Comprehensive Exam

Fall 2014
Educational Administration and Policy Studies

Answer Q. No. 1, and Choose 2 questions from the remaining three :

Question. No.1 (40 points)

One of the definitions of an education platform is summarized as the set of beliefs, opinions, and attitudes
that set the basis for educational practice.
Over the past few years you have been informing your consciousness with educational theories, and those
are bound to influence your beliefs, viewpoints and attitudes in relation to your understanding of
education.

1. (40%) Present in writing your educational platform addressing all aspects that are related to an
educational administrator. Then address the following points:
a. Describe how you have built this platform by presenting the theories that have influenced you
the most
b. Derive your vision of the ideal school and of the effective school administrator to lead it in
light of your platform.
c. Explain what implications this platform might have if it is to be adopted by policy makers to
guide educational practice in the Lebanese context.
2. (60%) Design an action research study that you will conduct to help you materialize an aspect of
your vision into a plan for action making sure to cover the following:
a. Your research problem, purpose and rationale
b. Your research questions and the methodology you will follow to answer them
c. Measures you will take to ensure the trustworthiness and credibility of your findings.
d. An outline of the action plan specifying its objectives, actions, and needed resources.
Question. No. 2 (30 points)

Action research can change the social system in schools and other education organizations so that
continual learning is both expected and supported (Emily Calhoun, 2002)

(15%) 1. What is your view of the extent to which the promise of action research, as articulated by
Calhoun, can be achieved in Lebanese schools?

( 20%) 2. Define Action research and situate it in the realm of other research methodologies you are
familiar with, highlighting similarities and differences of each with action research.

(40%) 3. Assume you are in a school leadership position in Lebanon; propose a plan where you use
action research to target improvement at the school level

(25%) 4. Reflect on the barriers you anticipate facing as you implement your plan and suggest
strategies to avoid those barriers.

Question. No. 3 (30points)

The word context appears frequently in literature on educational administration & leadership to alert
students and practitioners to the need for making adjustments and modifications to ideas and theories
when trying to put them into practice. The need for such adjustments and modifications (sometimes called
reframing) becomes even bigger when trying to apply Western theories or models in a non-Western
context.

(40%) 1. What is your understanding of the term context? Give examples from Lebanese and/or Arab
contexts which, in your judgment, need to be taken into consideration when applying
Western theories or ideas in educational administration and leadership in a non-Western
context.

(60%) 2. Elaborate on the above by taking TWO Western concepts or theories, and illustrate the kind of
modifications, adjustments or reframing that you will introduce to each in light of Lebanese
and/or Arab context. Describe what actions you will take first as a researcher, and second as
a practitioner, to apply these modifications.
Question. No. 4 (30 points)

Draw a profile of an ideal secondary school graduate of the year 2020 in Lebanon:

(20%) 1. What knowledge, skills and attitudes should s/he have acquired in the course of his/her K-12
schooling? Why are the learning outcomes worth acquiring?

(40%) 2. Describe the main features of a curriculum that would lead to the attainment of those
learning outcomes (in terms of curriculum content, organization, instructional approaches,
and forms of assessment).

(40%) 3. Discuss the role the school instructional supervisor should have in designing and
implementing this kind of curriculum in the context of the Lebanese educational system.
What strategies should he/she use? What barriers will she/he face? And what actions will
they take to address those barriers.