HOW: Implementing Leadership Education
Engaging in student leadership development as an educator is not an easy task. Educators need to be supported with specific goals and competencies, professional development opportunities, and not feel hindered by the pressures of acedemic acheivement (Dyment et. al., 2014; Whitehead, 2009). Leadership should be a part of that high standard of success. In order to consider how educators can carry out successful leadership programs, this section will consider best practices. This will start first at the institutional level, then the coordinator's level, and finally zoom into the individual educator's position.
INSTITUTIONS
Attributes that lead to high quality leadership development programs include (Eich, 2008):
-
participants are engaged in building and sustaining a learning community
-
student centered experiential learning experiences
-
programs were flexible and accomidating to research for program development
At the institutional level it is important to set coordinators and educators up for success. Having a stong base for people to build on leads to successful leadership programs.
In additon, the Council for the Advancement of Standards for Higher Education set these standards for leadership programs to build competencies (Komives & Smekdick, 2012):
-
foundations of leadership
-
personal development
-
interpersonal development
-
development of groups, organizations, and systems
In additon to the importance of clear outcomes and goals, there are seven philosphies of leadership outlined in The Handbook for Student Leadership Development (Komives et. al., 2011). These philophies should speak to the all levels of education but it specifically addresses the institutional level (Komives, et. al., 2011, p. xvi).
-
Leadership can be learned
-
Leadership capacity is a developmental process
-
All students can develop leadership
-
Institutions must seek to develop leadership capacity in all students
-
Relational, ethical approaches to leadership should be central to college programs
-
Diverse strategies and diverse approaches for diverse students are essential
-
Intentional design and assessment of student leadership programs is critical.
With the knowledge of how important goals and outcomes were, the International Leadership Association (ILA)worked to create guiding questions for leadership education programs (International Leadership Association, 2009). These quiding questions are as follows:
-
Context: “How does the context of the leadership education program affect the program” (International Leadership Association, p. 12)?
-
Conceptual framework: “What is the conceptual framework of the leadership education program” (International Leadership Association, p. 15)?
-
Content: “What is the content of the leadership education program and how was it derived” (International Leadership Association, p. 18)?
-
Teaching and learning: “What are the student’s developmental levels and what teaching and learning methods are most appropriate to ensure maximum students learning” (International Leadership Association, p. 21)?
-
Outcomes and assessment: “What are the intended outcomes of the leadership education program and how they are assessed and used to ensure continuous quality improvement” (International Leadership Association, p. 27)?
Komives and Smedick, contend that the use of these guiding questions, CAS leadership standards, and the assessment of outcomes give creditability to leadership development and education programs (Komives & Smedick, 2012; Seemiller & Murray, 2013).
In this handbook, authors also discussed the importance of powerful pedagogies and acheiving the flow state between teachers and students. In sum, they argue the key to good SLD is to use powerful pedagogies combined with the components of the flow state (Rosch & Meixner, 2011).
EDUCATION COORDINATORS
One strategy for teaching leadership skills is the art of facilitation. Facilitation is based on the experience of learning through relationships that provide feedback, and in this way is very much related to leadership skills, whether the educator is facilitating a group or if students are practicing the art of facilitation (Adriansen & Madsen, 2013). In a study on faciliation it was found that by creating student faciliators in the class, there was an increase in participation, increased student happiness, and it made the material more relatable to students (Adriansen & Madsen, 2013). Through facilitation students work intimately with curriculum and while not explict, they improve their leadership skills.
Alternatively, to explicitly teach leadership edcuation takes some intentionality to match activities with intended goals. Cogner’s Four Approaches to Leadership Development are key to considering what goals educators are working towards and what activities address those goals (Allen & Hartman, 2009). Allen and Hartman provide a table of "sources of learning" and a description to match; these sources and descriptions are provided below (Allen & Hartman, 2009, p. 10). It is interesting how not all of these sources of learning are strictly based on leadership but can teach leadership skills along side other curriculum.
Conger’s Four Approaches to Leadership Development, With Sources of Learning (Allen & Hartman, 2009)
For those that are creating leadership curriculum it is important to balance the goals and mission of your institution as well as the strategies of the educators that are interacting with students.
As coordinators cosider how to implement leadership education into curriclum, it is important to consider the pedagogies (or stratedgies) that impact leadership (Rosch & Meixner, 2011). These powerful pedagogies of leadership educaiton include (Rosch & Meixner, 2011):
-
Experiential Learning
-
Learning through practice and experience
-
-
Team Based Learning
-
Not just putting students into groups, but encouraging them to learn from one another and recognize unique skills that each student brings to the group
-
-
Peer Education
-
Requiring students to be educators to their peers increasing not jst the students learning, but the student educator as well
-
-
Sociocultural Discussion
-
Listening to the viewpoint of others as well as articulate the student's own views on an issue
-
-
(Community) Service Learning
-
Participating and reflecting on intentional organized servce that meets the needs of others
-
-
Mentoring and Advising
-
Creating and maintaining relationships
-
-
Comtemplative Practice
-
Use of reflective practices to help students become more cohesive with their thoughts, values, and actions
-
EDUCATORS
Educators are the people who actively engage with students day in and day out. This section should speak not just to those that design institutional goals and plans, or those designing curriculum. This section should speak to every educator regardless of what level you are working at.
For younger students leadership development looks like practicing the skills for the future. Childhood and adolescent experiences that emphasized strong work ethic, high standard of success, and responsibility have been known to foster personal traits such as understanding others, striving for success, and assertiveness later in careers (Brungardt, 1997). In a service learning model with kindergarten, third grade, and sixth grade students based on team work and student decision making, teachers found that there were greater opportunities for collaboration between students, critical thinking, and problem solving (Ponder et. al., 2011).
In adolescent and teenage students leadership becomes a little bit more transformative and it begins to dive into the values, emotions, and personal goals of students (Ingleton, 2013). For high school students, leadership starts out very personal and then moves outward towards making differences in the community (Bowman, 2014).
Welsh talks specifically about the characteristics and behavior of youth in her piece on “Leading Youth in Your Community” (2007).
-
Youth understand conflict and truly want to make a difference.
-
They have short attention spans.
-
They are emotionally charged individuals.
-
Youth are also very self-conscious.
Based on the characteristics and behavior of youth, Welsh offers some strategies in working with them (2007).
-
Build trust
-
It take time and energy with youth to establish this
-
-
Develop credibility by maintaining appropriate lines.
-
Balance between building trust and realitonships, you are not their peer
-
-
Create a culture of inclusion
-
Set rules and guidelines
-
-
And develop their independence
-
Give students the opportunity to practice and demonstrate their independence
-
Researchers state that it is not just the powerful pedagogies or strategies used, but achieving a flow state between educators and students that allows both parties to enjoy the work they are doing in an effortless and seamless way (Rosch & Meixner, 2011). The conditions that lead to the flow state, which speak to educators working with youth, are described in this chart. These build on the strategies identified by Welsh.
One of the most important things we can do for youth is to show our respect for them and to ensure our faith in them (Welsh, 2007). As educators and mentors, we are the models for strong leadership and students begin to form their ideas of effective and ineffective adult leaders (Brungardt, 1997). As youth grow up they enter the professional world or higher education, and leadership skills become more high risk as opportunities for leadership come in the form of normal work day activities (Brungardt, 1997). This highlights the importance of being able to foster leadership development, 21st century skills and leadership competencies while in the education system before students are asked to demonstrate them in the real world.