Understanding the impact of leadership coursework on students' perceptions of self as leader

<p>This study sought to understand what students learned about themselves as a leader as a result of taking a for-credit leadership seminar. The study used a qualitative case study methodology in order to interpret data collected through participant surveys and interviews. The participants were academically high-achieving college students who had won a prestigious combined academic and leadership scholarship. As a condition of accepting the scholarship, students participated in a one-unit leadership seminar. The study's findings included that after completing the leadership course, students had gained a more complex understanding of leadership concepts as well as a more complex understanding of themselves as leaders. After the course students could identify themselves as leaders in many different situations, including situations where they held no forma! leadership position. The findings indicate that as the students integrated the information on leadership theories and models into their personal understanding of leadership, their personal leadership identity became more complex. This finding adds to the literature on leadership identity development by indicating a possible mechanism for increasing the complexity of students' leadership identity.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis - Pacific Access Restricted

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Year dc:date.available

2010

Author dc:creator

• Andrews-Brown, Adrianna E. G.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Joanna Royce-Davis

• College students Attitudes
• College students Education
• Leadership Study and teaching (Higher)
• Leadership Curricula
• Education

Licence

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/748

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarlycommons.pacific.edu:uop_etds-1747