Mission of the Centre


Established in 1985 within the Department of Educational Administration at OISE, the Centre
for Leadership Development (formerly the Centre for Principal Development) specializes in
research, graduate instruction, preservice and inservice education related to educational
leadership. Leadership and school reform are the enduring themes of interest to Centre staff.
The Centre offers both practitioners and graduate students special opportunities to pursue
practical and research interests relating to leadership. The Centre also consults with
organizations on matter of leadership and school reform.

Recently, the CLD has formed a partnership with the University of Buffalo (with Stephen
Jacobson) to become, as well, the University Council for Educational Administration –
sponsored Centre for School Leadership. The purposes for the cross-national centre is to:

  • Provide a locus for research about key aspects of school leadership. While not an

  •   exclusive focus, a major priority of the Centre is to better understand the implications for
      school leadership of contexts characterized by economic, racial/ethnic, and cultural
      diversity;
  • Foster collaborative forms of research about school leadership;
  • Provide regular syntheses about the state of the art of the field;
  • Disseminate information about the state of the art to both the research and practitioner

  •   communities;
  • Develop and implement educational opportunities for school leaders to become more

  •   familiar with the practical implications of the research for their own practice;
  • To provide advice for policy makers embarking on initiatives with implications for school

  •   leaders.

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