Ellen H. Reames – författare

There is a large body of research that supports the reality that school leaders make a significant contribution to the success of schools and the students in them. Additionally, there is strong agreement among and between researchers and state and national educational leadership associations that educational leadership preparation and development should be created and implemented within university/school partnerships. Although institutions engage in forming university/school partnerships for varied reasons, research on the extent to which these partnerships exist; their organizational structures and processes; their implementation and effectiveness; and elements that foster and hinder their success is limited.

Perhaps more importantly, there is not a widely accepted, research-based model of such partnerships that practitioners and researchers can use to guide the development and assessment of these partnership endeavors and upon which they can conduct effective research. This book seeks to fill these gaps. It presents the purposes, processes, practices and outcomes of eleven university/school partnerships focused on school leadership preparation and/or development.

Each chapter presents an overview of the partnership, elements that fostered and hindered partnership success, and lessons learned. The book concludes with a chapter that summarizes findings across all chapters and presents a school/university partnership model that can be used by those interested in forming, improving or researching similar partnership endeavors. There are no similar resources available in the field. Thus, this book makes an important contribution to the literature and to the world of practice and research.

The Art and Science of Mentoring is a collection of chapters and vignettes that honors one of the leading experts of mentoring, Fran Kochan. Her amazing role of being able to blend theory and practice in regards to mentoring is captured in these pages. As one prote ge said, “She practices what she preaches.”

The volume is divided into an introduction, Part II, which explores important concepts and ideas in regards to mentoring and then Part III which are essays from individuals whom Fran Kochan mentored throughout her life.

In closing, Fran Kochan lives and breathes her words. Even today, she continues to work with scholars, practitioners and others she meets. She offers a guiding hand, she uplifts and she supports all that she meets. Please enjoy this volume of highlights of research from top mentoring experts who are peers of Dr. Kochan, as well as the tributes from a sampling of individuals she has mentored to successful careers. You will be inspired to learn how Dr. Fran Kochan masters both the art and science of mentoring. We honor her in this book as scholar, mentor, and friend.

Navigating the Ubiquitous, Misunderstood, and Evolving Role of the Educational Leadership Program Coordinator in Higher Education is an edited volume of chapters focused on the role of the program coordinator (PC) in educational leadership. The book is a recent addition to the book series: Dimensions of Leadership and Institutional Success: Exploring Connections and Partnerships, edited by Ellen H. Reames. Noelle A. Paufler and Ellen H. Reames (editors) created this book to examine various aspects of the PC role because it has been largely ignored in the educational leadership preparation literature. The book examines various aspects of the PC role to include responsibilities, navigating the politics and policies of higher education and educational agencies, internal and external problems and barriers related to the role, and recommendations and possibilities for enhancing the PC role. The book is divided into 3 sections: Section 1 centers on the roles of the PC and also includes a model that can be used to structure PC responsibilities within programs. Section 2 focuses the readers’ attention to present misunderstanding of the PC as a quasiadministrative role which appears to be gaining in clarity through present research. Section 3 gives a glimpse to future trends which includes the growing use of clinical faculty as PCs.

The primary audience is higher education faculty and administrators. The term program coordinator spans across all disciplines and is used in most higher education institutions across the United States. Higher education institutions are also interested in sustaining partnerships within the university and the communities beyond. This book can assist with nuances of partnership development for any higher education field of study.

The audience also includes faculty in higher educational leadership program development and school/university partnership development and enhancement across public and private enterprises who are educating future leaders. Other interested groups are university and school-based professionals who are seeking to improve relationships, partnerships, and collaborations between educational leadership preparation programs and K-12 districts and related agencies. The book would also be of value to those who conduct research in the areas of partnership creation and implementation and to those who conduct research which improves educational leadership preparation and development. The role of the PC in educational leadership is critical to the success of higher education leadership preparation programs and is often very different than PCs in other higher education disciplines.