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Mentoring has been shown to positively affect student engagement, confidence, leadership, and skills. It is through the development of relationships, knowledge sharing, increased engagement, and a sense of belonging that mentors gain confidence and build leadership skills. However, little is known about the types of leadership, practices, and behaviors that mentors develop when undertaking the mentorship role. The purpose of this study is to examine the development of exemplary leadership practices that the mentoring role nurtures in undergraduate female student mentors. In particular, this study adopted the Kouzes and Posner (2002) transformational and servant leadership practices model to collect data from undergraduate female mentors (n = 94) and mentees (n =142). Results demonstrated significant correlations among all Student Leadership Practices Inventory Scale (S-LPI) subscales – Inspite a shared vision, Model the way, Challenge the process, Enable others to act, and Encourage the heart – and provided evidence for the association of the mentoring role with the development of transformational and servant practices. However, among the five transformational leadership practices, Inspire a shared vision was not correlated with the mentoring role. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that curriculum developers of undergraduate programs create curricula containing an array of peer teaching/mentoring experiences based on clear roles and job descriptions for mentors. Further research is recommended to explore the impact of mentoring programs with a wider sample of students from diverse backgrounds.

This chapter explores the role and impact of adaptive thinking and transformational leadership in developing and leading an enabling culture that aligns with a school’s vision and mission. This chapter will also probe the varying dimensions that enable or inhibit a school culture and the tools needed to shape and maintain it including the challenges posed in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. In this chapter, examples of adaptive challenges, data-driven instructions, and effective use of technology, will be referred to as one dimension of a culture that shows alignment or lack of it with the school’s vision and mission, the role and impact of transformative adaptive leadership on school’s overall culture, especially in the UAE, and MENA region. Finally, this chapter will examine the impact of adaptive and distributed leadership in leading a cultural change.

This chapter highlights the key areas for the leadership and innovation research agenda in 2035. This agenda will direct researchers’ focus to the core transversal skills that individuals must have amidst the shift toward a greener and digitalized economy. Such skills include leadership, management, creativity, communication, and adaptability. The role of macro governmental policies and micro organizational policies is of great significance to ensure the implementation (if any) of these changes and of core to the research agenda. This chapter will also guide researchers to the challenges at the higher education level that need to be addressed to ensure the balance between the skills and knowledge acquired by workers through education and the needs of businesses in order to increase productivity and innovation.

With the progress of the education system, many technological inventions have been found to develop the learning and teaching process. Several factors contributed to the advancement of education, from computer-based materials to web-based programs and technical tools. All these have revolutionized the whole education system and changed it from a monotonous and traditional teacher-centered approach to a motivating and interactive learner-based approach. Recently, digital technology has been implemented in many educational processes to increase teacher–learner interaction. The main feature characterizing digital learning is the active engagement that transforms learners from passive attendants to active participants in the learning process. From this perspective, teachers and learners are considered educational technologists. The purpose of this chapter is to shift the role of creativity and critical thinking from teachers to learners and show how the latter could create authentic writing by employing technology that is used and needed in the workplace. In doing so, learners become ready for their career life, and they learn to be more creative and collaborative individuals.

Saudi Arabia’s government’s dedication to modernizing and improving the country’s educational system has resulted in profound changes to the country’s educational environment. A key component of societal development, economic prosperity, and preparing the next generation for a changing environment is education. This chapter charts the historical development, emphasizing significant events and difficulties encountered at every educational level. The chapter describes the significant increase starting in the 1950s, focusing on worldwide standards while upholding moral principles, from its origins in Islamic studies to King Abdulaziz Al-Saud’s creation of a formal education system. Significant progress persisted into the 2000s, especially in the area of women’s education. This chapter also discusses the implication of Vision 2030 in Education and Research skills and provides significant insights for the elevation of the quality and the impact of education toward resilient social inclusive economic development in Saudi Arabia.

