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This leadership education evaluation study explored the leadership development outcomes of potential county extension directors and the ways to improve the program. The leadership education program aimed to improve participants’ leadership abilities in understanding self, building relationships and managing resources. The analysis of quantitative and qualitative data confirmed that the leadership training institute was effective in building participants’ leadership skills and improving leadership behavior. The incorporation of participants’ learning needs into the program, use of hands-on experiential learning activities and problem solving activities combined with small group discussions were the contributing factors for the success of this leadership education program. The participants suggested the use of more hands-on and problem solving activities, team building exercises and condensing the time gap between the pre and post sessions as strategies for further improvement of this program.

Numerous difficulties exist in employing psychometrically sound quantitative measures of leadership development that are both generalizable and brief. Here, we highlight our efforts in creating the Ready, Willing, and Able Leader (RWAL) Scale. This instrument of leadership capacity: (a) has been psychometrically validated for use with college student populations; (b) includes measures of leadership capacity that are known to be essential to effective leadership practice (leader self-efficacy, motivation, and skill); (c) is broad enough for use across diverse educational and developmental contexts; and (d) is brief and concise.

This study examined the incoming leadership-oriented differences between students (N=166) enrolled in either an elective leadership studies course (n=50) or an elective team-based engineering projects course (n=116) to determine significant predictors of transformational leadership behavior. Participants completed measures of leadership-oriented behaviors, self-efficacy, and motivation. Students enrolled in the leadership studies course scored higher on measures of both transformational and transactional leadership behaviors, as well as motivation to lead based on affective identity and social-normative motivation. For students in the leadership course, the only significant predictor of transformational leadership was leadership-self-efficacy score. For students interested in team-based projects, the significant predictors included affective-identity and social-normative motivation to lead, as well as leadership self-efficacy. While women displayed higher motivation to lead across all motivation categories, neither race nor gender emerged as a significant predictor of leadership behaviors. These findings suggest the importance of self-efficacy in predicting behavior and the need to attend to students’ internal and external motivations in creating pathways to leadership practices.

From the perspective of emergence, professors can facilitate and shape a class as a complex, adaptive, and living system. A case study illustrates phases of emergence in the classroom by tracing how a professor may use this perspective to empower students to share in the leadership of the classroom. Instead of presenting lessons, the professor facilitates emergent activity, creating a classroom structure where students practice leadership behaviors. In this classroom structure, the professor assumes the leadership roles of coach and facilitator. As a result students building the classroom culture together they connect with each other: they develop strong relationships, take initiative, and learn important lessons about leadership. This article concludes with design principles for establishing a classroom of shared leadership in any teaching environment in any subject.

Leadership development goal statements of 92 undergraduate students enrolled in a multi-year self-directed leadership development program were analyzed using content and thematic analyses to investigate patterns of similarities and differences across gender and race. This qualitative analysis utilized a theoretical framework that approached leadership typed traits, skills, or behaviors (Northouse, 2009). Significant differences emerged by gender; women were more interested in developing leadership-oriented traits while men displayed more interest in developing specific skills. No differences emerged across racial groups.

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.

International student enrollment has experienced dramatic increases on U.S. campuses. Using a national dataset, the study explores and compares international and domestic students’ incoming and post-training levels of motivation to lead, leadership self- efficacy, and leadership skill using inverse-probability weighting of propensity scores to explore differences between the two samples. Unweighted findings suggest that international and domestic students enter programs similarly across in many ways, and leave the immersion program with similar gains. However, a matched-sample comparison suggests that international students’ growth was statistically different in ethical leadership skills, affective- identity motivation to lead, and leadership self-efficacy. Discussion focuses on the benefits of leadership development to international students why campuses could build partnerships between units that serve international students and leadership educators to facilitate a more inclusive campus.

International student enrollment in the U.S. higher education system has recently experienced profound growth. This research examines leadership-oriented differencesbetween international and domestic students and focuses on their growth in capacity associated with participation in co-curricular leadership programs. Similarly-sized gains emerged after participation, suggesting that these leadership programs create equal growth effects across both groups. However, the factors that predicted international students’ increases in leadership skill were different than their domestic peers, suggesting that developing effective leaders among college students across national background is a non-uniform, complexprocess. Recommendations include the suggestion for partnerships between international student scholar units and leadership educators, specialized workshops for international students, and creating nuanced curricula based on the various pathways that students take to becoming an effective leader.

With leadership education expanding at an unprecedented rate, there is an acute need for an evidence-based leadership pedagogy that can bridge the gap between leadership theory and student practice both in the classroom and beyond its boundaries. This paper will give an overview of the Intentional Emergence Model as a way to teach leadership to emerging adults that specifically addresses this gap between theory and practice. It will discuss the model, research and evaluation data associated with the model, training requirements for instructors and teaching assistants, and the implications for leadership education as a result of the research on, and application of, the model.