Knowledge, Praxis, and Reflection: The Three Critical Elements of Effective Leadership Studies Programs

Abstract

Th e articles in this special symposium of the Journal of Leadership Studies off er a wide range of models for leadership education, from the very old-close, refl ective reading of Plato, Aristotle, and other ancient thinkersto the very new-intensive instruction in engineering skills. Yet, across all the diff erent perspectives, from the liberal arts and social sciences to agricultural education, engineering, and cocurricular learning programs, a common core learning structure is evident, which serves to tie these varied programs (and our varied contributions in this symposium) into a remarkably coherent and thematically unifi ed whole. Across these diverse programs, all seeking to help young people gain a better understanding of, and skill in the practice of, leadership, three key learning themes emerge: knowledge acquisition; praxis, or experiential learning; and refl ection. Th ese three key building blocks of learning-fi rst, learning that is essentially designed, structured, and more or less passively received; second, learning that is active, "in the moment" and in a sense unique to each student; and, third, learning that is refl ective and after the fact-emerge in the symposium's widely varied articles as the critical unifying elements of contemporary undergraduate leadership development programs.Consider these snapshots of the leadership programs described within these pages:

Disrupting Leadership Focus by Facilitating Social Construction of Followership in the Classroom: Student Responses to a Visual Method Pedagogy

“…We argue that the methods used in the current study disrupted students' thinking and their assumptions about followership. Reflection, creative drawing, and discussion also enabled them to achieve “deep personal discovery of themselves as followers” (Harvey & Jenkins, , p. 73). Furthermore, the additional focus on language provided students opportunity to (a) become aware of followership, (b) question dominant ways of thinking about followership, and (c) do followership.…”

“…This activity encouraged students to reflect on their own experiences of following, and to explore the concept beyond the use of language and words/terms commonly associated with it. In this exercise, students demonstrated critical thinking through reflection (Harvey & Jenkins, ) by depicting and talking about how they might use situational factors to modify their followership behaviors, and how they might differ in terms of skills and feelings when “doing following” (Morris, ) as compared with doing leading (see also Figure ). In addition to the drawings noted in Figure , students provided metaphors and symbols to convey meaning of followership such as the symbolic representations of “cutting through red tape” and “keeping your mouth zipped” (Figure ).…”

Leadership Education: Illuminating a Community of Practice

“…For example, Jenkins (2018) found that the "home" program or department of leadership educators in faculty roles ranges dramatically from business to agriculture and public administration to higher education, professional health, and educational leadership. Correspondingly, subfields within specific disciplines, including social sciences, engineering, agriculture, liberal arts, business, and others, are providing "academic niches" for leadership development within higher education (Harvey & Jenkins, 2014;Harvey & Riggio, 2011;Riggio, Ciulla, & Sorenson, 2003) while discipline-specific leadership programs, whether in an undergraduate, graduate, curricular, cocurricular, or hybrid framework, provide a space and place for specific leadership competencies to be applied to specific career and industry values (Guthrie & Jenkins, 2018;Seemiller, 2013; see also Sowcik & Komives, in press).…”

Developing Critical Thinking Through Leadership Education

“…According to Harvey and Jenkins (2014), knowledge, praxis, and reflection are the three critical elements in leadership programs, regardless of the discipline, college, program, or department facilitating the learning. Arguably, pedagogies that intentionally integrate critical thinking across these three elements will have the greatest influence on the development of learners' critical thinking dispositions and skills.…”