Mission Statement
The Doctoral Program in Educational and Policy Leadership (EPL) is committed to preparing reflective leaders for complex educational organizations in diverse, multicultural environments. The EPL faculty are committed to creating a different kind of educator: women and men who will lead their educational communities as humane and ethical social critics. In embracing a broader concept of leadership preparation than simply the training of practitioners, EPL program provides the intellectual foundation, opportunity for reflection through both cognitive and aesthetic experience, and the experiential approach that we believe is necessary to prepare creative, flexible, visionary leaders with the skills necessary to conceptualize and analyze, appreciate and construct, interpret and integrate knowledge for the purpose of social transformation.
Our program vision emphasizes the transformative possibilities of educational leadership. We expect our doctoral candidates to develop habits of critical questioning and the reflective means for evaluating individual and organizational effectiveness. This includes the ability to examine educational issues contextually through multiple perspectives; to manipulate organizational structures for the purpose of improving education; and to practice deliberate, informed leadership.