School of Education

The M.Ed. in Educational Leadership programme reflects the belief that the foundation of school improvement is to bring about change in the classroom through high quality teaching and learning and that leadership is a key factor in engendering such change and improvement in schools. It also reflects a belief that educational administrators must engage in specialized professional training to acquire and develop the skills and competencies which ultimately lead to sustained improvement in schools. The programme synthesizes participants’ formal training; their knowledge of the education system, school and classroom environments which they have constructed from their experiences of disparate educational contexts and cultures with emergent educational leadership theory, policy and practice. The field-based orientation of the programme reflects the belief that leading and sustaining school improvement is a highly cultural and contextualized process that requires involvement, coordination and collaboration among stakeholders; staff development, enquiry and reflection. Finally, the programme conceptualizes educational leaders as change agents charged with responsibilities: to develop educational institutions for the public good that promote citizenship, social and national justice; to foster sustainable human, economic and social development that safeguards the country’s cultural authenticity yet promotes regionalism and globalization. Therefore, courses within the programme are designed to assist participants to understand their roles as educational leaders in achieving the macro and micro educational goals of the society. The programme aims to facilitate the professional development of educational administrators/leaders at the micro (school) and macro (system) levels of the educational system.

Structure of the Programme
The M.Ed. in Educational Leadership programme has been structured to meet the foregoing objectives and helps participants respond effectively within changing and different educational contexts.

Duration
This part-time programme will be delivered over the course of two academic years (two semesters in each year).

Participants must successfully complete ten (10) courses to be awarded the degree:

• eight 4-credit courses,
• one 10-credit course and
• one zero (0) credit pass/fail course.

Components
The programme comprises 42 credits. Individual courses within the programme account for four credits.

In keeping with the School of Graduate Studies and Research guidelines these four credits are distributed as follows:

• three credits are derived from 36 hours of lectures
• one credit is derived from forty-eight hours of non-supervised research work – theme directed pre-reading and activities, annotated reviews of reading, group discussions, portfolio directed activities, and mini case studies to facilitate activity-led and problem based learning.

The 42 credit programme comprises the following major components:

(I) Three compulsory core courses (12 credits)

• EDFA 6207: Education and the Development of Social Competencies (4 credits)
• EDRS 6208: Fundamentals of Educational Research I (4 credits)
• EDRS 6210: Fundamentals of Educational Research II (4 credits)

(II) Five compulsory specialization courses (20 credits)

• EDEA 6230: Organization Development and School Change (4 credits)
• EDEA 6200: Action Research for School Improvement (4 credits)
• EDEA 6118: Educational Leadership (4 credits)
• EDEA 6204: Organization and Administrative Theories (4 credits)
• EDEA 6201: System and School Improvement (4 credits)

(III) EDRS 6203: Graduate Research Seminars:

These do not count for credits but are graded on a pass/fail basis.

The requirement is that students must fulfill a 75% attendance requirement.

(IV) EDEA 6202: Educational Improvement Project (year long) – 15,000 words (10 credits)

Programme Sequence

Contact Information:
Ms Kelly Quintal (kelly.quintal@sta.uwi.edu) Extension: 83337 Fax; (868) 662-6615