8.1MB - College of Education - Auburn University

E d u c at i o n a l F o u n d at i o n s , L e a d e r s h i p a n d T e c h n o l o g y
M e e t i n g c h a l l e n g e s
Doctoral candidates learning the ropes
of educational leadership
Doctoral candidates enrolled
last fall in EDLD 8210: “Educational
Leadership Theory & Practice” received
insight into how to walk the
tightrope so many K-12 school leaders
must balance on a daily basis.
Little did they know that they
would soon be walking a tightrope
suspended 30 feet above the ground.
Dr. Lisa Kensler, assistant professor
of educational leadership, found
an unconventional but effective way
to help her students learn how to negotiate
the obstacles so many superintendents
and principals face. Kensler
took her students to the Auburn University
Challenge Course, which provides opportunities
for groups to develop communication
skills, trust, collaboration and problem-solving
abilities. The challenge course — more commonly
referred to as a “ropes course” — enables
individuals to scale “artificial mountains.’’
Participants equipped with safety helmets
and harnesses navigate a course consisting of
small suspended platforms perched atop trees
or telephone poles. They reach the stands by
climbing cargo nets and ladders and use “zip
lines’’ to travel from platform to platform. More
often than not, they rely on the encouragement
of teammates to conquer a fear of heights or of
the adrenaline-pulsing zip line journeys.
“Facing fears was a really important piece
of it,” Kensler said. “In leadership development,
we talk about how important it is for school
leaders to take risks.”
The challenge course experience served
to counter the misconception that no safety
nets exist for school leaders weighing tough
decisions that may affect student performance
and personnel development. Kensler said the
exercises demonstrated the effectiveness of
the group dynamic in problem solving and
decision making. Participants also developed
a deeper understanding of how to balance responsibility,
of knowing when to lead and when
to follow.
“My thought was that the ropes course
would address personal leadership development,
cohort cohesiveness and that it would affect
their professional development and trickle
into their work in schools — either as a teacher
with students or as a principal with faculty,”
Kensler said.
The doctoral cohort’s 4-hour team-building
and bonding experience in the woods yielded
scholarly work and reflection, as well as professional
development. A group of students delivered
a presentation about their experience at an
Alabama Association of Professors of Educational
Leadership conference in February.
“The tenets of the ropes course allow
direct application to education’s
toughest problems,” said doctoral candidate
Quebe Bradford, a ninth-grade
pre-Advanced Placement English
teacher at Jefferson Davis High School
in Montgomery. “… The ropes course
allows participants to couple theory
with practice.”
K E Y N O T E S
Groccia discusses
professional
development at
overseas conference
Dr. James Groccia, an associate
professor in the
Department of Educational
Foundations, Leadership and
Technology, presented the
keynote address at a January
2011 conference in Tartu,
Estonia.
The event, organized by the
Estonian Ministry of Education
and the European Union’s Primus/Archimedes
Programs,
focused on university teaching.
Groccia, director of the Biggio
Center for Enhancement
of Teaching and Learning,
spoke about the professional
development of university
professors.
The conference focused on
the broader topic of higher
education quality in Europe,
and also covered the integration
of research and teaching.
Organizers placed an emphasis
on inspiring university professors
to explore and improve
their instructional skills.
A K e y s t o n e i n B u i l d i n g a B e t t e r F u t u r e f o r A l l 3 9