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The Academy | University of Michigan -- Flint

Activities: More Details

In the Academy’s initial stages, participant evaluations of coursework, informal dialogue with participants and the input of an Academy Advisory group consisting of practicing urban and rural principals, strongly underscored the necessity to merge leadership theory and research with actual practice. As a result, subsequent Academy programming includes significant time for participants to meet as a learning community of educators in an informal, stimulating and supportive setting for conversations around current education leadership issues and specific problems identified by group members. The conversations, in the main, occur at the National Center for Community Education (Flint, MI), affording a highly social, relaxed ambiance. Dialogue facilitators have included urban and rural superintendents, practicing principals, and central office staff; Michigan Department of Education administrators; Michigan Department of Social Services administrators, full-service school advocates, and representatives of community-based organizations.

The collaborative inquiry format serves to dissolve traditional communication gaps and stereotypes between reflective dialogue facilitators and participants. The dialogues take shape from the contexts of local culture, constituencies, challenges and needs. The activity positions the Academy as the conduit for building bridges of mutual understanding among group members who, in the process, gain a valuable network of critical friends. The format, further, involves the principals in constructing their own knowledge and making meaning through the lenses of their experiences and the context of their work The activity’s success is evidenced by the development of ongoing social networks that serve to eliminate job-embedded urban and rural principal isolation leading to increased professional and personal satisfaction.

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Disclaimer

e-Lead provides information on professional-development programs for school leaders that have submitted detailed information and that also meet certain standards-based criteria. Programs listed at the e-Lead website are not endorsed by either the Institute for Educational Leadership or Temple University's Laboratory for Student Success.