Is it not the responsibility of educational leaders to foster and facilitate a prepared faculty workforce, equipped with the skills to thrive within Higher Education? Competing for grants, promotion, and professional recognition through publication is a required skill for successful faculty. So how can educational leaders more effectively prepare faculty to publish? The answer is by promoting graduate student publication. The “publish or perish” environment of Higher Education presupposes an academic’s ability to construct, submit, and defend written positions, expanding preexisting research and theory. Significant pressure has been placed on faculty to regularly produce scholarly publication and yet, only a small percentage of academics are actively publishing. Graduate students fluent in writing and publishing scholarly articles have the necessary skills to consistently publish as faculty. Implementing publication workshops into Educational Leadership graduate programs will increase graduate student publication rates and thus foster a better prepared faculty workforce. Graduate Publication Workshops within Educational Leadership graduate programs are an effective strategy to increase publication rates. I recommend including writing workshops, publication mentors, and peer co-author collaboration within the workshops to promote a culture of publication amongst all program stakeholders. I also recommend that graduate students published online via social media. Create a blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, or other social networking account to share research and academic content. This will promote writing and research skills while increasing student competitiveness in today’s Higher Education market.
Research and publications are directly linked to grant and funding opportunities, promotion and tenure, and faculty property interests; therefore Educational Leadership Administration has the responsibility to prioritize frequent publication amidst its graduate students. Establishing a structured publication preparation system within Educational Leadership graduate programs will better introduce novice authors to the publication process, increase student publication output, increase graduate student competitiveness, and ultimately generate a greater publishing faculty workforce.