LTEL-SIG brings together discipline specialists, educational theorists, curriculum developers, educational researchers, classroom experts, practitioners, policy-makers, and others concerned with teaching in Educational Administration. 

The LTEL-SIG provides a forum for:

• Assessment of the relationship of teaching in educational administration to policy development at local, state and a managed conversation on issues related to teaching and learning in Educational Administration;
• The integration of theoretical quantitative and qualitative studies of teaching in Educational Administration;
• Discussion of investigations conducted in real educational settings, including investigations involving application of technology to learning and instruction;
• Exploration of innovative methodologies; and
• Analysis of the implications of research and practice for teaching in Educational Administration.

The Journal of Research on Leadership Education (JRLE), an electronic peer-reviewed journal, provides an international venue for scholarship and discourse on the teaching and learning of leadership across the many disciplines that inform the field of educational leadership. JRLE seeks to promote and disseminate rigorous scholarship on the teaching, learning, and assessing of leadership preparation and practice, the political and contextual issues that impact leadership education, and the links between leadership education and student learning. JRLE accepts empirical and conceptual articles and embraces both traditional and emergent research paradigms.

Message from the SIG Chair, Spring 2024

Message from the LTEL SIG Chair, Dr.Shelby Cosner, January 2024

As a longtime member of the LTEL SIG, I was both honored and excited to take over the leadership of LTEL SIG beginning Summer of 2022. Let me take a moment to briefly introduce myself to our LTEL community and to share various pieces of information that are timely as of January 2024. 

I am a professor at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) in the department of Educational Policy Studies. I am also the Director of the UIC Center for Urban Education Leadership. You can learn more about work that we are doing in the Center for Urban Education Leadership at https://urbanedleadership.org/ I am an expert in the field of educaPonal leadership with specific experPse in K-12 educaPonal leadership. Broadly my work focuses on educaPonal leadership preparaPon/development and leadership for school improvement. I have examined program improvement generally and for equity-oriented aims. An aspect of this work has involved the design and tesPng of leader learning intervenPons. My research is complimented by a broad assortment of work related to leadership preparaPon and development. For most of the last decade, I have been tapped by The Wallace Foundation to provide mentoring support to university-based preparation programs as these programs engage in foundation-supported continuous improvement efforts. Prior to my role as Center Director at UIC, I also served as one of the co-leaders for UIC’s doctorate program in Urban Education Leadership—which is one of just several preparation programs that has been identified as Exemplary by the University Council for Educational Administration. I am also engaged in supporting leadership preparation/development in other parts of the globe—with a particular focus on the Global South and Middle East. Before coming to UIC, I earned my Ph.D. from UW-Madison and had a long career (before grad school) as a principal and district-level leader.

Now let me share some LTEL updates and information from our field more broadly.

Thanks to Various LTEL Executive Officers for Ongoing Contributions: Thanks to our LTEL leadership team for ongoing contributions throughout the summer, fall and early winter. Here are a few of the highlights from their efforts.

A special thanks to Kathleen (Katie) Cunningham and Maysaa Barakat for Co-Chairing our conference planning for UCEA Fall 2023 and AERA Spring 2024. Maysaa is transitioning off as Co-Chair, and I want to thank her for her LTEL conference planning leadership! A special thanks to Tiffany Wright and Nahed Abdelrahman for their ongoing leadership with the LTEL newsletter!

LTEL Awards for 2024: There is still time to submit individuals for the LTEL Distinguished Faculty Achievement award and Kottkamp Dissertation of the Year award. If you are uncertain about the awards criteria, who might make a strong candidate for either award, and/or how to submit a nomination, please reach out to either Erin Anderson ( erin.Anderson249@du.edu) or Jennifer Clayton ( claytonj@gwu.edu). Thanks to Erin and Jennifer for leading these awards processes for LTEL.

LTEL Visioning: During the summer, we kicked off a visioning and strategic planning session and we have continued those efforts this fall. Here are a few things worth sharing from this work. We have established the following goals that will inform our work over the next 5 years.

