A Case Study of Strategic Leadership and Research in Practice

Abstract

This chapter was developed to review the strategies of leadership preparation programs from two different institutions, one a Historically Black College/University (HBCU), and the other a Predominately White University (PWI) to explore the experiences of relationship building among the State Department of Education, the state legislature, local education agencies, school principals, graduate candidates, university faculty, two schools of education, and the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) for the purpose of drawing implications for strengthening the training of school leaders. The focus is on a State Department of Education requirement that all seventeen Principal Preparation Programs re-designed their policies and procedures to meet new state standards of best practices adopted from consultation with the SREB. The final project was a designated SREB award (commendation) winning re-designed principal preparation internship program at the HBCU. The four key themes as descriptors of relationships between the two participating institutions: collaboration (subthemes include role definitions and interdependence), communication (subthemes include mentors' dispositions and power imbalance), creativity (subthemes include systems barriers and candidate placement), and critical thinking (subthemes include faculty qualifications and financial burdens). One critical factor that prevails throughout the literature and practical application is that designing and implementing excellent principal preparation/educational administrator programs is an international priority.