The student voice in Critical Leadership Education: An exploration of student–faculty partnership learning in sustainability education

Abstract

Leader-centric, uni-directional leadership theory and practice are persistent despite increasing critique, and research shows that students conflate leadership with both power and virtue. It has been suggested that Critical Leadership Education can break through this deadlock; however, to date, the student voice has been curiously marginalised in this literature. We argue that Critical Leadership Education has to address the extent to which students have a voice in shaping alternative Critical Leadership Education content and process. Through an instructor–student partnership, we explore who teaches and who is being taught, who researches and who is being researched, who writes and who is being written about in the leadership pedagogy literature. The paper offers insights into student perspectives on pedagogical mechanisms that create barriers and opportunities to teaching leadership differently, and provides suggestions for Critical Leadership Education research and practice.