Career Development Planning for Female Educational Administration Students Enrolled in a Course on the Secondary School Principalship: Reflections of a Female Instructor.

Given an expected increase in the number of female administrators, administrator-preparation courses must consider gender differences when developing career-development activities. This paper describes career-development assistance provided by a female educational administration professor to female students enrolled in a course on the Secondary Principalship at the University of Akron (Ohio). The professor offers reflections on her efforts to facilitate women students' development of a viable, personal view of the secondary principalship as a future career. The paper describes course content, delivery structure, and structural elements of the career-development planning process. Career-planning activities helped the women students find direction for their future careers; identify the ramifications of their career choice on personal-growth needs; clarify their self-identities; learn tools for solving personal problems; and adapt the plan to the future. One table is included. (Contains 121 references.) (LMI) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** cC 01\ 00 Career Development Planning for Female Education dministration Students Enrolled in a Course on the Secondary School Principalship: Reflections of a Female Instructor Reene A. Alley Department of Educational Administration Youngstown State University Youngstown, Ohio 44555-0001 Suzanne MacDonald Department of Educational Foundations and Leadership The University of Akron Akron, Ohio U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement IIED CATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC). " Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, New York, April, 1996 EST COPY AVAILABLE 2 Career Development Planning for Female Educational Administration Students Enrolled in a Course on the Secondary School Principalship: Reflections of a Female Instructor Introduction Based on a critical assessment of educational administration preparation programs, Stout (1989) concluded that there existed an "absence of agreement about what administration is, what administrators do and what they should do. (402). This issue is further compounded when one assumes that all individuals entering educational administration programs are alike , part of generic group. The National Policy Board for Educational Administration (1993) has directed attention to the need to build congruence between program content and practice within preparatory programs for the principalship. But Pohland and Carlson (1993) found that only incremental changes were occurring in educational administration programs at UCEA institutions. Recognizing that aspiring educational administrators are indeed a diverse group, preparatory programs should incorporate not only knowledge and skills suitable for a future role-but also those-necessary to achieve mutual acceptance and cooperation among peers. Learning about one's self, one's history, one'svaluesand beliefs and thecultureof dominate and minority groups could build bridges and open doors to future career opportunities. In educational administration courses, differentiation and recognition of gender differences and their affect upon behavior and future career choices is rare. When Klein and 01 tinan (1994) reviewed the progress of gender equity in education, they found that "Males still predominate in higher prestige and higher paid positions at all educational levels of teaching and administration"