The Associate Editor for Ideas Worth Merit is Dr. Peter Maresco from Sacred Heart University, CT. This section is intended to provide academics and practitioners with backgrounds in leadership the opportunity to present new and thought provoking conceptual papers on this topic. Too often individuals with backgrounds and experiences in leadership are precluded from writing strictly academic papers, especially those in non-academic settings.
Ideas Worth Merit, in its desire to encourage thought provoking essays has created this section which is specifically devoted to conceptual essays on leadership.
The inclusion of conceptual essays in a peer-reviewed, academic journal, is, in the minds of the editors of Academic Leadership, critical to the development of the discipline.
Criteria for submission, with the exception of normal formatting issues (see submission guide), consists of articles (essays), not to exceed 2,500 words, on topics related to issues of leadership. The editor welcomes, and encourages, submissions from individuals both academic and non-academic, who have new ideas relating to leadership and experiences relating to leadership to seriously consider offering their thoughts for publication.
Papers on academic, business, educational or any other area where leadership, or lack of leadership, is demonstrated are welcomed and encouraged.
Ideas Worth Merit Leadership in the Bachelor of Education: A Dialogue between Student and Professor
Volume 7 Issue 1 - Feb 20, 2009 - 2:06:39 PM
By Lauren Sacchetti, Jennifer Barnett
The Bachelor of Education program is designed to create future teachers. This article depicts a dialogue between a student and a professor on creating opportunities for student leadership, centering on their perspectives on the program’s structure, hierarchy, and ideals. It is argued that the program hinders leadership development. Ideas for restructuring can be obtained through examining Aboriginal education. The confidence and skills taught within Aboriginal culture equips individuals with leadership potential.
Ideas Worth Merit Leading Assessment: From Faculty Reluctance to Faculty Engagement
Volume 7 Issue 1 - Feb 20, 2009 - 2:03:28 PM
By Don Haviland
As a reform movement, assessment seems to have fallen victim to a compliance mentality and landed short of its promise of transformation. While faculty members are often blamed for this lost potential, they are generally willing, albeit reluctant, to engage in assessment of student learning. However, this reluctance can turn to resistance if institutional leaders fail to provide both the vision that connects assessment to faculty culture and the system to support assessment work. This article explores what leaders can do to help build a robust, faculty-owned assessment system.
Ideas Worth Merit A Dynamic Systems View on Leadership, Talent, and Intelligence
Volume 7 Issue 1 - Feb 20, 2009 - 1:12:27 PM
By Wolf Kozel
Dynamic systems theory (DST) provides a framework for looking at complex systems. Classic examples of dynamic systems are found in weather and traffic patterns. However, dynamic systems theory can provide a new way of looking at complexity in the social sciences. Intelligence, talent, and leadership are complex systems where myriad variables interact with each other and small initial differences can result in great changes. The chaos inherent in a dynamic system can be seen in a process where many “geniuses” (e.g., Enron, Long-term Capital Management) fail spectacularly while many underachieving C students become innovative CEOs.
Student
retention and graduation rates are a concern for universities across the
nation. As university leaders work to
facilitate student success, it is imperative that intangible, affective student
aspects be addressed in addition to objective, quantifiable variables. This essay considers the complexities of the
problem and presents a plan to increase undergraduate student retention and
graduation rates from a holistic perspective.
This article documents the success and
failure of a college faculty writing group which met over a three year period
to increase the scholarly productivity of its members. The writing group
learned to become a community when mutual benefits, lateral accountability and
shared decision-making became group priorities. Once the writing group failed
to maintain these priorities, the community dissolved. The article concludes with
recommendations for building writing groups that establish collaborative
opportunities for understanding the nature of scholarship.
