Ethical Dimensions of Educational Leadership

Catalog description

The course rests on the assumption that leadership is a subset of ethics rather than ethics being a subset of leadership. We will examine the ethics of what leaders are, what they do, and how they do it. Students will assess the public and private ethics of leaders, the ethical obligations of leaders and followers, the ways in which leaders shape the ethical environment of institutions, and the temptations of power. We will examine ethical issues related to leadership through case studies concerning leaders in a variety of contexts and cultures. The course looks at how leaders convey values through actions, language, and as role models. It aims to expand students' ethical point of view by first considering personal ethics, then moving on to look at leadership and the common good, and finishing with an examination of ethics in learning communities.