Today's organizations and communities require dynamic and inclusive leadership ready to address complex challenges. Learn to develop, train, teach, and evaluate leadership for modern society.
Program Highlights
Depending on your interests, the master's program will give you the opportunity to:
- Investigate the foundations and application in Leadership, teaching and learning
- Specialize in a specific area of leadership education
- Use methods of research and scholarship to examine one topic closely (either in a thesis or individual project)
- Build skills in your chosen area of leadership, teaching and extension
- Apply leadership knowledge gained in a variety of settings, such as education, agribusiness, non-profit, community and government organizations, and agencies
Career Pathways
A variety of career pathways exist for this degree program, including:
- training and development,
- talent development,
- leadership development,
- extension education,
- postsecondary teaching,
- and community development.
Description
An M.S. degree in Leadership Education immerses students in three specific areas, 1) leadership scholarship, 2) teaching & outreach, and 3) research methods & program evaluation.
- Leadership scholarship refers to understanding the field of leadership from an evidence-based perspective, which includes leadership models & theories, leadership development & training, and leadership from several perspectives (e.g. motivation, power & influence, cultural diversity, etc.)
- Teaching & outreach refers to developing skills necessary to effectively convey information to others about leadership. For many of our students, this means that they develop skills in teaching because they will be teaching leadership or will be engaged in providing professional development. This may also include developing skills for developing programming, effective writing, teaching online, facilitation, etc.
- Research methods & program evaluation refers to developing the skills necessary to conduct research or evaluate programs related to leadership. This aspect of our program explores how we know what we know about leadership, and how we effectively contribute to that knowledge through evidence-based processes.
Candidates for the degree must possess a bachelor's degree from an accredited institution. The degree may be earned by successfully completing a minimum of 30 credit hours beyond the bachelor's degree.
The program welcomes applicants from a variety of disciplines and fields. Programs are planned to meet individual student background experiences and desired graduate program goals. Students may choose a specialization within the M.S. program (though it is not required or expected).
Degree Options & Course Requirements
| Option A - Thesis | Option B - Non - Thesis | Option B Non-Thesis Teaching & Extension Specialization |
| Courses Required (10 – 12 credits) | ALEC 801 ALEC 805 ALEC 845 ALEC 891 (1 credit hour) | ALEC 801 or 802 ALEC 805 ALEC 804 891 ALEC 845 | |
| Electives / Minor (8 – 14 credits) | 8 hours (depends on professional goals in consultation with advisor) Minor* requires at least 9 hrs | 8-14 hours (depends on professional goals in consultation with advisor) Minor* requires at least 9 hour | 9-12 hours (depends on professional goals in consultation with advisor and in consultation of the TE&E Specialization requirements |
| Research Courses (3 – 6 credits) | 6 Hours Excludes EDPS 859 | 6 hours (may include EDPS 859 depending on professional goals) | 3-6 hours (may include EDPS 859, ALEC 826, and/or others depending on professional goals) |
| Thesis | 6 Hours – ALEC 899 | Not Available | Not Available |
| Research Project | No additional research project required in addition to the thesis | Optional – up to 6 hours of ALEC 996 research project in consultation with your advisor | Optional – up to 6 hours of ALEC 996 research project in consultation with your advisor |
| Final Oral /Written Exam** | Generally Oral Exam |
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| Minimum Credit Hours*** | 30 | 30 | 30 |
*Adding a minor to a program may require more than 30 hours. A final written minor exam is required if the student earns less than a B in any minor course.
**Advisor will determine if written oral exam is required.
***Depending on career goals, individual student programs may require more hours.
Application Requirements
| MS in Leadership Education (no specialization) | MS in Leadership Education, Teaching and Extension Education Specialization |
| Three to Five Recommendation Letters | Required | Required |
| Curriculum Vitae or Resume | Required | Required |
| Personal Statement | Required | Required |
| Academic Research Experience | Required | Optional |
| Faculty Statement | Required | Optional |
| Writing Sample | Required | Optional |
| ALEC Assistantship Interest | Optional | Optional |
- Recommendation Letters (min 3; max 5): It is suggested that one recommendation letter speak to your capacity to be a successful student (e.g. from a faculty member); one recommendation letter speak to your professional capacity (e.g. from a supervisor), and one recommendation letter can speak to anything you believe makes you an ideal candidate for our program (e.g. commitment to research capacity, teaching and training experience).
- Curriculum Vitae or Resume: Your vitae should include a complete account of your academic and professional history along with your community activities, service, accomplishments, and awards.
- Personal Statement: Review current ALEC faculty and their research areas. Within the application, please identify at least one and a maximum of three faculty members in this division with whom you would like to work. Also, address faculty interest alignment in your Personal Statement.
- Describe 1 to 3 personal and professional goals or objectives, and how this degree will help you achieve them.
- Describe how your past experience (work, volunteer, research, etc.) provides you a context for studying in this field.
