In an increasingly competitive post-secondary landscape, colleges in BC are redefining themselves. College leaders are challenged to meet new demands and department chairs, in particular, face growing pressure (cf. Cook 2012, Culbert and Shaw 2014; Gonzalez 2010; Luna 2012; McNair 2010; Morris 2012; O’Connor 2014). The focus of this project is department chair leadership at Langara College, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Given senior administration’s recognition of the need to support department chair leadership and to expand training and development (Palmer 2015), the aim of this project is to determine department chair preparation, training and leadership development gaps at Langara College and to propose optimal methods to fulfill these gaps.
