The Department of Educational Leadership (EDL) is a diverse and unique communityatMiami. We offer Master's degrees inSchool Leadership,Curriculum and Instruction, andStudent Affairs in Higher Education (SAHE). We offer Ph.D. degrees inEducational Leadershipand offer anEd.D. in Educational Leadershipas well. We offer licensure programs in the school principalship and superintendency. We collaborate with school districts and Educational Service Centers to provide graduate programs for educators which are basedinproblems of practice, and indistrictor regional goals.
EDL also offers an undergraduate major inEducation Studiesand an array of undergraduate courses and programs. We have a thematic sequence in Critical Youth Studies, acertificate in Outdoor Leadership, and a minor inCommunity-Based Leadership. EDL offers courses in the Teacher Licensure core curricula, such as EDL 204: Socio-cultural Studies in Education, and EDL 318: Teacher Leadership & School Organization. We partner with an array of campus offices and programs to offer co-curricular courses designed to maximize the potential for student co-curricular learning: courses like EDL 100: Career Development and the College Student, EDL110: The University and the Student, and EDL 290: The Nature of Group Leadership which help students of any major develop knowledge and experience in particular areas.
Mission and Principles
Our mission is to encourage the development of leaders who assume responsibility for sharing education to make students’ lives more meaningful. Educational leadership is an intellectual, moral, and craft practice. Transformational leadership entails a commitment to equity and social justice, critical thinking, and the forging of collaborative links between educational institutions and communities.
EDL Principles
Preamble: Our Values
Our purpose is to advance a socially just society through our educational and leadership work.
We aspire for a more democratic, socially just world through intentional conversations, curriculum, and activism that reflects an attention to diversity, a focus on social identities, equitable practices, and how power, oppression, and privilege impact education.
We believe that educators co-construct academic programs which meaningfully connect with the lived experiences of their students.
We believe in constructing education as an integrated human experience through generating knowledge, educating, serving, and promoting holistic well-being in our classrooms, institutions, and broader communities.
Our academic department is rooted in these core values that inform our principles. These principles allow for multiple interpretations and multiple voices and yet communicate our belief in advancing the causes of democracy and social justice.
Guiding us in enacting our values are these 4 Principles:
Leadership is an intellectual, moral, and craft practice situated in the cultural, political, and social contexts of institutions and societies.
Educational leadership is both positional and non-positional in form; it is a process of power-sharing rather than power-imposing which works toward collaboration, emancipation, and empowerment.
Educators make a commitment to community. The building and development of diverse, inclusive communities is never assumed and should be continuously nurtured, interrogated, and supported.
Educational leaders understand and navigate the present environment in order to work towards transforming organizations and the individuals within them to become more democratic and socially just.
CAEP recognition provides added assurance to students and prospective employers that Miami’s programs meet the highest professional standards.
The accreditation process typically involves an extensive self-study, followed by an on-site visit by nationally known professionals, and then a decision by the accrediting body as to whether accreditation should be granted.