- Describe how your interests align with research, extension, and/or creative activity of each of the ALEC faculty you list in the Faculty section of the application.
- Academic Research Experience (use the "Other Upload" tab in the application to submit this information): As part of your application, our faculty would appreciate you sharing any specific experience you have engaging in research. Within the program, you will be engaging in social science research (leadership, education, and communication,) and there are several types of experiences we would encourage you to highlight in this section of the application. Specifically, it would be helpful if you can share any of the following with us:
- Any specific social science research you've conducted (by yourself or as part of a team, if in a team, please articulate your contributions specifically).
- Any program/project evaluation experience you have..
- Quantitative research methods experience.
- Coursework or training in statistics and/or math.
- Any project (for class or work) where you engaged in data analysis (either quantitatively or qualitatively)
- Experience engaging in life sciences (e.g., biology, animal science, plant science) and/or physical sciences (e.g., physics, chemistry) research.
- Qualitative research methods experience.
- Experience conducting interviews,
- Experience coding/analyzing audio, video, or written materials.
It is not expected that you have any and certainly not all of these experiences, but we wanted to provide some examples to help you answer this question.
- Faculty: Review the current ALEC faculty and their research areas. Within the application, please identify at least one and a maximum of three faculty members in this division with whom you would like to work with. Also, address faculty interest alignment in your Personal Statement.
- Writing Sample: Please provide a writing sample that demonstrates your scholarly writing ability, for example a term paper, thesis, grant submission, or published article.
- ALEC Assistantship Interest: The Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication (ALEC) Divsion has the privilege of providing graduate assistantships at the M.S. and Ph.D. levels. ALEC graduate assistantships include a stipend, tuition remission, and partial health insurance. We review applications on a rolling basis, and to be eligible for an assistantship, you must be admitted to an ALEC graduate program (M.S. in Leadership Education or Ph.D. in Human Sciences with a Leadership Studies specialization). You can complete an assistantship application before being admitted to a graduate program (Click here to view more information).
If you have any further questions about the application process, please contact Christina Franklin, Graduate Student Support, or email her at cfranklin3@unl.edu
Specialization
Teaching and Extension Education Specialization
The Teaching and Extension Education specialization prepares students and enhances careers and professional development in community college or university teaching, public school teaching (additional certifications and courses may be required), outreach programs, and Extension. The specialization supports the development of teacher leaders within their career in the classroom and is valuable for students planning teaching careers, as well as for individuals providing educational services. Teaching and extension courses focus on teaching strategies, program planning, adult education, innovation, and the use of technology in learning. The Teaching and Extension Education Specialization is designed to prepare or enhance your career from where you are. With distance education and hybrid options, as well as on campus offerings, you'll grow your career and your personal development where you are!
To complete the specialization, students must complete ALEC 805: Advanced Teaching Strategies and two elective courses from the following list:
- ALEC 800: Overview of Program Planning
- ALEC 802: Developing Leadership Capacity in Organizations and Communities (prerequisite of ALEC 801: Theoretical Foundations of Leadership)
- ALEC 804: Problems of the Beginning Agriscience Teacher
- ALEC 809: Diffusion of Innovations: Through and Extension Context
- ALEC 811: Principles of Adult Education
- ALEC 830: Introduction to the Development of Distance Education Courses
- ALEC 893: Technical Ag Workshop
- ALEC 890: Workshop Seminar
**Please note: The MS in Leadership Education with the Teaching and Extension Education Specialization is not a licensure program. If you are looking for certification for public education or administration in public education, please reach out to an Agricultural Education graduate faculty member.
Leadership Education Minor
A graduate minor is a course of study in addition to the major. The ALEC Division offers a minor in Leadership Education, with a wide variety of courses focused in leadership and teaching/education. Requirements for earning a minor are found in the Graduate & Professional Catalog.
For more information, contact Lindsay Hastings at lhastings2@unl.edu or Christina Franklin at cfranklin3@unl.edu .
Graduate Funding
The Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication Division (ALEC) has the privilege of providing graduate assistantships at the master’s and Ph.D. levels. ALEC graduate assistantships include a stipend, tuition remission, and partial health insurance. We review applications as positions become available, and to be eligible for an assistantship, you must be admitted to an ALEC graduate program (M.S. in Leadership Education or Ph.D. in Human Sciences with a Leadership Studies specialization).
Graduate Assistantship selections are a separate process from our graduate admissions process. If you are interested in being considered for an assistantship, you will need to apply for admission to an ALEC graduate program and indicate in your application that you have an interest in an assistantship.
ALEC Graduate Assistant Travel Funding
The ALEC Graduate Assistant Travel Funding assists eligible ALEC M.S. & Ph.D. students traveling to international or national conferences and/or seminars to make presentation on behalf of the Agricultural Leadership, Education, & Communication Division. The grant is not intended to support students attending courses at other schools, research travel, general educational travel or professional development.
For information, contact Christina Franklin, Graduate Student Support at 402-472-8738 or email cfranklin3@unl.edu.
