0.1 Preface

It is a safe prediction that in the next fifty years, schools and universities will change more and more drastically than they have since they assumed their present form more than three hundred years ago…. (Drucker, 2002, p. 79)

The Handbook of Doctoral Programs in Educational Leadership: Issues and Challenges came into being following a session at the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA) conference in August 2006, which was held in Lexington, Kentucky. The session, titled“Doctoral Program Issues: A Panel Discussion”was one of the very first in a national forum to focus on contemporary and complex issues of doctoral education in educational leadership. Numerous academics presented individual and joint papers at this well-attended session. The presentations focused on various topics that serve as the overarching themes or organizers of this volume: development and administration of doctoral programs, perspectives on the dissertation process, and lessons learned in the delivery of doctoral programs.

The enthusiastic response to this session underscored the obvious appeal of the topic of doctoral education for the membership. It also made apparent that the educational leadership field was ready to take a more significant step in this direction. Masters-level education, with its crucial but dominant focus on such issues as educational leadership standards, program improvement, preparation and certification, and school improvement, has long engaged the minds and energies of our colleagues in the field over the years. Accordingly, editors of journals and publishers of books in educational leadership have fallen in line, sponsoring works pertaining to school leadership preparation and school improvement. The time is ripe for giving much-needed attention to program-related doctoral issues. We, the editors, saw the need to nudge this subject into the fore, with the hope that this book will ignite and sustain scholarly conversation around pertinent ideas. After inviting the participants from the conference session to contribute to a project focused on doctoral programs in educational leadership, we extended the invitation to all NCPEA members and our University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) colleagues involved in doctoral level education.

Our intended audience for this book features university faculty and administrators in educational leadership/administration programs; program developers in higher education and K–12 education; school district and campus leaders; and scholars, researchers, and doctoral students.

On a biographical note, we, the editors, are deeply invested in the goal of inquiring into and transforming doctoral education for the better. We are writers of doctoral-oriented texts (most recently, A Graduate Student Guide, Changing Mindsets of Educational Leaders to Improve Schools, Educational Administration Fire and Ice, and Schools and Data) and teachers of various doctoral-level courses, some of which we have created ourselves (such as Action Research Practicum, Analysis of Curriculum and Instruction, Communication in a Global Society, Doctoral Synthesis, Educational Management, Graduate Seminar, Issues in Curriculum and Instruction, Mentoring Theory and Leadership Practice, Teacher Evaluation, and Readings in Educational Leadership Research). Further, we share an ongoing commitment to bridge theory and practice in our writings and practices, as do the contributors to this volume.