The first of three summer two-credit seminars, this course is designed to help students develop the personal and professional dispositions they will need in order to exercise effective leadership in school- and district- based settings. Through an exploration of classic and current literature, students will come to understand the ways in which research and practice interact and inform each other; the theoretical studies presented in this seminar will be analyzed from the perspective of practitioners in a variety of educational settings, focusing on their real-life application to the challenges and opportunities educational leaders face every day. Class discussions, small group work, guest speakers, case studies and presentations afford students the occasion to engage scholarship in an active and practical manner.