Assessing Principal Internships and Habits of Mind: The Use of Journey Mapping to Enhance Reflection

Although the need for educational administrators to become instructional leaders has gained considerable recognition, most of the research in educational administration continues to focus on what effective leaders do, not on how they think about what they do (Stein and Nelson 2003). As one way to shift this focus, reflective journal writing by participants in principal preparation internship programs offers a particularly effective way to foster greater reflection toward the everyday thinking process that underlies the exercise of educational leadership. Such journals can also potentially provide valuable linkages among interns, mentor principles, and university faculty with regard to the leadership challenges faced during the internship experience; in turn, such journals can give program administrators a clear view into the thought processes and leadership development of their students as they grow over time, thereby providing a useful data set for these administrators to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the graduate program in its preparation of future educational leaders.