This article provides a descriptive case study of the process used at one of North Carolina’s public universities to respond to a state-mandated revisioning directive for educational leadership preparation programs. The case provides an overview of the state educational leadership policy context, discussion of state and local support offered, examination of circumstances that facilitated or hindered program redesign and implementation, discussion of the faculty revisioning process, comparison of pre- and post-redesign program features, and the relationship of the redesigned program to recommended educational leadership preparation program guidelines.

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Increasing criticism of practicing educational leaders has led to additional critiques of the university programs in which they are prepared. In response, many states have mandated statewide university preparation program redesign. The articles in this special issue describe five unique cases of principal preparation program redesign—including both process and product—presented through the chronology of state-level policy development and local implementation. These five case studies establish a literature base that examines the following research questions: (a) Whether and to what degree did externally imposed redesign mandates influence substantive program changes, (b) How did university program faculty respond to the state mandates, and (c) To what degree did program redesign efforts reflect emerging empirical research guidelines on the characteristics of quality educational leadership programs?

Despite the current press to improve school leadership, little scholarly attention focuses on building problem-solving skills in university leadership preparation programmes. This paper reports on two qualitative case studies that examined educational leadership students' probing of school problems through the arts. Fieldwork was used to derive inductive explanations of minimally documented leadership experience (grounded theory) and understanding human development through producing and/or participating in works of art (arts-based inquiry). Data sources included videos and participant observations of improvisational theatre role-plays; observations of making pottery, drawing and three-dimensional metaphors; interviews; and extant documents including student journals, web-based discussions and course evaluations. Study #1 found that educational leadership students reflected on personal and professional fears, engaged in creative risks and returned to creative roots. In study #2, six phases of problem-solving through improvisational theatre role-playing emerged: selecting, projecting, amplifying the problem, deriving tentative solutions, objectifying the problem and selecting a better solution to the problem. Comparison of these findings suggests two distinct approaches to solving problems: 'problem framing' (study #1) versus 'problem solving' (study #2). This distinction lends insight into the cognitive and affective aspects of learning through the arts for educational leadership students, and how faculty can help these students to navigate and facilitate this learning process.Despite the current press to improve school leadership, little scholarly attention focuses on how university educational leadership preparation programmes can build leaders' problem-solving abilities. This paper reports on findings from two independently conducted studies of US educational leadership courses and institutes that focused on developing problem-solving skills in practicing administrators who were enrolled in university graduate programmes through arts-based approaches such as improvisational theatre, art exploration and journaling. The overarching research question was, 'How do educational leadership students develop their problem-framing and Jen Katz-Buonincontro is an assistant professor of Educational Leadership, . Her research and teaching interests include developing creative thinking and problem solving in leaders, learning through the arts, qualitative methodology and arts-based inquiry. Joy C. Phillips is an associate professor in the Educational Leadership