Value Proposition in Leadership Development
The process of developing educational entrepreneurs is a different one than developing educational administrators who will manage the systems that are already in place. Entrepreneurs need to know how to create systems, mobilize resources for a new undertaking, develop infrastructures that support their vision, and sustain staff through the challenging process of start-up and the equally challenging work of continuation and institutionalization. No matter how powerful transformations in individual leaders might be, they will not make a deep or sustained impact on the wider organization of schooling unless they understand the organizations in which they work and the possibilities for them to be systemically transformed. Large-scale reform – as distinct from pockets of innovative exceptions – will not be possible without an overhaul of how we conceptualize and develop the next generation of education leaders. SELI is one of the first institutes to train educational leaders explicitly for the task of rethinking organizations, launching new school designs, and managing the change process, and to do so in a context where teams of leaders from different organizational roles can work together to rethink their practice and strategies.
Efforts to re-conceptualize the field of educational leadership and training have recently been funded by a number of foundations, including the Goldman-Sachs Foundation, the Wallace Foundation, the DeWitt Readers Digest Fund, and the Ford Foundation, among others. We continue to draw upon the conceptual work and the research that emerges from these initiatives in our own research and case development, to ensure that our participants encounter the most comprehensive and up-to-date thinking in the field. Our efforts have added two dimensions to these endeavors: first, the added perspective of Stanford’s engagement with school transformation initiatives and participation in some of these leadership conceptualization projects mentioned above; and second, Stanford’s participation in conducting research and developing both case materials and training opportunities that reflect knowledge bases about entrepreneurship, management, and change in knowledge work organizations that have not deeply permeated the field of educational administration.
SELI’s unique positioning as an institutional partnership between the Stanford University School of Education and the Stanford Graduate School of Business has allowed for a highly effective blending of education and instructional knowledge with organizational and management expertise. SELI is able to create synergies with its partner organizations to share content and to cross-market to a broad range of audiences. Through its networks, SELI has been able to disseminate its research as well as engage leaders in the field of education, business, government, and non-profits. In addition, the reputation of Stanford University contributes to the credibility and application of new ideas and to establishing a network of practitioners committed to objectives of school redesign.
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