Goals of the course: Foundations of Educational Administration serves as the "introductory course" for professionals who want to become school administrators. The course will provide students with an understanding of the meaning of administration and will focus on helping students to learn how to think and act as an administrator. Foundations of Educational Administration will introduce students to the concepts of change, conflict, instructional leadership and active anti-racism. Each of these are areas in which administrators spend considerable time, regardless of their position. Administrators must understand each of these concepts to be successful in bringing about true school reform and be able to deal with them successfully within the context of a school and/or a school system. Foundations of Educational Administration will also introduce students to different ways of analyzing organizations. The primary vehicle for accomplishing that will be the use of Bolman and Deal's book, Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice and Leadership and Dr. Starratt's book, Transforming Education Administration. Students will learn to understand and use multiple perspectives for analyzing organizations, as a means of promoting reflection about and understanding of how administrators make choices for taking action and demonstrating leadership .
By the end of the course, students will: 1. Have a more comprehensive understanding of the forces of change and how to use change constructively in bringing about school reform. 2. Have a greater understanding of conflict and how an administrator resolves conflict, in a school or school system. 3. Have a greater understanding of what it means for an administrator to be an instructional leader who is able to focus on teaching and learning as the prime ingredients in school reform. 4. Have a greater understanding of the force of racism and the responsibility school leaders have to become active anti-racists.
Texts for this course include: Michael G. Fullan, The New Meaning of Education Change, 2nd edition, Teachers College Press, Columbia University Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal, Framing Organizations: Artistry, Choice and Leadership, 2nd edition, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco R. Lindsey, K. Robins, R. Terrell, Cultural Proficiency, Corwin Press Robert Starret, Transforming Education Administration, McGraw-Hill Course outline • September 2: Introduction to course and each other. Review Syllabus, to become more clear about the expectations of the course. Begin to explore the meaning of administration: What does administration look like in private/public schools?
• September 9:The history of educational administration: Leadership -- the major variable. Students will gain an understanding of how administration has changed focus during the 20th century and what leadership traits/skills are needed to enter the 21st century. Emphasis will be on core values and culture building as leadership skills.
• September 16: Understanding educational change -- the human dimension-- Case study.
• September 23: Writing a case study around change. Students will identify groups for their project and write a case study which involves change. Assignment 2 - due 9/23/99 • September 30: Educational change -- the structural dimension.
• October 7: Conflict as a part of administration. Students will use case studies to examine different ways of surfacing, managing and resolving conflict.
• October 14: Conflict -- a practitioner's perspective. Four practicing principals will discuss how they manage conflict in their schools. Students will be prepared to ask thoughtful, probing, questions about conflict resolution.
Assignment 3 - due 10/14/99 • October 21: Making sense of organizations; the structural and human resources frames. Students will demonstrate through discussion an understanding of the structural and human resource frames and be able to apply those frames to a school.
Asignment 4- due 10/21/99 • October 28: The political and symbolic frames. Students will demonstrate through discussion an understanding of the political and symbolic frames and be able to apply those frames to a school.
• November 4: Applications of the frames to schools. Students will present their case study group project to the class.
Assignment 6 - due 11/4/99 • November 11: The role and responsibilities of the administrator in confronting racism. Students will develop a working definition of racism and apply that to leadership in a school setting.
• November 18: The role and responsibilities of the administrator in confronting racism (cont.). Students will watch the video, "Incident in Buffalo" and apply the issues raised about racism to school leadership.
Assignment 7 - due 11/18/99 • December 2: Focus on instruction; it's all about learning. Students will begin to identify the elements of instructional leadership.
• December 9: A focus on instruction; it's all about learning (cont.) Students will apply the elements of effective instructional leadership to a school setting.
Assignment 8 - due 12/9/99 • December 16: Wrap up of course Assignments Assignment 1 due 9/9/99 Any effective administrator is somebody who knows him/herself and is clear about his/her values. Reflect on your own life experiences. What caused you to be where you are? What are you drawing from, in your life experiences, that causes you to believe that you want to be an administrator? After reflecting on this, state the values that you would bring to any administrative position. Assignment 2 due 9/23/99 Read Dr. Starret's book, Transforming Educational Administration. Write a paper, in which you analyze the book and then synthesize what you learned, by applying "administering meaning", "administering community" and "administering excellence" to a school setting. How do these concepts, which Dr. Starret discusses in his book, affect how you now see schools? Students who write a clear, grammatically correct paper, which analyzes this book, will receive a grade no greater than B. Students who analyze the book and then synthesize it in a way that brings meaning to the application of the concept to schools will receive a B+. Students who analyze and synthesize the book and then demonstrate personal judgment about the thinking, as it applies to schools, will receive a grade of A- or A. Assignment 3 due 10/14/99 Interview a principal about how conflict is part of his/her job. Push the principal to be clear about the kinds of conflicts which he/she deals with on a regular basis and, more importantly, strategies which the principal uses for effectively dealing with conflict. Write a 3-4 page paper based on this interview, which also contains your own judgment of the suggestions being made by the principal and how comfortable you would be incorporating them into your administrative style. Assignment 4 due 10/21/99 Write a 1 page case study, which one might use to analyze and apply the structural and human resource frames.
Assignment 5 due 10/28/99 Write a 1 page case study, which one might use to analyze and apply the political and symbolic frames.
Assignment 6 due 11/4/99 Write a 1 page case study and a 5-8 page paper, in which you use the case study you have written to analyze and apply the structural, human resource, political and symbolic frames. In writing this paper, you should examine the structural, human resource, political and symbolic issues in the case, identify the issues, and then describe how you would use the frames to analyze and make constructive suggestions about the case. This paper will be a group assignment.
Assignment 7 due 11/18/99 Read Cultural Proficiency, by Linsey, Robins and Terrell. Write a 3-5 page paper, in which you analyze the book, synthesize the information and then apply that synthesis to schools. What are the authors saying about racism? As an educational leader, how would you make use of that in a school setting? Grading will be similar to that used in the Starret paper.
Assignment 8 due 12/9/99 Write a 4-6 page research paper in which you examine the topic of effective instructional leadership. You will need to do research in the library and then use what you have learned to write a clear, concise paper about your understanding of effective instructional leadership and how you would apply that as an administrator in a school. The paper will need to make use of footnotes and bibliography, using the APA Manual of Style. Course grading Your grade will be arrived at in the following manner: Class participation--10% |