Using Intergenerational Narratives and the Medicine Wheel to Describe Women's Leader Development

Session Submission Type: Panel Discussion

Short Description

Intergenerational narratives relay family stories that are relevant to leader identity development, leader self-efficacy, and resiliency. These stories convey the intergenerational traditions of family identity, self-efficacy, relationships with others, and family patterns for facing hardships and setbacks. The Medicine Wheel interview technique was used in this collaborative autoethnographic study to record the intergenerational narratives of five women leaders. These narratives will be discussed individually and collectively as they relate to the values represented by the Medicine Wheel and to data previously gathered from the same women leaders relative to leader behaviors.

Detailed Abstract

Leadership Scholarship track
Strands: Diverse leader identity development, methodology, social construction of leadership
Session type: Panel Discussion

Using Intergenerational Narratives and the Medicine Wheel to Describe Women's leader Development

Detailed Abstract

1. Problem, Need, Purpose, Goals: This panel explores two overarching questions. First, how might intergenerational narratives within families help shape women’s leader identity and second, how does the Medicine Wheel interviewing technique (Bagele & Chilisa, 2011) help in recalling intergenerational narratives? ILA’s conference theme, “Leadership in Turbulent Times” speaks to the grave need for brave, flexible leaders with a firm sense of ethics who value and respect diversity and who themselves are diverse. This need is urgent now and will be in the years to come. It is important to know how leaders, especially diverse leaders, are shaped and how values and leader character are reinforced from the earliest years of childhood on. According to Merrill and Fivush (2016) intergenerational narratives promote a sense of identity, provide role models for self-efficacy and resilience, and connect the young person with past, present, and future family members. Shared especially during childhood and adolescence, these narratives inform the young person about family expectations, values, responsibility to others and strategies for resilience. The participants in this study were all women leaders, thus addressing the need to understand the leader identity development of diverse leaders. The purpose of this panel is discuss a collaborative autoethnographic investigation of intergenerational narratives related to leadership identity and character using the Medicine Wheel interviewing technique. The Medicine Wheel technique is a unique methodology designed to tap deeply held beliefs and values from four different perspectives, known on the Medicine Wheel as the four directions. As Bagele and Chilisia point out, forms of the Medicine Wheel model are found around the world, and a variation of the Medicine Wheel model is in use by some Celtic Pagans and Celtic Christians (Matthews & Matthews, (1997). Our goals are to add to the body of knowledge about women’s leader identity development by sharing summaries of the intergenerational narratives of five women leaders, and to outline and discuss the Medicine Wheel technique as a valid research approach for accessing deeply held values.

2. Framework: The theoretical framework for this panel is informed by the work of three prominent theorists in developmental psychology, Vygotsky, Bandura, and Erikson. Vygotsky (1978) believed that the individual develops within a specific social and cultural context that ideally socializes the child to competent and productive behavior. This social and cultural context includes family stories through the generations. Bandura (1977, 1986, 1997) introduced the notion of self-efficacy or the personal belief that one can exert control over one’s environment. Pertinent to this panel, many of the intergenerational narratives contain critical directions for ways to manage and control one’s environment. Self-efficacy also develops through watching the actions of competent role models, and in our work, these are the family models in our narratives. Erikson (1959, 1968) developed a comprehensive theory of identity. Intergenerational narratives, especially when stories are told during childhood and adolescence, inform the young person about family expectations, values, responsibility to others and strategies for resilience, thus promoting a solid sense of identity.

3. Content & Design:

a. 10 minutes. Framework: Our panel will begin with an overview of the theoretical framework and a review of the literature on intergeneration narratives and the development of leader identity.
b. 10 minutes. Methodology: We will introduce our study participants, define and discuss the Medicine Wheel technique, how it was enacted in our study, how our interview data were coded, and strengths and weaknesses of the Medicine Wheel technique.
c. 15 minutes. Findings: Two researchers on our team who did not consult with each other coded our data. The findings will be discussed by “direction” on the Medicine Wheel as follows: North (courage and wisdom), East (creativity and vision), South (sovereignty, nurturance and relationships), and West (self-knowledge). Most of our narratives were about values of the West (29 mentions) followed by values of the South (24). Both North and East had 10 mentions. Findings will also be discussed by themes relative to our framework: leader identity, self-efficacy, resilience, and ethics and values relative to community. Most narratives discussed developing self-efficacy (consistent with values of the West) while the least mentioned theme was developing traditional attributes of leader identity (values of the North, courage and wisdom).
d. 15 minutes. Discussion of methodology including strengths and weaknesses, challenges to internal validity, and reliability of coding.
e. 20 minutes. Discussion of our learning outcomes (see below) and conclusion
f. Remaining time: Q & A

4. Learning Outcomes: (a) Having learned about the outcomes of our autoethnographic study of intergenerational narratives, session attendees will consider the usability of the outcomes (i.e., stories of leader identity, self-efficacy, etc.) relative to their own research, teaching, and writing. (b). Attendees will consider the value of investigating intergenerational narratives in their own research or using them as a teaching tool in leadership classes. (c). Attendees will consider the feasibility of using the Medicine Wheel technique, both as a framework for interviewing and for coding data in their own research and teaching. (d). Attendees will learn how to implement the Medicine Wheel technique themselves and will receive appropriate references to help with questions of research design.

5. Conclusions & Implications: Attendees will learn about an innovative approach (intergenerational narratives) for getting at the transmission of values relative to effective leadership. They will learn about a specific interview technique (Medicine Wheel) for tapping into intergenerational values. This introspective approach promises to make a substantive contribution to leadership scholarship and leadership pedagogy. The themes and methods discussed by this panel will lend themselves well to in depth discussion in classes and with others about the meaning of leadership in turbulent times.

Sub Unit

• Leadership Scholarship

Chair

• Ann M. Berghout Austin, Utah State University

Presenters

• Lynne E. Devnew, University of Phoenix

• Judith Babcock LaValley, Kansas State University

• Marlene Janzen Le Ber, Brescia University College

• Chanda D. Elbert, Texas A&M University