Adult Learning Through Collaborative Leadership

Session Submission Type: Panel Discussion

Short Description

The authors of the articles in a special issue of New Directions in Adult and Continuing Education will talk about their experiences as leadership educators, consultants, and executive coaches focused on the opportunities and challenges experienced with engaging in adult learning and collaborative leadership. With session participants, the presenters will invite reflection and dialogue about the strategies and core values that have cultivated their commitment to collaborative leadership learning particularly during these challenging times. The authors will weave theory with practice by showcasing real-life examples of collaborative leadership and learning.

Detailed Abstract

“Leadership can liberate us from confining or oppressive conditions . . . Rather than being used as a means to compel compliance and conformity, to dominate or prescribe, leadership can invite us to imagine, initiate and contest” (Sinclair, 2007, p. xix).

Collaborative leadership is rooted in adult education theory and practice, through adult educators’ historical focus on action-oriented learning and research in the workplace (Argyris & Schön, 1992; 1996; Brown & Tandon, 1983; Kemmis, & McTaggart, 2005; Lewin, 1997; Zuber-Skerritt, 2002). Given that 21st century employees spend a significant percentage of their waking hours engaged with their workplaces (whether in person or through a digital connection), the ways in which they (and we!) engage and learn with this community of colleagues matters now more than ever.

Drawing from scholarship related to both collaborative leadership (e.g., Chrislip & Larson, 1994; Crevani, Lindgren, & Packendorff, 2007; Etmanski, Fulton, Nasmyth, & Page, 2014; Fletcher, 2004; Harris & Agger-Gupta, 2015; Page, 2016; Paxton & Van Stralen, 2015; Taylor, 2011) and adult education and learning (e.g., Brookfield, Kalliath & Laiken, 2006; Freire, 1983; Knowles, 1984), this sourcebook has woven theory with practice by showcasing real-life examples of collaborative leadership, including non-hierarchical approaches to leadership in community-based/voluntary initiatives and new social movements, as well as examples of what collaborative leadership might look like in more traditional, hierarchical organizations in all sectors. In particular, the authors documented the possibilities as well as the challenges or pitfalls of collaboration by engaging in questions such as: does collaborative leadership really work? What are the conditions that contribute to its success? If not, what are the conditions that contribute to its failures? What constitutes success and failure? How are issues like accountability, distribution of labour, power dynamics, interpersonal communication, conflict, and gender understood and addressed in collaborative leadership? And of course, how does individual and collective adult learning happen along the way?

Although the traditional idea of an individual, charismatic, often heroic male leader remains a popular stereotype, current scholarship and practice tell us that leadership takes many—and increasingly more collaborative—forms. By articulating what collaboration is and why it is important, and attending to the education and learning processes that occur through collaborative approaches, this panel will draw upon scholars who understand leadership as emergent, change-orientated, dynamic, distributed, democratic, transformational, and compassionate in uncertain and turbulent times. The presenters will look beyond position-based leadership to capture the collaborative organizational models and diverse actions, processes, and strategies collaborative leaders and learners employ.

The authors of the articles of this special issue — New Directions in Adult and Continuing Education —will dialogue about their experiences as leadership educators, consultants, and executive coaches, focused on the opportunities and challenges experienced with engaging in adult learning and collaborative leadership. With session participants, the presenters will invite reflection and dialogue about the strategies and core values that have cultivated their commitment to collaborative leadership particularly during these turbulent times. The authors will weave theory with practice by showcasing real-life examples of collaborative leadership and learning.

Sub Unit

• Leadership Education

Chair

• Catherine Etmanski, Royal Roads University

Presenters

• Kathy Bishop, Royal Roads University

• Eliane Ubalijoro, C.L.E.A.R. International Development

• Doug E. Paxton, St. Mary's College of California

• Ken Otter, Saint Mary's College of California