Scholarship in Action: Mission, Leadership and Transition in Education

• In Event: University Leadership in Creating Equity-Oriented Communities of Expertise: Ethical, Epistemic, and Efficacy Issues

Abstract

Scholarship in Action provides a platform for collaboration across eleven diverse schools and colleges at Syracuse University. The models require transformative, entrepreneurial and courageous academic leadership, as modeled by our chancellor and called for by faculty; this leadership also needed to be nurtured among the deans who have been part of the embodiment of the vision.

This paper will first examine the leadership transformation called for by Scholarship in Action across a general playing field of the traditional leadership roles (e.g., the deans) and new opportunities for transformative leaders across all sectors of the university and the community. Second, the paper will use the School of Education as a case study of the effects of transformational leadership in Scholarship in Action.

Scholarship in Action has required that units at every level of the university define shared communities of experts, and this has been hard work for all participants; but after seven years of direction and support from the highest echelon of university academic and administrative leadership, a sea change in the academic leadership committed to the vision of engaged scholarship has been achieved, including eight deans hired since 2005. Additionally, by connecting academic programs, faculty, and units to various communities in the region through the development of SU as an Anchor Institution, Scholarship in Action has been a platform for the seeding of transformative leaders in a variety of centers and initiatives across the campus and across the community (e.g., Near Westside Initiative; South Side Innovation Center; Community Folk Arts Center; Taishoff Center).

The re-imagining and re-creation of the School of Education within the Scholarship in Action vision achieved profound shifts. A new dean was appointed in 2005. He is a long-time member of the faculty enduringly committed to all forms of inclusion, and he is a seasoned collaborator. He created incentives for faculty to innovate while meeting budget constraints. With support and collaboration from the faculty, he initiated conversations about how to leverage the existing faculty talent AND to bring new faculty on – intentionally – to achieve the overall mission. This meant that he and his faculty had to demonstrate a disciplined approach to addressing pressing real-world problems while building on core strengths, in this case, those related to the challenges in education and schooling concerning disability, reading/literacy, and cultural foundations. They also had to build connections to communities to establish the testbeds for the proposed innovations.

The SoE focused its efforts to become a national leader in inclusive urban education while meeting critical missions for the university, community, and region. Aligning projects around ‘Say Yes to Education’ opened new opportunities for collaboration (with the Syracuse City School District), and created the foundation for a unique district-wide engine of school reform articulated to access to post-secondary education, economic development, and structural supports for human capital development at all levels. The initiative also involves most of the other colleges of the university as well as external partners in higher education, the private sector and the government.

Author

• Kal Alston, Syracuse University