Signature Pedagogies in Developing Leaders
Özge Hacifazlioglu, Professor
Berkeley School of Education
Applications for Fall 2025 are closed for this project.
Over the past two decades research on leadership preparation has focused on exploring signature pedagogies to cater for the needs of leaders who serve students from diverse backgrounds. This led scholars to design and enact equity-centered culturally responsive approaches in alignment with their context (Painter and Clark, 2015; Hacıfazlıoğlu et al., 2021). UCEA Exemplary Programs and Carnegie Initiative in Doctoral programs led leadership programs to take intentional and collaborative actions in some parts of the U.S. while some programs remain focused on their own designs in order to construct their own signature pedagogies. Shulman et al. (2006) and Olson and Clark (2007) highlight the problems experienced in professional doctoral programs in education since they are designed around pedagogical and curricular goals similar to those of Ph.D. programs. Shulman et al.’s signature pedagogy (2006) and Young et al's (2022) “Power Learning Experiences” have served as distinct models informing the design of innovative programs, offering meaningful and practical space for leaders working in the field while pursuing their doctoral degree requirements (Hacıfazlıoğlu and Young, 2025). This study explores the following research question: “What kinds of program design components and signature pedagogies are used to cater for the needs of underserved students and their communities in the leadership development programs?”
Role: We are looking for 2-3 undergraduate students who will work on the following steps of the project:
- Literature Review
- Data Analysis (cleaning interview transcripts and coding qualitative data)
Qualifications: Communication skills
- Organizational skills
- Research Skills [while students may not have prior experience in qualitative research, we expect candidates to be open to learning and implementing the steps throughout the research process]. If you are selected to join this project, you will also be invited to join the monthly research mentorship meetings led by the PI.
We are seeking applicants who meet all the preferred qualifications listed below. We encourage applicants who have a commitment to engaging in educational projects:
- Be at least a second-year undergraduate student
- Interest in using qualitative methods
- Interest in qualitative data analysis
Off-Campus Research Site: Online. Monthly research mentoring meetings will be held in person.