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The educational leadership program and the center for education

Widener University’s Center for Education (CfE) Educational Leadership Program offers a Master of Education degree in Educational Leadership, a Doctorate in Education degree as well as principal, supervisory, and superintendent level certificate programs. The faculty’s values as educators guide the efforts to develop curricula in the Educational Leadership Program that embody a collective understanding of “who we are,” and “how we wish to behave as educators.”

The mission of Widener University’s Center for Education is to create and sustain communities of informed and critically reflective practitioners who function in a variety of institutions at all levels of the educational enterprise. This mission calls for interactive learning experiences among faculty and students that promotes the development and application of higher order thinking skills in the University and the field. Commensurate with Widener University’s mission, is a vision to maintain a leadership role and to foster the CfE’s strong academic and professional reputation for preparing leaders in education at the initial and advanced levels, while ensuring that the graduates are competent and successful in PK—12 school and community settings. We capitalize on the success of our graduates through a regional, professional network and advisory board that advances the University’s and CfE’s contribution to educational excellence.

The center for education’s conceptual framework

One of the first steps in our renewal process was to begin the work of writing a conceptual framework that would define and guide our efforts. In the end, the faculty determined that the tenets of the CfE’s Conceptual Framework would be academic excellence, collaboration, diversity, and lifelong learning. These tenets, which unify all that we aim to do, are embedded in the overarching value of professionalism, with commitments to best practices and technology. It is both the context and the rationale for knowledge, skills, and dispositions that define our Educational Leadership Program. Our faculty is committed to the belief that professionalism is a tangible demonstration of beliefs that promote a virtuous course of action, in the intended meaning of educational philosophers: that which is desired because of its inherent goodness.

Widener University’s CfE’s Educational Leadership Program faculty agrees that professionalism possesses inherent value because it encourages educators to reflect on the reasons for their decisions and the consequences of their actions (Beyer&Apple, 1998). Through professionalism educators renew and transform their knowledge and expertise (Connelly&Clandinin, 1999; Darling-Hammond&McLaughlin, 1996; Levine, 1996.) Transformation and renewal of the CfE’s Educational Leadership Program are demonstrated by our willingness to act in ways that:

• Accept the essential value of diversity with regard to ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status, gender, exceptionalities, language, religion, sexual orientation, and geographical area;
• Demonstrate appropriate codes of conduct for educational leadership students because they are dedicated to the well-being of their student and faculty populations;
• Develop a deep commitment to lifelong learning;
• Internalize the values of the educational leadership profession and act within the framework of our chosen professional identity;
• Learn from the field through collaboration and engagement; and
• Understand important connections between discipline-specific content and societal problems.