2004 - 2007 PKAL Phase IV- Leadership Initiative

From 2004 - 2007, Project Kaleidoscope collaborated with a select group of campuses around the country in an NSF-funded leadership development initiative. The intent was to nurture campus-based leadership teams tackling the interesting and challenging work of building and sustaining robust STEM learning environments for undergraduate students. This leadership initiative (LI) is a complex tapestry that weaves issues relating to setting a vision that reflects institutional mission and circumstances, issues relating to the politics and processes of change, and issues relating to personal leadership—for faculty and administrators. Other threads woven through this tapestry of institutional change capture issues relating to the what, how, why and where of student learning.

This PKAL LI effort is shaped on our conviction that it is time to approach the question of “why change?” from the institutional perspective, rather than course by course, department by department. Leaders on PKAL LI campuses have worked through a process of articulating an institutional vision, shaping goals and strategies to realize that vision, and outlining specific activities through which those strategies will be implemented. A collective effort within the LI community is the sharing of approaches to overcoming systemic barriers to institutional transformation.

The periodic postings on PKAL’s web site reflect and reinforce what happened within the PKAL Leadership Initiative community. These will become part of a PKAL STEM Leadership resource that is one of the intended outcomes of the NSF-funded leadership initiative.

Events & Activities

Resources

A New PKAL Initiative
Investing in the Future: Building Institutional Leadership for Natural Science Communities
This brochure provides an overview of the PKAL Leadership Initiative, an NSF-funded program to strengthen student learning, programs and facilities, budgets, and institutional and faculty leadership in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.
Leadership - A PKAL Portfolio, 2004
Investing in the Future: Building Institutional Leadership for Natural Science Communities
A companion to the 2002 publication, Report on Reports, this portfolio captures some wisdom about the theory of leadership and about experiences of 21st century leaders in translating those theories into action. The intent is to signal that there is a solid base of theory of leadership from which current and rising leaders can shape their future, and to provide a tool for individuals and institutions to figure out what works in their context to nurture and support leaders.
Reflections on 2006

Inquiry Task Force

View resources for the PKAL Inquiry Task Force.