Across the Void: Preparing Thoughtful Educational Leaders for Today's Schools

Abstract

In this article, I examine my attempts as an instructor in a university-based school leadership program to cross the generational divide with my students by using democracy as the central concept for understanding what is meant by a quality American education for all children. I guide the course according to the democratic learning principles that my colleagues and I use in working with public schools on educational renewal and school improvement efforts. I try to be responsive to my graduate students in the same manner that I wish them to be responsive to each other and to me by asking them to painstakngly argue the opposite of what they believe about education and leadership. Educational assumptions are challenged through provocative research examples and case studies. At the end of the course, I must painfully evaluate myself on how successfully I have fairly judged the intellectual and imaginative quality of student work regardless of whether it agrees with my own vision and values of leadership.