Faculty Leadership with Richard Gonzales
25m | Oct 17, 2023Welcome to the first episode of In the Lead with UCEA’s podcast series on the University Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI). Join UCEA Executive Director, Dr. Mónica Byrne-Jimenez as she talks with Dr. Richard Gonzales, Director of Educational Leadership Preparation Programs at the University of Connecticut.
How did faculty at UConn decide that it was time to redesign their program? And how did faculty work together to grow trust and strengthen their relationships in order to create an innovative program?
In the Lead with UCEA is a production of University FM via a grant from The Wallace Foundation.
Chapter Timestamps:
- Introductions | 0:00
- How did UCONN pursue this initiative? | 0:49
- How does the faculty work to overcome challenges? | 5:32
- Faculty taking leadership during a redesign effort | 10:51
- Shaping an emphasis on equity | 17:26
- The lasting impacts of this process | 21:26
- Summary & Closing | 24:42
Episode Quotes:
How students are playing active role in shared governance
22:50: With the assistance of our students, who now play an active role in shared governance, which was not true prior to UPPI, we realized that they were missing a voice that we wanted to include going forward. With their assistance, and with the assistance and support of the faculty, we are going to change our program of study again and prioritize things like self-care and work-life balance, not just topics, but also make sure that they have tools for time management.
On working with Wallace Foundation for UPPI
07:10: How did we overcome the challenges? UPPI was a bit structured by the Wallace Foundation in terms of giving us tasks to think about the work to prepare the work—what I think the Institute for Learning out of Pittsburgh calls organizing for effort. So we did a self-study. That was one of the very first things that all participants in UPPI had to do. So we used the quality measures tool for leader preparation programs, and that gave us data that helped us understand where our strengths were, where the areas of potential improvement were going to be.
How students are playing active role in shared governance
21:54: UCAPP 3.0, the third generation of our program, is completely different. The courses are different. We switched from a traditional supervision model in clinical experience to leadership coaching. And that's not just a change in terms. It is a change in role and function. We have core assessments that are independent projects that had never been done before. Most importantly, with the support of the faculty, we've redesigned again. We've completely changed two of the instructional leadership courses because while they were a good start, they weren't what we thought was right, and we could do better.
Show Links:
