Graduate-Level Electives


All of our courses combine theory and practice. They can be taken separately as an open studies student or as an elective in a graduate program (in consultation with your program advisor). Courses are offered fully online with both synchronous and asynchronous components, unless 'On-Campus' is indicated beside the course title.

Questions? Contact our Graduate Administrator at pluinfo@ualberta.ca.


Fall 2023 Electives

Fall term runs from September 5 to December 6, 2023.

EDU 520 Foundations of School Leadership ★3

Explore the foundational dimensions of school leadership including instructional leadership, fostering effective relationships, supporting the application of foundational knowledge about Indigenous Peoples, visionary leadership, leading learning communities, modelling continuous professional learning, developing leadership capacity, understanding the social context influencing schooling, and managing school operations and resources.

Note: This course is a partial fulfillment of the academic requirements for school leader certification through Alberta's Leadership Quality Standard.

Tuition: $1498 plus non-instructional fees.

This is a core course in the Graduate Certificate in School Leadership and an approved elective in the Master of Education in Educational Studies. It is open to students in other graduate programs (in consultation with your program advisor) and Open Studies, however, preference is given to students in the certificate program. Synchronous sessions will be included. For details, contact gcslinfo@ualberta.ca

EDU 521 School Leadership: Theory and Practice ★3

Hone leadership practices grounded in research to demonstrate mastery of Alberta's Leadership Quality Standard (LQS). Includes a job-embedded learning component in which participants visit, observe, and collaborate with a school leader or leadership team in a school setting of their choice, in which the Alberta Program of Studies is offered. Note: EDU 521 is offered in all semesters but Summer.

Note: This course is a partial fulfillment of the academic requirements for school leader certification through Alberta's Leadership Quality Standard.

Tuition: $1498 plus non-instructional fees.

This is a core course in the Graduate Certificate in School Leadership and an approved elective in the Master of Education in Educational Studies. It is open to students in other graduate programs (in consultation with your program advisor) and Open Studies, however, preference is given to students in the certificate program. Synchronous sessions will be included. For details, contact gcslinfo@ualberta.ca

EDU 596 Digitize This! Student Perspectives on the Digitization of Learning and Generative AI ★3

Instructors: J.C. Couture, Stephen Murgatroyd and Jean Stiles
The digitalization of education and the disruptions it has brought to the classroom continues to be a preoccupation of a wide-swath from policy-makers, researchers, practitioners and of course, technology vendors. These commentaries have taken on a sense of urgency with the emergence of technologies such as machine learning and the broadening spectrum of generative AI including open source websites such as ChatGPT. While mobilizing a continuum of possible futures ranging from ‘Terminator’ scenarios to utopian transformations of schooling, largely missing from these deliberations are the lived experiences and perspectives of students.

Drawing on examples from Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, the course will examine grass-roots and system level efforts to engage students and their representative bodies (e.g. the European Students Union) in the futures of AI. Case studies will examine how youth are coalescing responses to their encounters with growing applications of AIs such as the digitalization of learning, the next generation of formative and summative assessments and surveillance tools monitoring their engagement and academic integrity. While it remains problematic to characterize the voices of ‘young people’ as one homogenous cohort, it is evident that given current global social and ecological challenges, from their diverse communities they raise important questions about the growing digitalization of education and their lives in general. Underscoring many of the questions youth are raising is the broader existential question directed at the current generation of policy-makers and education practitioners is: what does the future you imagine think I am, and will become?

Tuition: $1498 plus non-instructional fees.

This is an approved elective in the Graduate Certificate in School Leadership and the Master of Education in Educational Studies. It is open to students in other graduate programs (in consultation with your program advisor) and Open Studies, however, preference is given to students in the Certificate or Master's program. Synchronous sessions will be included. For details, contact gcslinfo@ualberta.ca

EDU 596 Métis Foundational Knowledge for Teachers and School Leaders ★3

Instructors: Kimberley Fraser-Airhart and Lisa Cruickshank
This course is designed for teachers and school leaders in collaboration between Rupertsland Institute and the Faculty of Education. Voices and experiences of Métis leaders, educators, and community members from Alberta are woven together with academic scholarship to amplify a true history and explore contemporary lives of Métis in Alberta today. Building upon the Métis Foundational Knowledge Themes modules created by Rupertsland Institute, this course assists teachers and school leaders to make this foundational knowledge accessible to all learners and educators in K-12 education.

Tuition: $1498 plus non-instructional fees.

This is an approved elective in the Graduate Certificate in School Leadership and the Master of Education in Educational Studies. It is open to students in other graduate programs (in consultation with your program advisor) and Open Studies, however, preference is given to students in the Certificate or Master's program. Synchronous sessions will be included. For details, contact gcslinfo@ualberta.ca


Winter 2024 Electives

Winter term runs from January 8 to April 12, 2024.

