Students in the Interprofessional Leadership program apply to a concentration for specialized study.
Examples of cognates include special education, educational technology, curriculum and instruction, athletic training education, and cultural foundations of education.
The Athletic Training Education concentration provides the opportunity for students to prepare for the rigors of academic positions in a college or university by blending discipline specific theory and practice strategies related to athletic training education.
Students gain extensive knowledge in higher education as a whole while developing critical skills necessary to establish a strong foundation in athletic training educational leadership. Students complete a comprehensive project directly related to athletic training education that addresses a contemporary issue in the profession through purposeful research strategies to generate educational change within the discipline.
The Cultural Foundations of Education concentration prepares students for leadership roles in educational settings seeking to address problems of practice that reflect broad societal problems and thus defy simple solutions.
Immersion in the literature of the field of social foundations of education exposes students to historical, sociological anthropological and philosophical understandings, enabling them to contextualize problems of practice within and beyond their particular institutional setting. Students develop facility with conceptual, critical and normative modes of analysis needed to unpack contemporary problems of practice and propose approaches to addressing them in ways that do justice to their complexity. This concentration will appeal to students who are already grappling with these problems in institutional settings and to those who wish to prepare themselves for such roles.
The Curriculum and Instruction concentration prepares students to be curriculum leaders and lead positive curricular change in their classrooms, schools and communities.
Students attain the knowledge and skills necessary to identify, conceptualize and research important problems related to the practice of curriculum development, curriculum leadership and curriculum evaluation. Additionally, students learn to develop, implement and evaluate solutions that are informed by currently available theory and research in curriculum and instruction.
The Educational Technology concentration prepare leaders who are conversant in critical research, theories and methods in educational technology to facilitate positive change in their professional settings. The concentration is designed to help students advance their knowledge in educational technology research to implement educational technology initiatives in educational and business environments using research-informed and data-driven decisions.
The Leadership in Educational Contexts concentration provides education in multidisciplinary perspectives on leadership throughout the range of educational contexts.
The concentration prepares students to lead positive change through their work as ethical- and social justice-oriented scholarly practitioners. Concentration coursework focuses on advanced leadership theories and skills, as well as on sociocultural contexts of education organizations and systems. This concentration is appropriate for leaders and emerging leaders in PK-12 schooling, higher education and other organizations in which non-formal, informal and formal education takes place.
The Special Education concentration prepares students for leadership roles in improving the practice of special education, from birth to adulthood.
Students attain the knowledge and skills necessary to identify and conceptualize important problems related to the practice of special education, and to develop, implement and evaluate solutions that are informed by the best available research and theory in special education and related disciplines. This concentration provides doctoral level training to anyone seeking to lead positive change in how special education and related services are provided to learners with disabilities.