eJournal

BC Educational Leadership research. Issue 5.
MAY 2006

Educational Leadership development in bc

From the editor’s desk: Guest Editor Corine Clark

As Bill Mulford states, this is the “golden age” of school leadership. This issue of the BC Educational Leadership Research e-journal broadens the exploration of BC educational leadership development which was initiated in our April issue. This topic, of how to educate school leaders at the postsecondary level, is of a significant interest here in BC as it is internationally, as reflected in the recent March 2006 edition of the Phi Delta Kappan journal. Our issue includes contributions that explore the purposes and processes for fostering educational leadership in current graduate programs offered in the province with special consideration of how to integrate theory and practice. The growing attention to leadership coaching and mentoring for developing new and experienced school leaders is addressed from the unique perspectives of four authors. Our aim with this issue of the e-journal is to generate knowledge about the current state of educational leadership development in BC and how it can be guided by local, national and international research.

article snapshots

Michelle Stack, David Coulter, Garnet Grosjean, Andre Mazawi and Graham Smith, Professors from the Department of Educational Studies at UBC, provide an executive summary of a review of 12 graduate educational leadership and administration programs offered in BC, which was commissioned by the BC Deans of Education and financially supported by the BC Educational Leadership Council. The research team considered the questions of what are valid, defensible educational ends for graduate programs, who gets to decide them, and how are universities fostering these ends.

Lee Southern, the interim CEO of the BC Educational Leadership Council (BCELC), presents information about the newly formed BCELC organization and its initiatives to address the K-12 leadership succession challenges and coherence in new and existing leadership development programs.

Graham Dickson, Director of the School of Leadership Studies and Doug Hamilton, Chair of Faculty Development at Royal Roads University , outline what Royal Roads University has learned in three domains: the nature of modern leadership; best practices of leadership development; and the nature and design of effective learning processes and environments. They describe some of the unique approaches Royal Roads takes to leadership development.

Yvonne Martin-Newcomb, Associate Dean of Administration at the University of Victoria and CSML Academic Coordinator, outlines the challenges and issues faced in launching the 2005 graduate Certificate in School Management and Leadership (CSML) at the University of Victoria . She notes the initial successes in the university's efforts to meet a contemporary need for preparation of individuals to assume leadership in schools.

Linda Kaser and Judy Halbert, co-developers of the BC Network of Performance-Based Schools and co-designers of, and faculty members in, the Certificate Program for School Management and Leadership at the University of Victoria , present an argument for the kind of school leaders we need and for evidence-informed leadership development programs based on qualitative leadership studies. They present five key practices for leadership that have broad Canadian agreement and form the foundation of the CSML at the University of Victoria .

Bill Mulford, Professor and Director of the Leadership for Learning Research Group at the University of Tasmania and author with K. Leithwood and C. Day of a forthcoming book based on the International Successful School Principals (ISSP) research project, identifies some of the international developments within the political context of accountability in education and school leadership, and suggests some directions forward for effective secondary school leadership.

Jan Robertson, Professor and Dean in the School of Education at the University of Waikato, New Zealand and Director of the Educational Leadership Centre there, argues that a new type of leadership and new ways of developing educational leaders for learning is required. She advocates in this paper, and in her recent book Coaching Leadership : Towards a Knowledge of Practice, that coaching provides authentic, reciprocal leadership learning experiences and the tools for thinking critically about leadership.

Cheryl Smith, Associate Faculty at Royal Roads University and co-founder of the Executive Coaching Certificate Program in the School of Leadership Studies at Royal Roads University , suggests that coaching is a core management competency that encourages personal growth and development in organizations. She describes coaching in the workplace as not about knowing the answers but about knowing what questions to ask to support team members in achieving their own outcomes.

Norm Bradley, Bill MacGregor, Maeve Buckley, Shelagh Ryan-McNee and Sharon McCoubrey report on the evidence from a pilot project of executive coaching for educational leaders in the Central Okanagan School District . Their paper shows support for executive coaching as a means of ongoing collaborative professional development and the improvement of leadership capacity.

Corine Clark, Field Director of the School Leadership Centre, and Patricia Shields, BC Program Manager for the Learning Partnership, consider the questions which should be explored as school districts or educational organizations plan mentorship for new school principals and vice-principals. Patricia and Corine elaborate on the collaborative process that was used to develop the Vancouver School Board Mentorship Program for School Administrators. The VSB mentorship program document is attached.

And finally, mentoring and coaching references are included as a source for investigating the literature based on research and practice in these areas.

In closing, I would like to acknowledge and thank the writers of the papers in this issue of the BC Educational Research ejournal. It is only through the generous contribution of their ideas, research and effort that the larger BC educational community is able to benefit from their thinking about educational leadership development.

Upcoming Issues of BCELR

JUNE

Action Research
Data driven decision making has become an expectation for all actions in schools.  This journal will consider the sorts of action research that educational leaders are involved in, the strengths of these approaches, and what further is needed.
Submission deadline: May 30, 2006

Submissions

Submissions are invited from all educational leaders across BC: teachers, students, parents, district staff, researchers, government officers, principals and vice principals, union representatives, superintendents. Submissions will be reviewed by the editorial staff of BCELR. Note that copyright of every article published through BCELR remains with the author.

• Submit your document as a word document, with contact information (e-mail and phone number) and a short biography.
• E-mail to slc.edu@ubc.ca
• BCELR will notify you of the document’s receipt, and will further notify you if the article will be published.

Articles

Michelle Stack, David Coulter, Garnet Grosjean, Andre Mazawi, and Graham Smith: Fostering Tomorrow's Educational Leaders - Executive Summary [download article]

Dr. Lee Southern: BC Education Leadership Council (BCELC): A New Organization Focused on a Democratic Purpose [download article]

Graham Dickson and Doug Hamilton: Twenty-first Century Leadership Development At Royal Roads University [download article]

Yvonne Martin-Newcombe: University of Victoria’s New Certificate Program for School Leaders [download article]

Linda Kaser and Judy Halbert: School Leadership - Important Work [download article]

Bill Mulford: Leadership For Improving the Quality of Secondary Education: Some International Developments [download article]

Jan Robertson: Coaching Leadership: Towards a Knowledge of Practice [download article]

Cheryl Smith: What’s Coaching When It’s at Work? [download article]

Norm Bradley, Dr. Bill MacGregor, Maeve Buckley, Shelagh Ryan-McNee, and Dr. Sharon McCoubrey: Coaching Educational Leaders [download article]

Corine Clark and Patricia Shields: Developing a Mentorship Program for New School Principals and Vice-Principals [download article]
Further Reading: The VSB Mentorship Program

editor's selected bibliographies

Mentoring and Coaching References