Student Leadership at the University: An Explanatory Model

María Pilar Cáceres-Reche,Blanca Berral-Ortiz,José Antonio Martínez-Domingo,Fernando José Sadio-Ramos,Miguel López-Gómez

doi:10.3390/educsci11110703

María Pilar Cáceres-Reche, Blanca Berral-Ortiz + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11110703

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Abstract

The exercise of leadership in the educational area and its diverse forms of being reflected in practice continue to arouse interest at the time of designing and developing research that reveals the characteristics that a leader must have in order to be considered a competent university leader, that is, a college student who carries out activities and a leadership position on his or her campus. In this sense, the present work aims to analyze the profile of the student leader to generate an explanatory model, being answered by means of a series of questions. Next, a cross-sectional study of university students at the University of Santo Tomás is carried out, obtaining statistical-descriptive data that indicate the mean scores in relation to each of the dimensions of the sociodemographic factors of this research. In addition, gender and age are identified as study factors that coincide with other research, as well as the qualities, expectations and formation of the student leader. In the present study, female gender is significant in relation to leadership practice, and age does not show significant differences between the groups. Finally, it is concluded by determining as key the role of students who exercise leadership in the University. In addition, it should be noted that the present research is derived from the Doctoral Thesis entitled: “Student leadership at the University Santo Tomás de Bucaramanga: Pedagogical proposal”, defended at the University of Granada, Spain. Funded by Proyecto de investigación, Colombia. Code: 2008/12058.

Highlights

Leadership is one of the great challenges that societies and institutions must solve in order to achieve goals and objectives and, sustainable and integral human development
In terms of student leadership, we find several ways of expressing them [13]:
The highest mean score was found in the female group in all dimensions, and significant differences were only found with respect to leadership practice (p = 0.03)

Summary

Introduction

Leadership is one of the great challenges that societies and institutions must solve in order to achieve goals and objectives and, sustainable and integral human development. In today’s society, the challenges that arise are increasingly changing, including the need to create new consensuses, to develop egalitarian visions of individuals, to reduce social inequalities and to alleviate poverty rates: in short, to emphasize the role of social justice and human rights. All this entails designing and planning a series of real and practical strategies that take into account alternative models of action and problem solving. Leadership among young people should be oriented to the service of the public with training in ethical values, policies, social commitment and training to promote real transformations that the country and its citizens require

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