EDU 520 Foundations of School Leadership ★3

Explore the foundational dimensions of school leadership including instructional leadership, fostering effective relationships, supporting the application of foundational knowledge about Indigenous Peoples, visionary leadership, leading learning communities, modelling continuous professional learning, developing leadership capacity, understanding the social context influencing schooling, and managing school operations and resources.

Note: This course is a partial fulfillment of the academic requirements for school leader certification through Alberta's Leadership Quality Standard.

Tuition: $1498 plus non-instructional fees.

This is a core course in the Graduate Certificate in School Leadership and an approved elective in the Master of Education in Educational Studies. It is open to students in other graduate programs (in consultation with your program advisor) and Open Studies, however, preference is given to students in the certificate program. Synchronous sessions will be included. For details, contact gcslinfo@ualberta.ca

EDU 521 School Leadership: Theory and Practice ★3

Hone leadership practices grounded in research to demonstrate mastery of Alberta's Leadership Quality Standard (LQS). Includes a job-embedded learning component in which participants visit, observe, and collaborate with a school leader or leadership team in a school setting of their choice, in which the Alberta Program of Studies is offered. Note: EDU 521 is offered in all semesters but Summer.

Note: This course is a partial fulfillment of the academic requirements for school leader certification through Alberta's Leadership Quality Standard.

Tuition: $1498 plus non-instructional fees.

This is a core course in the Graduate Certificate in School Leadership and an approved elective in the Master of Education in Educational Studies. It is open to students in other graduate programs (in consultation with your program advisor) and Open Studies, however, preference is given to students in the certificate program. Synchronous sessions will be included. For details, contact gcslinfo@ualberta.ca

EDU 530 First Nation, Métis, Inuit Issues in School Leadership ★3

The adoption of the new Leadership Quality Standard has presented a new challenge for school leaders in the area of First Nation, Metis, and Inuit education. This course is designed for existing and aspiring school leaders and supports the development of foundational knowledge about First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples. It explores the history of policy and legislation in relation to First Nation, Métis, and Inuit peoples in Canada. It will further inform knowledge of the current state First Nation, Métis, and Inuit education and explore some of the existing theory in First Nation education policy.

Tuition: $1498 plus non-instructional fees.

This is an approved elective in the Graduate Certificate in School Leadership and the Master of Education in Educational Studies. It is open to students in other graduate programs (in consultation with your program advisor) and Open Studies, however, preference is given to students in the Certificate or Master's program. Synchronous sessions will be included. For details, contact gcslinfo@ualberta.ca

EDU 596 Change Leadership through Anticipation – Case Studies in Globally Responsive Leadership ★3

Instructors: J.C. Couture, Stephen Murgatroyd and Jean Stiles

Driven by the growing complexity of the social and environmental issues facing governments, communities and organizations, we are witnessing a growing interest in anticipating and imagining the future. At their core, these efforts by policymakers and consultants reflect how these actors think about change, governance, and their capacity to influence the future. Not surprisingly, the education sector has been very much subjected to these increasingly influential voices, accelerated by the sense of urgency for schools to help address environmental degradation, social justice, wellbeing and health, and the disruptions of technological change.

Working with school leaders from a number of countries, course participants will work collaboratively with colleagues to engage two questions:

  • Given the ways that the future is currently being imagined by governments and future-focused organizations and the ways that these “imaginings” are intended to shape the public’s expectations of schools, what are the impacts of these developments on my work as a school leader?
  • How might I assess these impacts in order to be responsive to the needs of staff and students?

Students who participate in this course will actively engage in a collaborative inquiry aimed at exploring the nature of anticipatory leadership and governance. They will use a combination of small group activity, structured readings and exploratory studies to unpack the responses to these two questions.

We will explore four frameworks for anticipation, based on the work of Muiderman, Gupta, Vervoort and Biermann:

  1. Probable Futures, Strategic Planning and Risk Reduction
    2. Plausible Futures, Enhanced Preparedness and Navigating Uncertainty
    3. Pluralistic Futures, Mobilization and the Co-Creation of Alternatives
    4. Performative Futures, Critical Interrogation and Political Dynamics.

Tuition: $1498 plus non-instructional fees.

This is an approved elective in the Graduate Certificate in School Leadership and the Master of Education in Educational Studies. It is open to students in other graduate programs (in consultation with your program advisor) and Open Studies, however, preference is given to students in the Certificate or Master's program. Synchronous sessions will be included. For details, contact gcslinfo@ualberta.ca