Issues and Decision Points with Online Leadership Preparation

When chronicling the rise and impact of online leadership preparation programs in educational leadership and management, there are a number of common issues and decision points involved. This chapter presents online leadership preparation programs from their beginning to the current state of “Must be included for program survival.” The major implications for educational leadership and management are providing the basis for asking reflexive questions about the inclusion and continuation of online delivery in leadership preparation programs. The chapter further utilizes the concept of presenting both a history and commentary about the field which includes ruptures and discontinuities in development. Additionally, the chapter includes what Michael Foucault terms “enunciative fields, in the discipline, to include: The field of memory, The field of presence, and The field of concomitance. The importance of perceptions cannot be overestimated, particularly when encountering a novel experience. Educators sometimes inappropriately generalize or project familiar, yet inappropriate, aspects of a situation to a new situation that may be nothing like the old. The Web classroom is arguably a revolution in teaching and learning. Even as it has grown in use, it continues to represent a radical departure from the familiar brick-and-mortar realtime face-to-face instructional experience.