Mohammed Alqahtani is a Ph.D. candidate in the Special Education program at the University of South Florida. He is a faculty member in the Special Education department at King Khaled University in Saudi Arabia. Mohammed is also a research assistant at the University of South Florida College of Education. He works with faculty in the Department of Leadership and Lifelong Policy Studies, investigating educational leadership preparation of Masters’ students in their final two-semester leadership practicum. Mohammed Alqahtani‘s research interests are in communication disorders, special-education policies, and qualitative research methods. His research considers the ways in which teachers use technology to engage students with communication disorders in the classroom. He investigates these areas in both Saudi Arabia and the United States. Mohammed recently presented his work in Narrative Inquiry at the USF’s 6th Interdisciplinary Symposium on Qualitative Methodologies and anticipates using it to inform his dissertation work.
Session Description
“Learning and Growing as a School Leader through the Practicum: Findings from the Investigating Educational Leadership Preparation Study“
In this initial session from the Investigating Educational Leadership Preparation Study, we share findings related to Master’s students’ growth in the two-semester, USF School Leadership Practicum. The findings are based on eleven (11) interviews with two cohorts of recent graduates.
The instrument’s first two questions are:
- Please describe a specific growth experience during the USF practicum from start to finish.
- Please discuss a specific growth experience that contributed to your development as a social justice leader.
A team of USF graduate doctoral student researchers managed the protocols, conducted, and transcribed the interviews. A research team made up of one USF faculty member and one graduate researcher coded these data using a deductive and inductive coding system. A major theme shared by practicum students in their interviews was the importance of alignment between academic knowledge, state-sanctioned knowledge, field experiences, mentorship, and school support.
When students described their growth, they discussed sequences of learning activities stretched over the complex landscape of professional practice in the Florida public schools. Powerful learning activities in the practicum tended to be aligned with USF Leadership Program content and values. They were said to be coherent with the State of Florida sanctioned knowledge that guided schools’ operations. Students described how school-level mentors supported these growth-oriented, learning experiences. At RISE, the Investigating Educational Leadership Preparation Study’s graduate researchers will begin the session with a brief discussion of data collection, transcription, and first-cycle coding. The session will continue with a deductive and inductive analysis of the transcripts.