School leadership standards and graduate education: Instructional negotiations of theory, practice, and policy regulation.

Authors

  • Ronna Mosher University of Calgary
  • Lori Pamplin University of Calgary
  • Nadia Delanoy University of Calgary
  • Barbara Brown University of Calgary

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29173/ijll22

Keywords:

leadership standards, graduate education, K-12 leaders, policy enactment

Abstract

The presence of school leadership standards in graduate education has come to influence the scope and content of leadership programs, highlighting tensions between political, practical, and scholarly views of leaders and leadership. This paper reports on a study of instructional practices within a graduate program in educational leadership connected to the Alberta Leadership Quality Standard to explore how instructors, as policy actors, encounter leadership standards not just as policies of compliance but of possibility. We interpret interview data from three faculty members through the lens of policy enactment to understand how their instruction negotiated relationships of theory and practice and how they negotiated the policy-based regulatory discourses associated with school leadership standards. Working between images of policy standards as text and discourse, findings show instructors engaged in dialogic commitments that help students develop practical and scholarly competencies while displacing the authority of standards, recontextualizing the standardization of leadership, and displacing the standards’ normative gaze.

 

Author Biographies

Ronna Mosher, University of Calgary

Dr. Ronna Mosher is the Director, Professional Programs in graduate education and Assistant Professor, Curriculum and Learning in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary. Her research interests include curriculum studies, literacy education, and the epistemologies and ontologies of educators’ professional practice.

Lori Pamplin, University of Calgary

Dr. Lori Pamplin has served as a researcher, instructor, and course and program designer in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary. Her research interests focus on the role of the principal, leadership theory, and professional learning.

Nadia Delanoy, University of Calgary

Dr. Nadia Delanoy is an Assistant Professor (Adj.), Curriculum Coordinator, Project Lead for Partner Teacher PL, and researcher in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary. Her research interests include evidence-based practice in assessment, leadership, and innovative pedagogies in technology-enhanced environments as well as big data and social media analytics to support innovative business practices.

Barbara Brown, University of Calgary

Dr. Barbara Brown is Associate Dean, Teaching and Learning and Associate Professor, Learning Sciences in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary. Her research interests include research-practice partnerships, professional learning, and instructional design in digital learning environments

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Published

09-12-2022

How to Cite

Mosher, R., Pamplin, L., Delanoy, N., & Brown, B. (2022). School leadership standards and graduate education: Instructional negotiations of theory, practice, and policy regulation. International Journal for Leadership in Learning, 22(2), 104–139. https://doi.org/10.29173/ijll22