A seminar examining the strategies, techniques, and problems involved in the conduct of research in educational administration. This seminar prepares the student for defining research problems, reviewing relevant literature, writing research proposals, conducting research and writing reports in educational administration. During this course the student will prepare the proposal for their Major Research Paper.

The goals of this course are to provide students with an introduction to the purposes of research in educational leadership and policy and to assist students in learning how to obtain, evaluate, interpret, and use research in their work as educators and in their graduate studies. Possible topics include: overview of different research paradigms and research strategies used in studies of policy, leadership, and change; how to critically analyze the strengths and weakness of research; how to conduct a review of literature and build a bibliography; dissemination of research; the connections between research, policy, and practice; the role of research and evaluation departments; leadership roles in sponsoring, directing, using, and communicating research.

This course provides an introduction to quantitative methods of inquiry and a foundation for more advanced courses in applied statistics for students in education and social sciences. The course covers univariate and bivariate descriptive statistics; an introduction to sampling, experimental design and statistical inference; contingency tables and Chi-square; t-test, analysis of variance, and regression. Students will learn to use Excel software. At the end of the course, students should be able to define and use the descriptive and inferential statistics taught in this course to analyze real data and to interpret the analytical results. No prior knowledge of statistics is required.

An analysis of the organizational culture of educational organizations. The implications for action resulting from research and theory relating to organizational culture are examined. Case studies and field experiences are used as bases for the analysis of decision-making within the context of specific organizational cultures.

This course examines how to effectively develop the people who work in education throughout their careers. The course includes attention to different education systems’ approaches to developing and organizing people in education in Canada and internationally. Topics for investigation include induction, mentoring, coaching, effective continuing professional learning and development, leading and developing educators including performance appraisal and support, and leadership development for aspiring and current school and system leaders.

An analysis of issues and problems in conceptualizing, operationalizing, and evaluating a total school environment in terms of a range of divergent goals and values. Major topics include strategies for program development and change in the context of education in Ontario, Canada, and internationally; theoretical and empirical bases differentiating educational environments, the role of the program manager, and skills needed to manage program development, organization, implementation, and evaluation.

Practical considerations in solving political problems in and about schools. Focus is on the five levels of local governance: family/school, micro-politics (within the school), neighbourhood, meso-politics (the school and the central office), and the board. Special attention to understanding background variables such as the environment, institutions, power, and issues. Workshop activities centre around processes such as coalition-building, advocating, believing, and co-producing. Readings include procedural, fictional, and conceptual materials.

Administrators in education and teachers are continually asked to decide on matters of equity, to adjudicate between conflicting value positions, and to accommodate different rights and human interests in their planning. Often administrative practice in these areas is less than successful. This course will study various ethical schools of thought and modern approaches to social justice. It will apply that content to administrative practice in education. Particular attention will be given to equity issues in areas of race, culture, gender, age, social class, national origin, language, ancestry, sexual orientation, citizenship, and physical or mental abilities.

This course deals with how teachers contribute to and are affected by administrative processes. It looks at the determinants of teachers' classroom strategies, the work culture of teachers, teachers' careers, the role of teachers in school decision-making, the relationship of teachers' educational commitments to aspects of their broader lives (such as age, religious and political beliefs, and gender identity), and the role of teachers in fostering or inhibiting educational change. The course will be of interest to elementary and secondary teachers and to educational administrators.

An examination of the current context of legal discourse related to the practical exigencies of present-day school experience. A detailed study of statutory and common law sources under which educators operate. The law is not immutable. Emphasis on negligence, malpractice, human rights and the school system, teacher rights, and student discipline and the Young Offenders Act and Zero Tolerance.

This course offers a broad survey of contemporary research, theory and debates in Sociology of Education. The course is organized by 3 major connections between schools and society: social organization, selection, and socialization. It will examine how schooling has become a core institution in modern society, central for understanding emerging forms of culture, economy, inequality, and social organization. The course will prepare students to conduct research on many educational topics at both K-12 and post-secondary levels. It will focus on trends that have shaped education in the modern era, particularly over the past 30 years. Most readings will be by North America-based empirical sociologists, though we will also look at many international trends.

This course provides an introduction to educational policy, leadership and change in general and to this program in particular by focusing on foundational concepts and theories significant to the understanding of education and educational administration. It offers a critical examination of a wide range of topics central to educational administration, educational policy, leadership and change, such as organization, community, power, authority, change, difference, leadership, and values. This examination will take into account major historical developments in the field as well as differing theoretical stances or paradigms, such as positivism, functionalism, interpretivism, critical pedagogy, feminism, post-structuralism and post-modernism. The course will help students understand how to use theory to make sense of educational practice in productive ways.

This course will focus on the social and policy contexts in which elementary and secondary educators work. Students will be exposed to a variety of issues related to schooling in a diverse and complex environment such as: differing purposes, philosophies, and values of education; multiculturalism and social justice; equity issues related to race, class, gender, and language; parental influences on schooling; the relationship of schooling to the labor market and the economy; choice of school and program; decentralization and centralization; standards and accountability; educational finance; school reform; educational and non-educational pressure groups and stakeholders. Through an exploration of these or related topics, this course will help students to continue to develop their understanding of different paradigms and methods used in research in educational administration, leadership, policy and change.

This course is designed to acquaint students with the practices and issues associated with administration, organization, and leadership in educational organizations with culturally diverse student populations. Students will have the opportunity to critically analyse and appraise the practices and issues involved in the administration and leadership of such schools. They will also have the chance to probe and clarify their own conceptions of, and attitudes toward, multiethnic and anti-racist education generally and leadership in such school organizations specifically, in ways that will assist them with their own administrative practices.

The course explores ways in which discourses and practices grounded in white supremacy and coloniality have been operationalized in the field of educational leadership. Education and schooling are sites of continued contestations of knowledge that impacts learners in these spaces. The course examines how issues of race, anti-Black racism, anti-Indigenous racism, whiteness and other forms of oppression are theorized and practiced in educational leadership. Examining these issues offers alternative leadership epistemologies that scholars and practitioners can explore with the aim of changing the educational outcomes for those who continue to be oppressed in educational spaces. The course offers educators, educational practitioners, administrators, researchers and others to better understand and critique approaches to leadership within different educational and organizational contexts. Students will have the opportunity to engage with multiple perspectives and approaches to leadership framed within contemporary socio-cultural and political shifts and complexities. Overall, the course provides students with an opportunity to re-imagine school leadership undergirded by critical decolonizing antiracist frameworks.

This course explores the meaning of educational change, addressing such issues as contemporary views on educational reform, and the challenges in implementing change. The perspective is then used to better appreciate how those in leadership roles can facilitate efforts by stakeholders (principals, teachers, staff, and others) to improve their own practice as well as meaningfully respond to pressures for change. Through the readings, course work, and assignments, students will gain a broader comprehension of the pertinent skills required to manage educational change, with an emphasis on both knowledge acquisition and practice.