Digital transformation is becoming a necessity for all organizations all over the world. The importance of digital transformation is not only applicable to the private sector but also extends to the public sector. Kuwait boasts the Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion Authority (KDIPA), a pivotal entity entrusted with the mission of spearheading investment promotion across diverse sectors. More importantly, the focus has been recently on investing in digital transformation technologies where their statistics show that 33% of their investment are in emerging technologies. However, the success of KDIPA was not a mere chance or coincidence where it is really attributed to the transformative leadership that it has. It started to invest in projects that develop the talents and skills of Kuwaitis to create sustainable development and bring innovative technologies to the state of Kuwait. This chapter provides an overview of digital transformation and the role of KDIPA and its transformative leadership in attaining the strategic development goals for a new Kuwait Vision of 2035.

Metaverse means a world in which virtual and reality interact and co-evolve, and social, economic, and cultural activities are carried out in it immersively. In this scenario, it goes beyond just combining the physical and virtual worlds – there is a continuity between them, creating an ecosystem that merges the two universes (physical and virtual). This scenario is considered an innovative educational environment that enhances technologies related to the metaverse, which results in the fusion of resources and elements from the real with the virtual. Thus, the goal of this chapter is to map what an innovative digital learning environment with the metaverse looks like. In order to address these issues, a comprehensive and integrative review was conducted in the Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) databases. (1) What is the metaverse? and (2) How can metaverse be used to create a cutting-edge digital learning environment? Results show that the metaverse may be integrated with problem-based learning, gamification, and maker culture approaches to create an even more creative and successful learning environment. This chapter will give an illustration of how a creative digital learning environment may be created utilizing the metaverse.

University education in Nigeria has been in existence for over seven decades. The expansion and development are astronomical considering the number when the first university college was established. Currently, over 198 universities are spread across the length and breadth of the country. In spite of the expansion and development in this sector over time, the mode in which Nigerian scholars and researchers conduct research is often titled toward quantitative methods, thereby abandoning qualitative and mixed methods paradigms. Effort is geared toward establishing the reasons for the overrepresentation of quantitative paradigms in research space and the future of qualitative and mixed methods paradigms in Nigerian universities. A qualitative method was adopted in this study. In line with the approach, the interpretive paradigm is used to understand and make sense from the participants’ responses on the phenomenon. Narrative analysis is used to analyze the data. Findings indicated that old scholars and researchers are novices in qualitative and mixed methods research, that quantitative methods are scientific and the findings can be submitted to generalization, hence its overrepresentation. However, foreign-trained scholars and researchers are extending the future of these research approaches in Nigerian universities through the transfer of knowledge and skills.

Higher education institutions like Effat University play a critical role in realizing the ambitious goals of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which emphasizes adaptability, agility, and sustainability in the educational sector. With the higher education landscape undergoing rapid transformation globally, institutions are compelled to rethink curricula and align more closely with the changing needs of students, industry, and the government. Effat University, situated at the confluence of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), shows adaptability, agility, and sustainability in the higher education sector. At the heart of Effat’s mission lies the IQRA core values, anchoring its academic and administrative endeavors and fostering graduates who are holistic, ethically grounded, and attuned to global challenges. This book chapter investigates Effat University’s distinctive approach, fortified by innovative initiatives, transformative leadership, expansive research activities, and the unwavering IQRA principles, as it positions itself to further the goals of Vision 2030 and the SDGs. Effat’s research, diverse in its scope and impact, ranges from cutting-edge technological advancements to interdisciplinary collaborations that address both local and global challenges.

Using a mixed-method approach and drawing from internal data and insights from the university’s archives the chapter underscores Effat University’s commitment to innovation, interdisciplinary education, research excellence, international collaborations, and sustainable practices, all harmonized by the guiding IQRA values. These concerted efforts resonate deeply with Vision 2030 and the SDGs, setting the stage for sustained academic excellence and solid foundation for future academic and societal progress.