Paul J. Baker

Bio: Paul J. Baker is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Educational leadership & Participatory action research. The author has an hindex of 5, co-authored 8 publications receiving 98 citations.

A Signature Pedagogy for Leadership Education: Preparing Principals through Participatory Action Research.

Abstract: This study proposes participatory action research as a signature pedagogy for principal preparation programs. Signature pedagogies bring professional knowledge and core values together in distinctive teaching and learning arrangements. A rationale and learning results are presented that describe key components of action research intended to help principal candidates develop leadership abilities. In this study, 65 principal candidates from 56 schools developed action research projects to conceptually and practically connect professional development and school improvement planning. Learning outcomes are presented and analyzed. The article concludes with implications for action research as a signature pedagogy in principal preparation programs. “How do you know when you know something? When you can produce what it is you claim you know” (Argyris, 1993, p. 3). This is a perennial challenge for educators: how do you know that students understand what is taught well-enough to apply their knowledge? When the students in question are the next generation of principals charged with realizing systemic educational reform, those who work in principal education meet the challenge by redoubling efforts to understand what graduate students know, do, and value as a result of the learning experiences we design for them. While academic leadership preparation programs have taken the challenges of principal preparation seriously, the work of improving university-based programs continues even as the practical work of principals evolves (Björk, Kowalski, & Young, 2005; Murphy, 2005, 2006; Southern Regional Education Board, 2006). Contemporary principals must be able to accomplish more with less, demonstrating marked increases in student achievement under challenging conditions and with diminishing resources. To meet the demands, leaders in university-based principal preparation programs must join educators from other professions in thoughtfully developing “signature pedagogies” for the field (Shulman, 2005). In the case of school leadership, signature pedagogies must help principal candidates prepare for contexts of practice that may be significantly different than anything they have directly experienced. This article addresses one set of challenges in principal preparation by presenting a descriptive account of a Seminar on School Development that asks aspiring principals to tackle Neil Sappington, Paul J. Baker Dianne Gardner, Joe Pacha Planning and Changing Vol. 41, No. 3/4, 2010, pp. 249–273

Three Configurations of School-University Partnerships: An Exploratory Study.

Abstract: This paper presents an array of structural configurations that invite new consideration of the necessary conditions for developing systemic school reform; first by reviewing the current literature, and then by examining thirty-six existing partnerships as structural configurations, an exploratory typology for the analysis of successful school-university partnerships is developed. The basis for three models is derived from Mintzberg’s five-part framework adapted for schools and universities. The paper concludes by noting the strengths and weaknesses of the three models, and suggests areas for inquiry, no matter the model chosen for a school-university partnership.

The Organized Contradictions of Professional Development and School Improvement.

Abstract: note: This manuscript has been peer-reviewed, accepted, and endorsed by the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA) as a signi cant contribution to the scholarship and practice of education administration. In addition to publication in the Connexions Content Commons, this module is published in the International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation, Volume 7, Number 1 (January March, 2012), ISSN 2155-9635. Formatted and edited in Connexions by Theodore Creighton and Brad Bizzell, Virginia Tech and Janet Tareilo, Stephen F. Austin State University. The assignment of topic editor and double-blind reviews managed by Editor, Linda Lemasters, George Washington University.

Improving Teacher Quality in Southern Illinois: Rural Access to Mathematics Professional Development (RAMPD).

Abstract: This article describes how Southern Illinois University-Carbondale (SIUC) partnered with twelve rural schools with high percentages of students in poverty. SIUC provided faculty development activities featuring the adoption of Cognitively Guided Instruction, combined with activities to increase math content and to reduce math anxiety for groups of instructors lacking specific training in mathematics. The partnership is a positive example of a complex-brokered partnership, with instructional experts who were not members of the SIUC faculty. The success and sustainability of this partnership are analyzed to discover the factors that contributed to the durability of what may have been, in other circumstances, a fragile and weak partnership. During the past half century great promises have been made about the educational benefits of school-university partnerships. Translating these promises into solid achievements in local schools is not a simple linear process. This case study describes the complexity of implementing a school-university partnership that reached out to elementary teachers of mathematics in twelve schools located in five rural Southern Illinois communities. A rigorous inservice professional development program was offered in Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI), and forty-five teachers accepted the initial invitation. This proved to be a significant opportunity for the teachers who responded to engage in a journey of meaningful personal and professional learning. Each teacher confronted math anxiety, expanded math content knowledge, and developed new ways to teach and assess student learning in math. The number of teacher participants would grow over time, and the program boasts many successes that we will discuss. Yet many teachers avoided the training opportunity altogether, and wide variations of commitment occurred among the schools. This case study illustrates the contingent character of the implementation processes in educational reform within and between schools. The need for a School-university partnership in Southern Illinois Southern Illinois University-Carbondale (SIUC) serves a large rural region of Illinois that faces the serious challenges of poverty among families that move frequently under poverty’s many stresses during their children’s formative years. One common result of this poverty and mobility is compromised student achievement. Furthermore, low levels of mathematics achievement are a perennial problem. Many rural elementary teachers