Identifying and Living Leadership in the Lives of Prekindergarten Through 4th-Grade Girls: The Story of One Intentional Leadership Identity Development Program

Abstract

ABSTRACTCultivating leadership identity early in a child’s development is crucial. This article examines the development of an intentional leadership identity development program for young girls. Using participatory action research (PAR), faculty and students from a college school of social work and administrators and teachers from a suburban prekindergarten-12 all girls’ school collaborated to create a program for leadership development for the school’s youngest students, age 4 to 9 years. PAR is a research methodology wherein all members’ voices and ideas, including those typically identified as “researchers” and “subjects,” are valued and included. Researchers were interested in how to develop a leadership program at the elementary level, how girls’ understandings of leadership would change through participation in a program, and how teachers would describe leadership identity development and leadership behavior in young girls. Results indicate that PAR was an important tool for creating a program that resonated with the school’s existing culture, and that the program itself helped to redefine leadership for the girls and led them to identify themselves as leaders in more complex and nuanced ways. Furthermore, teachers were able to outline the process through which the girls learned, gained confidence, and developed self-efficacy in leadership skills.