The purpose of this module is to equip students with the requisite knowledge and skills for research specific to educational leadership. The module will outline the different paradigms of research and provide examples of significant research studies into educational leadership and school organizational culture that have emerged from these different perspectives. The module will also introduce students to a range of different research methodologies and provide practical examples of educational leadership research that have employed these various methodologies. During this, module students will plan their research design for their thesis and will engage with choice of appropriate methodological design, ethical and practical considerations. Students will also analyse the role of power and cultural reproduction in the generation of evidence and in leadership research as they frame their research strategy.

Paradigms of research; approaches to educational leadership research; quantitative modes of research; naturalistic inquiry; case study; practitioner inquiry; action research; the importance of evidence; what counts as good evidence; Quantitative and qualitative research design; ethical principles; planning a research project; development of argumentation in reviewing literature; data analysis systematic reviewing; the role of power in leadership research; Hawthorne effect for leader researchers; empowerment and voice in research; research dissemination.

Students will: • Understand the different paradigms of research common in educational leadership research and the principal methods of educational inquiry. • Critique the uses of various methodological approaches in educational research through the lens of critical theory. • Plan and justify an appropriate research methodology for their research project.

Students will: • Develop an appreciation of the complexities of educational leadership research (particularly that of the leader researcher) from the perspectives of power/empowerment/cultural reproduction. • Gain heightened awareness of the Hawthorne effect in leadership research.

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This module will be delivered online. Online classes will take place via UL's chosen learning-management system SULIS and will include communication, content delivery, and assessment tools to facilitate the teaching-and-learning process. Flexibility is a core aim of this online delivery. Lectures will be delivered asynchronously thus lectures and class activities don't take place in real time. Instead, students can complete the tasks whenever their schedules permit. Discussion forums that enable students to engage in conversations about class content with the module leader and with a moderator will occur in real time. Online pedagogies and e-tivities will be employed to ensure dynamic delivery for an engaging student experience. A detailed Module Handbook designed by the module team will detail each lecture, how the lectures structures and foreshadow linked tutorials both conceptually and pedagogically (i.e. learning tasks/activities and pedagogical process protocols), reflection sheets for all in-class activities, readings (as PDFs online).