Abstract
Students are increasingly diverse, with traditional pedagogies and instructional approaches lacking effectiveness in engaging a variety of student cohorts. This study takes a behavioural approach to examining students in the classroom, seeking to better understand the relationships between authentic leadership, wellbeing, belonging, and engagement among students in an Australian Associate Degree program. This paper reports on a quantitative survey conducted at the beginning of a teaching period, with longitudinal data points expected as this cohort progresses. Preliminary findings are that while students’ self-reported authentic leadership scores had associated gains in their psychological wellbeing, and classroom belongingness and engagement, their informal influence played the largest role. This could indicate that supporting students to develop deeper psychological behavioural capabilities (such as self-awareness and sincerity) would have the potential to strengthen the relationship between authentic leadership and student outcomes, by supporting a self-reinforcing effect among the authentic leader behaviours.
Highlights
Contemporary society has undergone significant evolution over recent decades, with citizens engaging with education and consuming knowledge in increasingly diverse ways
The aim of this paper is to explore preliminary quantitative data relating to the student baselines on their authentic leadership, psychological wellbeing, student engagement, and classroom belongingness, and to outline the following hypotheses: Context
Literature on leadership within student populations often conflates the practice of leadership with the belief that positional roles are core to fostering development (Dempster & Lizzio, 2007; Eich, 2008; Schuh & Laverty, 1983). Such a development perspective takes leadership research back to ‘Great Man’ philosophies of leadership (e.g. Carlyle, 1840), where ‘great men’ were identified and given positional power to be followed without question. Against this conflation and drawing on theoretical foundations of authentic leadership (Crawford et al, 2020; Luthans & Avolio, 2003), we argue that cultivating the behaviours of effective and ethical leaders ought to be the focus of curriculum, so that graduates in future positional management roles may exhibit effective leadership
Summary
Contemporary society has undergone significant evolution over recent decades, with citizens engaging with education and consuming knowledge in increasingly diverse ways. The traditional students attended lectures and tutorials on-campus. They were likely to have higher than average socioeconomic status, did not need to support their study by working, nor were they likely to hold a primary care responsibility for their children. The contemporary student population are much less homogenous and more difficult to define. Gender and age are more diverse, entry pathways less conventional, and desired modes of learning challenge current instructional approaches to teaching. The outcome of constant redefinition of the student and their desired learning environment, with concomitant education policy reforms, has resulted in a situation where educational reforms still fail to create optimum learning outcomes, processes and environments
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call