Teaching Leadership to Leaders: Practicing Inclusive, Adaptive Leadership in the Classroom

• In Event: Inclusive Leadership Education in Intercultural Contexts: From Graduate Education to Student Affairs

Short Description

In some disciplines, doctoral students are highly experienced mid-career professionals who already lead, yet still take leadership classes. This study examines adaptive and inclusive leadership as a teaching strategy in a cross-cultural leadership graduate class. This approach coupled with andragogical principles can help educators support the learning of experienced leaders.

Detailed Abstract

Problem, need, significance
Leadership is a hot topic in the world of advanced degrees. There are doctoral degrees in organizational leadership, business leadership, educational leadership, leadership studies, interdisciplinary leadership, and more. Programs in other fields are also adding leadership classes to their curriculum. Regardless of the discipline, leadership education at the doctoral level is a growing concern. As increasing numbers of mid-career adults return to school to complete advanced degrees, leadership education classes need to take into account the specific needs of adult learners, as well and the social need to develop leaders in all fields capable of creative approaches to the 21st century’s complex problems (Nicolaides & Dzubinski, 2015). Teaching leadership can be particularly challenging, since students may have been functioning as leaders for years before entering a doctoral program. They may assume they already know how to lead, and professors may encounter challenges in teaching leadership to seasoned practitioners. When cultural elements are added to the equation, the pressures on the professor become particularly strong. Increasing our capacity to function as adaptive leaders in the graduate classroom merits further exploration as a teaching strategy.

Framework
One possible reason for the explosion of leadership programs and classes may be the nature of our increasingly globalized world and the types of problems facing us today. Known as VUCA problems (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) these are issues without straightforward solutions (Caravan, 2015; Petrie, 2014). No matter what discipline or field of study a doctoral student enters, they need to be prepared for the challenges of the 21st century.

Additionally, the population of doctoral programs is increasingly represented by mid-career adults returning to school to develop their skills and capacities in their specialty. The field of adult education tells us that adults are internally motivated to learn and that programs for adults must incorporate the unique needs as well as the wealth of experiences that adult learners bring to the classroom (Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, 2005; Merriam & Caffarella, 1999). Furthermore, adult education as a field concerns itself with growing complexity and the need for adults to develop increasing levels of mental sophistication to address complex challenges (Kegan, 1994; Nicolaides & Dzubinski, 2015).

The professor in an adult education classroom needs to take into account the current state of their students, as well as the desired growth. In a leadership education class, where students already have established leadership practices and beliefs, the professor faces adaptive challenges. “Adaptive challenges . . . require unlearning old assumptions and attitudes and learning new ways of knowing, doing, and being” (Nicolaides & McCallum, 2014, p. 249). Yet these changes are difficult to achieve. The practice of adaptive leadership promotes inclusive leadership, because the professor can “help their [students] unlearn outmoded or habituated ways of constructing opportunities and challenges, and . . .help them move toward innovation by pushing against cherished beliefs or culturally embedded assumptions” (Nicolaides & McCallum, 2014, p. 249). Combining the tenets of adaptive leadership with those of adult education may help promote inclusive leadership and create a learning environment that is fruitful even for experienced leaders.

Questions and Content
This presentation is an analysis of the classroom practices of one professor teaching two sections of a hybrid (partly online, partly face to face) cross-cultural leadership class in a graduate program in intercultural studies. One class was taught in Asia and consisted of 22 students, both Asians and Americans primarily working in Asia. The second class was taught in the U.S. and consisted of 20 students from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America. The multiplicity of cultures in the course and the focus on cross-cultural leadership is the starting point for inclusive practices that seek to learn from and adapt to the various backgrounds of the participants. The majority held leadership positions in their organizations at the time of the class. The research questions guiding the study are:

1. What practices from adult learning theory and from adaptive leadership can be combined and used effectively in this graduate leadership course?
2. How do students respond to the use by the professor of andragogical principles combined with adaptive leadership principles?
3. To what extent do students show shifts in thinking and/or being at the end of this course?

Design
The study is being conducted using autho-ethnographic research methods. From the start of the semester, I have been keeping a journal of all the practices from adaptive leadership theory that I use deliberately in the classroom. I am also recording student responses to my efforts. Next, both teaching assistants for the classes are also keeping journals focused on noting my actions and student responses. Finally, one student has chosen to participate in the project and is also keeping a journal. At the end of the semester, all four journals will be entered into Nvivo, coded, and analyzed using grounded theory methods of data analysis (Charmaz, 2006).

Results, Findings, Outcomes
At this stage of the semester (three weeks in), preliminary findings indicate that students both appreciate and dislike the inclusive and adaptive leadership approach I am modeling. Some students have expressed appreciation for the way I acknowledge the complexity of our world, the VUCA-type problems that most of them face, and my encouragement to them to tolerate ambiguity while seeking to become experts in their own realms. Others have expressed discomfort and resistance because I am not fulfilling the traditional role of expert who can deliver the right answers for their challenges, even for non-western cultures.

Conclusions
Adaptive leadership combined with adult education principles as a classroom strategy for professors, particularly when teaching students with specific expertise that goes beyond the professor’s own knowledge, seems to hold great promise as an adult-learner-friendly practice.

Implications
Professors working with adult learners may want to develop their own capacity for adaptive leadership practices. Graduate education programs, particularly those preparing educators for tomorrow’s/the 21st century classroom, may benefit from incorporating the concept of teachers as inclusive and adaptive leaders as well as adult educators.

Participant

• Leanne Dzubinski, Biola University