Complex and adaptive challenges threaten human well-being and sustainability. However, our leadership graduates often lack the capacity and or commitment to address these challenges in a meaningful way. This paper details a five-year study exploring the impact of an interdisciplinary undergraduate course on the development of global capacities, complex Adaptive Leadership, Socially Responsible Agency, and systems thinking. The course instructors used innovative and intentionally divergent learning methods to challenge students to serve as stewards of their own knowledge and facilitators of their own learning through the confrontation of authentic and complex challenges. The researchers note transferable qualitative findings that demonstrate the profound impact of the noted leadership learning experience on the development of Socially Responsible Agency, along with Adaptive Leadership capacity and systems thinking.
The leadership capacity of resident assistants can be impacted by many experiences, including involvement in mentoring relationships. The purpose of this study was to examine if and how resident assistants' leadership capacities are influenced by participating in mentoring relationships. Additionally, mentor-protégé race and gender pairings were explored. An adapted version of Astin's Inputs-Environments-Outcomes college impact model was used as the conceptual framework; the Social Change Model of Leadership was used as the theoretical framework. Overall findings included that resident assistants with a race match or gender match did not exhibit significantly higher leadership capacities than those who did not. I also included implications for practice and future recommendations.
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