Performing Leadership

• In Event: Participatory Art-Based Research Approaches

Abstract

1. Objectives: Finding ways to enhance our youth’s ability to be competitive in the workforce, contribute to society, and enrich working relationships with others, requires that they have opportunities to develop and practice leadership and collaborative group skills. Evidence suggests that arts-based leadership programs have significant positive impact on leadership effectiveness (Romanowska, et al, 2011), but these findings have had limited impact on the pedagogy in university classrooms. Drago-Severson et al. (2011) argue that rather than taking a management approach to leadership education, “programs need to teach about relational learning, collaborative leadership, and reflective practice.” The question we ask is: How do we educate for leadership and group collaboration within university settings?

2. Perspectives: An interdisciplinary study, this research draws on two complementary theoretical frameworks from arts and leadership development. Performative inquiry (Author, 1998, 1999, 2011), a participatory arts-based based methodology, recognizes collective creative action as an action-site of learning and meaning-making, as participants simultaneously draw on their lived experience (van Manen, 1997), prior knowledge, and imagination as they participate in performative play. Performative inquiry embodies the requirements of self-study: reflection, collaboration, openness and situated inquiry (Samaras and Fresse, 2006). Performative inquiry is the pedagogical and methodological approach to developing the dispositions and artifacts of leadership.
The second theoretical framework provides a stage-based model for understanding leadership identity development (Komives et al 2006). Six stages of leadership identity development are described from initial awareness to integration/synthesis at the most developed stage. Linking a performative pedagogical inquiry approach with a leadership development stage model provides both a means for leadership development and a way to determine the extent to which development has occurred. In combination, these two frameworks provide powerful tools for analyzing the performances of leadership and the development of leadership identities.

3. Methods: Participants were undergraduates at a large urban Canadian university enrolled in a theatre education course. Students engaged actively in theatre and drama activities, debriefing sessions, and reflective journaling. Additionally, pre and post surveys were developed and administered to participating students.

4. Data Sources: Data included key “stop” moments (Appelbaum, 1995) identified by participants, audio from group debriefings, weekly writings, and final reflection papers. The data were analyzed using constant comparative analysis and deductive coding, looking for emergent themes related to students’ learning and leadership development.

5. Results: Early findings indicate that participation by non-theatre students in drama/theatre activities develops leadership and team collaboration skills. Individual students self identified that they had gained more confidence, made friends, and improved their participation and leadership in group activities.

6. Scholarly Significance: This research offers valuable information to educators and administrators at the post-secondary level in terms of leadership education for young adults across disciplinary boundaries. This research addresses an area that is underdeveloped in leadership and provides promise as a way to foster leadership development among young adults. It also points the way to a valuable integration and complementation of quantitative and arts-based research.

Authors

• Lynn Margaret Fels, Simon Fraser University

• Michelle Johanna Nilson, Simon Fraser University