At a Crossroads

This volume presents the results of a comprehensive study of educational leadership faculty and the departments and programs in which they work. It reports the characteristics, activities, and attitudes of educational leadership faculty members involved in university-based educational leadership preparation programs in 2008 and provides longitudinal comparisons with data from studies conducted since 1972. The findings are compared by type of institution and with respondents grouped by sex, race, administrative experience, type of appointment (tenure-line or clinical), length of time in the professoriate, and affiliation with the University Council for Educational Administration and the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration. Findings indicate that while the number of university-based leadership preparation programs continues to grow, the average faculty size has declined. Among major trends are an increase in female faculty members from 2% of the faculty in 1972 to 45% in 2008 and the reduction in gender differences in activities and attitudes since the mid-1980s. Also, over the past few decades, there has been a significant increase in faculty occupying non-tenure-line positions, having administrative experience, and focusing on leadership in general in contrast to a content specialization. These and other developments have significant implications for leadership preparation programs and for knowledge production in our field.