A comparative analysis of the curricular content of Canadian preparation programs for educational administrators to the master's degree level and an evaluation of the relevance of the graduate diploma program in educational administration at Memorial University of Newfoundland as perceived by diploma graduates

摘要

The primary concern of the study was an analysis of the curricular content of the educational administration graduate courses to the Master's Degree level at Canadian universities. Also, a related aspect of the study was to investigate the degree of preparation that Graduate Diploma students in Educational Administration received from their preparatory program at Memorial. -- At a more specific level, the problems examined in the study were: (1) to determine if there were core curricular courses common to the educational administration programs at the Canadian universities; (2) to determine the realms and the sub-realms of educational administration course concentration; (3) to compare Memorial's Educational Administration program with the programs at other Canadian universities; (4) to determine the admission requirements in the educational administration programs at Canadian universities; (5) to determine the course areas that Memorial's Graduate Diploma students in Educational Administration selected to fulfill the program requirements; and (6) to determine if there was a difference in the degree of preparation that Memorial's Graduate Diploma students received in the various course areas. -- This study was organized around the curricular philosophy of Philip Phenix(1964a). Phenix contends that the six realms of meaning (symbolics, empirics, esthetics, synnoetics, ethics, and synoptics) must be used as the foundation in the making of a curriculum. -- The statistical procedures utilized included the calculation of frequencies and percentages. The chi-square test of independence was used to analyze the relationship, if any, between the degree of preparation and the course areas of preparation. -- Analysis of the data revealed that (1) basic educational administration and statistical courses were common to most university programs; (2) educational administration courses were drawn mostly from the sub-realm of social sciences in the empirical realm; (3) Memorial's Educational Administration program was compatible with the programs at other universities; (4) similar admission requirements existed at most universities; (5) Memorial's Graduate Diploma students in Educational Administration selected most of their courses from the course areas of General, Staff, and Public Relations; and (6) Graduate Diploma students in Educational Administration at Memorial reported receiving the greatest degree of preparation in the course areas of School Law, Research, General and Staff. Generally speaking the Graduate Diploma students felt their Educational Administration training at Memorial was adequate.