Designing the Internship in Educational Leadership as a Transformative Tool for Improved Practice

Abstract

The internship is a crucial part of leadership preparation programs for bridging the gap between theory and practice. As such, the purpose of this article is to explore what the literature says about the internship and to extend thinking by conceiving of how the internship experience might be transformational for prospective leaders. This article offers a guide for the design of the internship experience that bridges the divide between theory and practice and that aims toward developing transformational leaders. It also provides an internship model based on best practice, but it adds a new dimension to traditional ideas of the internship experience that may facilitate transformational leadership.