Enfranchised Leadership: The Identity Development of Students of Color Within Co-Curricular Organizations

• In Event: The Power and Possibility of the Co-Curriculum

Abstract

This constructivist grounded theory study about enfranchised leadership identity revealed a 5-stage developmental process as experienced by 17 undergraduate students attending a Predominantly White Institution (PWI) in the mountain west. Participants in the study described their leadership identity as evolving from disenfranchised leader identity awareness to viewing engaging in leadership as a multidimensional, emancipatory process. Participants included 9 African American, 5 Latino/a, and 3 Asian American student leaders. Developing an enfranchised leadership identity was coupled to the following five emergent categories: identity saliency, conceptualizing subjugation, locating contextual boundaries, organizational resistance, and expanding perspectives about applied equity. A conceptual model illustrating the constructivist grounded theory of enfranchised leadership is offered.

Author

• Bryan Hotchkins, University of Utah