Peaks and Valleys: A Two-year Study of Student Leadership Capacity Associated with Campus Involvement

Self Cite

Co-curricular engagement in postsecondary education provides students with a breadth of opportunity for leadership-focused developmental experiences. However, few studies have qualitatively examined in detail how alumni describe years later how formal co-curricular involvement contributes to their development. Such lack of attention has resulted in what we describe as a "hidden leadership curriculum" embedded in co-curricular engagement. To address this gap in the literature, we explored the leadership experiences of 25 recent alumni who were engaged within various co-curricular organizations, and the leadership lessons relevant to their professional success that they report learning as a direct result of their involvement. Findings from this study reveal how the inherent organizational challenges embedded within co-curricular engagements lead students to develop a more interdependent, relational conception of effective leadership behaviors. These conceptualizations place value on collective group engagement and decision-making, and help students recognize group needs over individual desires. In addition, many participants reported acquiring the value of generativity -building a leadership pipeline -within their respective co-curricular organizations. We discuss practical implications, such as the central role of challenging experiences within the co-curriculum, and suggest future research recommendations.

Section: Models Of Student Leadership Learning and Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

THE HIDDEN LEADERSHIP CURRICULUM: Alumni Perspectives on the Leadership Lessons Gained Through Co-Curricular Engagement

Rosch¹,

Wilson²,

May³

et al. 2023

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“…One dimension of leadership learning that several researchers (e.g., Dugan, 2011;Miscenko, et al, 2017) suggest requires increased attention is longitudinal growth over time. For example, a recent study of leadership-involved college students revealed complex growth curves, not straight lines, in their reported capacity growth over multiple years (Rosch & Collins, 2019). Such results highlight the need to focus on longitudinal data collection and attending to students' age and the amount of time that they have spent on campus (i.e., their reported class year) as variables to receive attention in leadership research.…”

Section: Desired Dimensions Of Leadership Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Competitive Team Environments and Student Leader Capacity Growth

Rosch¹,

Scott²,

Jenkins³

et al. 2022

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We conducted a national study of the Collegiate Leadership Competition (CLC), which since inception in 2015, has included over 75 higher education institutions. The CLC brings students together in collaborative institution-based teams to compete with other teams in competitions to achieve goals and practice effective leadership skills. Our goal was to assess leadership capacity growth over the course of a four-month team practice period through the daylong inter-team competition and evaluate participant leadership assessed several months later. Results suggested students made significant and sustainable gains in leader-self-efficacy and short-term gains in leadership skill and motivation to lead.Our results also indicated the team's coach played a significant role in student leadership development.Leadership development programs for students in educational settings are proliferating in number and design. Curricular programs range from academic minors and certificates to doctoral programs in a variety of academic homes (e.g., education, business, healthcare). Co-curricular programs often take the form of drop-in workshops, day-long experiences, alternative spring breaks, service-learning trips, and other programs housed in student affairs and administrative offices (Guthrie & Jenkins, 2018). Moreover, the number of programs has steadily increased over the last 15 years from just under 1,000 in 2006 (Brungardt, et al., 2006) to more than 2,000 (ILA Program Directory, 2021). And while there is some commonality among the approach of these leadership programs in terms of content and delivery (see Harvey & Jenkins, 2014), vast differences exist in the structure and learning goals of student leadership programs compared to other social science disciplines.A potentially fruitful area in which to explore its effectiveness in supporting leadership development is the environment of competitive teams, where individuals work together as a group to compete against other teams. The purpose of our research was to investigate the degree to which such a competitive environment might support or detract from student leadership group, employing a potentially effective example of a formal program that utilizes the innovative approach of team competitions to motivate learning (the CLC).The Role of Competition in Learning. Placing learning participants in competitive environments has long been employed as a tool to motivate their learning (Johnson & Johnson, 1989

“…Some studies find that student leaders in high school more readily take up this role in college (Marine & Trebisacci, 2018), and that pre-college leadership self-efficacy is a significant predictor of post-college leadership efficacy (Haddad et al, 2020). Yet students with former leadership experience may express higher levels of motivation to lead, but the trajectory of their developmental growth-both in leadership skill and self-efficacy-often approximates their peers without such experiences (Rosch & Collins, 2019). Yet Peer groups to which student leaders belong are often an influential yet overlooked source of identity.…”

Section: Student Identities and Leadership Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

GENDER VIOLENCE PREVENTION AS LEADERSHIP EDUCATION: Feminist-Inspired Bystander Training for College Student Leaders

Eriksen¹

2021

This exploratory study examined the leadership education potential of sexual assault prevention training via a prevention approach that expressly constructs bystander education as a leadership issue. Evaluation of the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) program offers a practical application of a leadership education approach through a feminist lens, a framework recently advocated by Iverson, McKenzie, and Halman (2019) to better prepare student leaders for active engagement with the central social issues of their time. After undergoing one-day MVP leadership trainings, student leaders (n = 239) evidenced positive gains in such areas as leadership readiness in gender violence prevention, confidence as bystanders, and a willingness to help others. Results also suggest that participants' prior knowledge, leadership background, and peer group membership shaped their engagement with the program. As a feminist method, MVP worked well for both women and men and across students' varying racial/ethnic identities, but differences by peer group reveal areas in which additional research and intervention programming may be needed.