program includes delivery features of two internships that are designed to meet students’professional goals, a synthesis course each summer in which connections are strengthened between courses with portfolio assessment of the year’s work as an integral component of each synthesis course. The entire program is designed to develop students as scholar-practitioner leaders with students and professors engaging in critical analysis of both research literature and problems of practice with a central focus on issues of school improvement.

The mission statement of the doctoral program is:

To prepare educational leaders who through collaborative partnerships, professional service, teaching, and research will contribute to the transformation of schools to higher levels of student achievement and success.