The Sacred and the Secular: Aligning a Marianist Mission with Professional Standards of Practice in an Educational Leadership Doctorial Program

This inquiry was conducted to explore how the characteristics of our university’s religious mission are interwoven into our educational leadership doctoral program and are manifest in the structure and learning experiences that our students encounter. We examined how these characteristics might correspond to or relate to the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) standards that resulted from national reform initiatives in educational leadership in the mid 1990s. We concluded that the foundations of the PhD program are built solidly on the distinctive characteristics and identity of our founders and are aligned with these professional standards as well. Implications for universities include our conclusion that when the distinctive mission of a university aligns with the professional standards of a field, more effective leadership preparation will result