Chapter 6: Providing Opportunities for Real-World Learning

The inclusion of an internship component in school leadership trainings programs has become the norm along with the push for internships to include authentic experiences—those that a school leader might be likely to face on the job. Davis, Darling-Hammond, LaPointe, and Meyerson (2005) identified “field-based internships with skilled supervision” as key features of effective leadership preparation programs. Well-designed internships with “real-world” experiences are critical and essential to increase leadership knowledge of preparation program graduates (Deschaine & Jankens, 2017; Duncan, Range, & Scherz, 2011; Orr, 2011). The Alabama Administrative Code (2015) prescribes such an approach by requiring that candidates in the instructional leadership program experience an internship in which the following occurs “collaboration between the university and LEAs [local education agencies] that anchors internship activities in real-world problems instructional leaders face, provides for appropriate structure and support of learning experiences, and ensures quality guidance and supervision.”