Network Supports for Program Coherence in Leadership Preparation Program Redesign

• In Event: Innovative Strategies for Leadership Preparation Programs

Abstract

Program coherence is highly prized as an element of high-quality leadership preparation programs. This paper is a self-study of the UCEA Program Design Network’s Curriculum, Instruction, and Coherence Networked Improvement Community (CIC-NIC). Through the application of improvement science principles and approaches, we identified faculty engagement as a critical feature of moving our programs towards coherence. We also found that our role as boundary spanners was critical to engaging other faculty to join in efforts to address program coherence, but that the ability to serve a boundary spanning function hinged critically on our own positioning within our program. This led us to redefine program coherence in dynamic and developmental terms, rather than as a static feature of high-quality leadership preparation programs.

Authors

• David H. Eddy-Spicer, University of Virginia

• Sara L. Dexter, University of Virginia

• Jacqueline Gonzalez, Fordham University

• Sonya Diana Hayes, The University of Tennessee - Knoxville

• Thomas Ramming, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Matthew Scott Richardson, University of Virginia

• Corrie Stone-Johnson, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Pamela D. Tucker, University of Virginia

• Sheneka M. Williams, Michigan State University