• Goal #1: Build more/deeper connec/ons amount LTEL members.
• Goal #2: Create a community of prac/ce for ac/ve learning experiences between individuals/leadership prepara/on/development programs in our LTEL SIG.
• Goal #3: Recognize and disseminate findings about prepara/on programs of quality within LTEL, and engage recognized programs to support program improvement in other LTEL ins/tu/ons.
• Goal 4: Grow individual memberships and expand base to more ins/tu/ons (e.g., UCEA and none UCEA; poten/ally state departments of educa/on, CCSSO, Wallace Founda/on).
• Goal #5: Promote member work and the work and impact of the LTEL SIG (impact storyline)

The first area of strategic work that we are kicking off in relation to vision and goals relates to Goal #2. We will be initiating a two part-learning series this spring that will focus on “Leading Justly in Polarizing Times.” The series will begin with a March webinar and it will continue with an in person learning experience during our AERA Business Meeting. More details about this event will be communicated through the LTEL listserv. We hope you will join.

We are continuing to plan for strategies that will be enacted related to each of our goals, and we will use the LTEL listserv and newsletters to provide updates. If you are interested in collaborating with us as we devise and enact strategies, can you please contact me at sacosner@uic.edu.

LTEL Slate of Officers 2024: In our Fall 2023 newsletter you would have received information about our LTEL’s slate of officers. I am also including that information below. On January 18th, you should have received an email from AERA about casting your vote for this election. Please locate this email and cast your vote! Votes must be case by mid-February

Treasurer (1 spot)

Dr. Daniel Reyes-Guerra is an Associate Professor at Florida Atlantic University’s School Leadership Program. His research includes Social and Affective Leadership, School Improvement, Internships, School-District Partnerships, Strategic Leadership, and School Climate/Culture. An important part of Dr. Reyes-Guerra’s professional service is supporting Florida educational leadership preparation programs, including collaborating with the Florida Department of Education on educational leadership policy. Dr. Reyes-Guerra has been a part of the LTEL SIG since its founding and is currently serving as Treasurer.

Dr. Craig De Voto is a Research Assistant Professor affiliated with the Learning Sciences Research Institute and the Center for Urban Education Leadership at the University of Illinois at Chicago. With expertise in both qualitative and quantitative methods, his research explores how district and school leaders interpret and respond to diverse policies and educational reforms. His research also focuses on urban principal preparation, particularly the design and implementation of coaching and clinical experiences. Dr. De Voto's work has been featured in publications such as Educational Administration Quarterly, Journal of Research on Leadership Education, Journal of Teacher Education, Journal of Educational Change, Teachers College Record, and Education Technology Research and Development.

Member at Large (1 spot)

Dr. Jerry R. Burkett is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at Texas Women’s University in Denton, Texas. He has 23 years of publication education experience on the elementary and secondary levels in Texas serving in various roles including teacher, principal, and district administrator. Dr. Burkett’s experience includes work in Title I schools; community/parental involvement initiatives; implementing North Texas’ first Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) concept school on the elementary level; as well as incorporating partnership with corporations and universities into the classroom. During his time at the University of North Texas at Dallas, he transformed the Educational Leadership program, aligning curriculum to national standards and developing a program that includes an emphasis on real- world experience from a practitioner focus. The program was also reimagined allowing students to gain specialization in the administration of specialty schools and programs, such as STEM and Bilingual Education. In 2013, Dr. Burkett was selected as a member of the Phi Delta Kappa Emerging Leaders Class of 2013-2014 and earned Dallas Baptist University’s Distinguished Alumni Award. He is the creative director and host for TWU’s College of Professional Education “School Rules Podcast” and his own educational leadership focused podcast, “Project: School Leadership."

