Problematizing leadership learning facilitation through a trickster archetype: An investigation into power and identity in liminal spaces

Neil Sutherland,Gareth Edwards,Beverley Hawkins

doi:10.1177/1742715021998229

Neil Sutherland, Gareth Edwards + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715021998229

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Abstract

This study uses the archetype of a ‘trickster’ to reflect back on, and hence problematize, the role of the educator/facilitator identity in leadership learning. This is based on the view that a trickster is a permanent resident in liminal spaces and that these liminal spaces play an important role in leadership learning. Our approach was based on the reading of the trickster literature alongside reflective conversations on our own experiences of facilitation of leadership learning, development and education. We suggest that paying attention to the trickster tale draws attention to the romanticization of leadership development and its facilitation as based on a response to crisis that leads to a further enhancement of the leader as a hero. Hence, it also offers ways to problematize leadership learning by uncovering the shadow side of facilitation and underlying power relations. We therefore contribute by showing how, as facilitators, we can use the trickster archetype to think more critically, reflectively and reflexively about our role and practices as educators, in particular, the ethical and power-related issues. In our conclusions, we make recommendations for research, theory and practice and invite other facilitators to share with us their trickster tales.

Highlights

This study situates the authors within a trickster-type tale to analyse experiences of facilitating leadership learning
We identify the important role of tricksters in the liminal learning experience through specific leadership education tools such as ‘throwing a shock’, ‘hands-off teaching approaches’ and ‘seemingly setting students up to fail’
We point to the increased risk, for facilitators, of being cast as a ‘trickster’ from performative pressures to enable the development of the hero figure (O’Reilly et al, 2015; Schweiger et al, 2020) or corporate acolyte (Hopfl, 1992)

Summary

Introduction

This study situates the authors within a trickster-type tale to analyse experiences of facilitating leadership learning. Sutherland, 2018) approach to studying leadership. We use interpretations of the ‘trickster’ archetype to reflect back on, and problematize, the role of the facilitator or educator within leadership learning, education and development. The study takes a reflective approach in two interconnected ways. By analysing the narrative within the trickster story and its role in conceptualizations of liminality and, secondly, by reflecting on our own ‘trickster tales’. We use this latter exercise to critique our experiences of facilitating leadership learning and education. We highlight how leadership educators/ facilitators are implicated in the romanticization of leadership development that is based on the response to wicked problems (Grint, 2005) in a context of crisis constructing (where crisis is seen as a socially produced and discursively constituted and often reflects the orientation of those in positions of power – leaders) (O’Reilly et al, 2015; Spector, 2019)

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