Program Overview

Master of Education in Educational Leadership for School Improvement

The Master of Education in Educational Leadership for School Improvement (M.Ed. in ELSI) is a 30-credit, two-year program designed for aspirant and in-service school leaders. The program aims to support students in building practical, theoretical, and research-informed knowledge and understandings related to educational leadership and school improvement in the context of the UAE.

Program Overview

The program is designed for aspirant and in-service school leaders who hold senior leadership roles, such as Cluster Managers, School Principals, and Vice-Principals, and for aspirant and in-service Middle leaders, such as Heads of Faculty, Subject Heads, and Lead Teachers. Through this program, students will develop leadership inquiry and self-reflection approaches to enhance their leadership and school improvement practice repertoires.

Signature Features of the M.Ed in ELSI Program

• Apply, adapt, and innovate leadership practices for school improvement.
• Develop strategies for embedding innovative pedagogies at school that promote independent learning, including assessment for learning, dialogic teaching, and promoting metacognition.
• Bridge theory, research, practice, and values.
• Experiential learning with a strong practice focus.
• Learn from school-based educational leadership experiences in your own context.
• Adopt collaborative inquiry approaches to tackling real-life school-based challenges and priorities.
• Apply research-informed practices in the context of educational leadership for school improvement.
• Learn to lead innovation, entrepreneurship, and change in your own context.

Benefits

• Establish yourself as an instructional leader.
• Build your capacity in educational leadership for school improvement.
• Enhance your skills in leading teaching and learning at your school.
• Develop your expertise in school self-evaluation.
• Lead professional development at your school.
• Positively impact the lives of students and teachers.

Capacity Building Processes

• Build essential practical and theoretical knowledge and skills about educational leadership.
• Bring together practice and theory with values, research, and policy to lead innovation and transformation at school.
• Critically reflect on your leadership practices and values.
• Continue as a life-long learner.
• Develop creative locally relevant strategies for school improvement.

Program Goals

The Master of Education in Educational Leadership for School Improvement (M.Ed. in ELSI) aims to support aspirant and in-service educational leaders in further expanding their knowledge, skills, understandings, and practices of educational leadership and school improvement by:

1. Critically exploring research-informed, leadership practices, principles, and values of effective school improvement and educational leadership practice.
2. Synthesizing, interpreting, and adapting for practice advanced, leading-edge theory and research related to effective leadership for educational change and innovation.
3. Developing in-depth contextualized knowledge and skills for the effective leadership of school systems and cultures for promoting entrepreneurship and innovation.
4. Critically reflecting on how theories, practices, and leadership of organizational learning and school self-evaluation contribute to school improvement.
5. Developing critical understandings of how relationships between educational leadership, national educational policy, and school inspection and accountability systems affect school improvement.
6. Developing and critically reflecting on knowledge and understandings related to effective leadership of teaching, learning, curriculum, and assessment.
7. Developing and using a range of leadership inquiry and research methods for critically examining and analyzing the effectiveness of educational leadership and school improvement practices.

Duration of the Program

• A 2-year Masters program offered full-time over 6 terms.
• The program offers exit points:
  • 24 credits: Postgraduate Diploma of Education in Educational Leadership for School Improvement.
  • 30 credits: Master of Education in Educational Leadership for School Improvement.

Mode of Delivery

The M.Ed in ELSI program is offered in a blended learning model, offering candidates flexibility through a balanced online learning (48% online and 52% face-to-face classes).

Admission Requirements

• Degree Requirement: A Baccalaureate/Bachelor's degree in Education or a related field from an accredited university, with a minimum GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale (or equivalent).
• English Proficiency: A minimum IELTS 5.5 or equivalent TOEFL score of 530 (197 CBT, 71 IBT).
• Teaching Experience: A minimum of two years of middle leadership experience in education or a related field.
• Provisional Entry: CGPA of 2.5–2.99 and an IELTS score of 5 or equivalent, with additional requirements.

Program Structure

TERM 1

1. ELSI1 Leadership theory, research, and practices for effective school improvement in the UAE.
2. ELSI2 Educational Leadership and School Improvement Inquiry.

TERM 2

1. ELSI3 Leading effective pedagogy, curriculum development, and assessment in schools.
2. ELSI4 Leading innovation, entrepreneurship, and change for learning.

TERM 3

1. ELSI5 Leading educational policy and accountability systems.
2. ELSI6 Leading data systems for school improvement.

TERM 4

1. ELSI7 Research methods in educational leadership for school improvement.
2. ELSI8 Leading whole school improvement.

TERMS 5 & 6

1. ELSI9 ELSI Thesis.

Tuition Fees

Tuition fees information is available upon request.