Dr. Kristin Shawn Huggins is an associate professor of Educational Leadership in the Department of Educational Leadership and Sport Management at Washington State University. Dr. Huggins’ teaching and research is focused on leadership development for school improvement. Her recent work has been published in Educational Administration Quarterly, Journal of School Leadership, Leadership and Policy in Schools, Journal of Educational Change, and Professional Capital and Community. Dr. Huggins’ has been the program coordinator for three different Master’s and principal certification programs at WSU and is currently the statewide educational doctorate program coordinator. From 2011-2018, she was the associate editor for Journal of Research on Leadership Education. Dr. Huggins has been active in service to the American Educational Research Association Division A and the Leadership for School Improvement (LSI) SIG. She is looking forward to becoming more involved in the Learning and Teaching in Educational Leadership (LTEL) SIG.

Dr. Meagan S. Richard is an Assistant Professor of Educational Foundations and Leadership at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. She is a scholar in the field of school leadership, specializing in issues of social justice as they relate to leadership practice and preparation. A key output of Dr. Richard’s research is her advancement of an empirically-grounded framework of justice- centered school leadership practice, which lays out five key domains of justicecentered practice, 13 key practices, and an additional 28 sub-practices evidenced across school leaders in seven U.S. districts. Dr. Richard takes a critical lens in her research, rejecting neoliberal policies rooted in capitalism, individualism, and privatization. In line with this, her research has also examined the intersections of neoliberal policy with justice-centered school leadership practice. Her research has been recognized multiple times by AERA’s Division A. Prior to her position at Old Dominion, Dr. Richard earned her PhD from the University of Illinois-Chicago, working under Dr. Shelby Cosner. Additionally, Dr. Richard has held roles as an evaluator and as a key research personnel at the UIC Center for Urban Education Leadership, through which she contributed to the assessment of PK-12 educational policies, interventions, and programs both at the state and national level.

LTEL Newsletter Spring 2024: We like to share LTEL member recent publication and career achievements/recognitions in the LTEL newsletter. The next LTEL newsletter will be published shortly before AERA. If you have any newsworthy information for sharing, could you please forward this information to one of our newsletter co-editors at: Tiffany.Wright@millersville.edu or nrahman@tamu.edu

Spring 2024 LTEL Business Meeting at AERA: LTEL will have a business meeting on-site at AERA. Look for more details about the time of this meeting in forthcoming communications. I hope to see you there!

News and Resources from the Field: In LTEL’s Spring newsletter, I shared information about a podcast series produced by UCEA called “In the Lead”. That series provides a variety of insights from the Wallace Foundation’s University Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI). That initiative engaged a set of 7 university preparation programs in ongoing program improvement. The series provides critical insights into preparation program improvement from a variety of perspective. The podcast series can be found here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-the-lead-withucea/id1711557592

Best wishes for your spring semester!

Shelby
Dr. Shelby Cosner
Professor and Director
Center for Urban Education Leadership
College of Education
University of Illinois Chicago

Learning and Teaching in Educational Leadership (LTEL) SIG

2024-2025 Executive Committee Roster

LTEL offers two awards:

The Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award is the result of merging the former Distinguished Research Award and former Outstanding Service Award, which were awarded biennially according to an even- or odd-numbered year cycle. The faculty award, which can be given annually, recognizes a significant contribution made by a professor to the broad field of educational leadership and administration preparation and development through moving forward practice, policy or research aligned with LTEL SIG’s purposes.

The Robert Kottkamp Outstanding Dissertation Award recognizes a recent doctoral graduate as well as her or his dissertation advisor for research, evaluation, or scholarship that aligns with the LTEL SIG goals, mission, and purpose research. The dissertation, successfully defended during the previous calendar year, may investigate educational leadership preparation and development programs, assess the impact of preparation on leadership practice, examine policy issues related to state or national leadership standards assessment and credentialing, or contribute through disciplined inquiry to the knowledge base about learning and teaching in educational leadership. The dissertation award also recognizes the contributions by former SIG Chair Robert Kottkamp (emeritus professor at Hofstra University) and co-founder of the UCEA/LTEL SIG Taskforce on Evaluating Leadership Preparation Programs.