<< Chapter < Page Chapter >> Page >

My own personal perspective infuses the telling of this story, however I did use a number of different sources to check my recall of events and topics. Data sources included emails, meeting agendas, minutes, and artifacts, program artifacts, and notes from my personal journal. I also used limited member checking to gain alternative understanding of key events.

My goal is to tell an instructional tale that honors each individual character’s personal truths. My hope is that you will be able to experience the events through my own perspective, but also be able to recognize my biases by critically examining the story from your own perspective(s).

Program overview

Note: I will often use “we,” “us,” and “our” in discussing the program. The program was born of collaboration, and faculty members continue to collaborate in multiple ways. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI) referred to the process as “revisioning.” I use that term interchangeably with the term “redesign.”

A preview of the online Master’s of School Administration (MSA) program we developed will help set the context for the rest of this story. The program has five distinguishing features, a mantra, a cohort structure, an initial face-to-face experience, interdependent sequential core leadership courses, and a program long change project.

Mantra. The foundation of the program is a collaboratively developed mantra, live your leadership journey courageously . Each word in the Mantra has specific meanings. The mantra serves as a guide for both program participants and faculty. The mantra led to a set of six program standards:

  1. Students at the center of action
  2. Change as an opportunity and inevitability
  3. Leadership through serving others and supporting self-actualization
  4. Ethics as the fundamental basis for action
  5. Action from an ethical foundation to create something positive
  6. Growth is actively questing

The mantra and the standards it inspired drive multiple aspects for the program. Course complexity, sequencing, and many assignments reflect faculty desire to bring the mantra alive. Some faculty have used the mantra to guide their own actions and responses to situations. The mantra serves as both program mission statement and personal ethical code.

Cohorts. Unlike our previous program, the new program relies heavily on a cohort model. We typically form two cohorts in the fall and two more in the spring. Cohorts begin with 18-22 participants. The two cohorts are numbered by the semester of the new program in which they are starting the core leadership courses with the addition of a one or two to denote the two cohorts starting each semester. For example, in the ninth semester of the new program’s existence, cohorts 9.1 and 9.2 will begin their core leadership classes.

Faculty work very hard to encourage the growth of intimate learning communities, both within each cohort and in smaller cohort sub-groups. Being able to develop close learning relationships within cohorts has made the online learning experience highly personal for both participants and faculty. The cohort serves as a learning resource as members from vastly different types of schools share experiences, perspectives, and advice with each other. Cohorts also serve as mutual support groups in which members often share professional and personal challenges and seek support from other cohort members.

Get Jobilize Job Search Mobile App in your pocket Now!

Get it on Google Play Download on the App Store Now




Source:  OpenStax, Ncpea handbook of online instruction and programs in education leadership. OpenStax CNX. Mar 06, 2012 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11375/1.24
Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google Inc.

Notification Switch

Would you like to follow the 'Ncpea handbook of online instruction and programs in education leadership' conversation and receive update notifications?

Ask