Through courses, internships, community engagement, social organizations, and daily interactions with others, every day we accumulate experiences; however, learning does not happen through experience but from reflection on experiences. This manual provides guidance for facilitating reflection in leadership learning and features over 50 activities from 52 reflective leadership educators. Guided by a framework for reflection in leadership learning, we focus on six methods for reflection: contemplative, creative, digital, discussion, narrative, and written. Through prioritizing time, holding space, and asking questions that challenge assumptions, educators facilitate reflection in leadership learning. This intentional focus on making meaning of leadership processes enhances the capacity of learners to work collaboratively for change.

Through courses, internships, community engagement, social organizations, and daily interactions with others, every day we accumulate experiences; however, learning does not happen through experience but from reflection on experiences. This manual provides guidance for facilitating reflection in leadership learning and features over 50 activities from 52 reflective leadership educators. Guided by a framework for reflection in leadership learning, we focus on six methods for reflection: contemplative, creative, digital, discussion, narrative, and written. Through prioritizing time, holding space, and asking questions that challenge assumptions, educators facilitate reflection in leadership learning. This intentional focus on making meaning of leadership processes enhances the capacity of learners to work collaboratively for change.

In an era of constant connection, it can be challenging to prioritize time for reflection. Taking time to think can feel like a luxury or even a waste time. People facilitating complex leadership processes may feel the least able to pause and reflect. However, it is through intentional reflection that we make meaning of experiences, connect ideas, question assumptions, and generate innovative possibilities. By taking time to reflect, individually and with others, learners can see the full picture of an experience, understand their thought processes, and enhance their capacity for leadership. Beyond individual reflection, by engaging in reflection on social issues with others, leaders can be empowered and enabled to create positive changes. This book is a clarion call for educators and learners to make reflection a central priority. Reflection, the process of making meaning of experience, and leadership, a relational process for affecting change, are enhanced by one another. Together, they strengthen the potential for leadership learning through experience. This book addresses challenges for reflection in leadership learning while also connecting it to timely topics. It begins with connections between reflection and leadership and then introduces a framework for reflection in leadership learning. Reflection is a powerful strategy curricular and co-curricular learning; for instruction and assessment, reflection in leadership learning can benefit from both intentional framing and feedback. As socially constructed concepts, both reflection and leadership have historically lacked clarity; to add to the confusion, critical reflection is often interchanged with reflection. This book introduces a continuum of critical reflection in leadership learning. In order to facilitate reflection in leadership learning, educators must engage in the inner work of becoming reflective educators. Finally, in the face of complex social challenges, reflection, leadership, mindfulness, and resilience are juxtaposed in order to highlight how these concepts are reliant upon one another. Reflection in leadership learning is essential for anyone who wants to develop their capacity for leadership. When faced with complex social issues and challenges at a global scale, the only way to make progress is through collective action that results from critical reflection. To develop more resilient and mindful learners who can adapt to changing circumstances, educators must center reflection in leadership learning as a philosophy, pedagogy, outcome, and strategy. This book provides a balance of theory and practice to empower and enable educators to engage in reflective leadership learning.

Navigating Complexities in Leadership: Moving Towards Critical Hope emerged in response to the confluence of complexities experienced by leadership educators and practitioners amidst global pandemics. It is a guide for those seeking to learn through critical perspectives, and seek more agile, responsive tools for navigating complexity, change, and disruption. The audience for the book ranges from new and entry-level leadership educators to senior scholars in higher education. This book frames leadership learning and development as a process of adaptive action in complex systems. It brings to light patterns of complexity in current times through the lens of educators and practitioners in higher education. Readers are invited to actively engage with the text from an inquiry stance. Through curiosity, shared exploration, self-reflection we hope readers will discover patterns and insight that resonate and challenge their own experiences, find energy to engage the complexities being faced, and build adaptive capacity to live, work, teach, and lead in critical hope and possibility. The book concludes with questions and considerations that allow educators and practitioners to reflect on their own roles and contexts and move towards critical hope in navigating the complexities we will continue to face.

Calling others in to lead for social justice has never been more important. In a world plagued by multiple and overlapping pandemics and other crises, the cost of leadership failures is constantly rising. Leadership education is responding to these challenges by centering cultural relevance, critical pedagogies, and important issues of identity, capacity, and efficacy in the preparation of emerging learners. Meeting the global demand for social justice requires thoughtful, innovative, and engaged praxes by all leadership educators. Alongside a cadre of diverse authors, we intend to shift the mindset of leadership education toward forward-thinking and holistic solutions, empowering our students to build a fairer and more equitable world for themselves and others. Shifting the Mindset: Socially Just Leadership Education widens and deepens the discourse begun in Changing the Narrative: Socially Just Leadership Education. Our contributors’ ideas occur into two parts: the first examines student social identities otherwise underrepresented in existing leadership education literature. The second portion illuminates key factors of leadership learning contexts frequently under– or unattended in both leadership education and social justice education. Every chapter includes critical considerations and practical guidance for educators striving to meet the leadership demands of an increasingly unjust world. Taken together, these thinking, planning, and acting tools augment the potential of educators who are preparing leaders under uncertain conditions. We envision this book as an essential element of the leadership learning toolkit of socially just leadership ducators at all levels, between contexts, and across varying amounts of education, influence, and experience. You are needed now more than ever before. We, once again, invite you to our ongoing fight for fairness, freedom, and a brighter future for all.

In this companion manual to The Role of Leadership Educators: Transforming Learning, this text was developed to fill a significant resource gap in leadership education. In response to this gap, as well as leadership educators’ call for professional development related to teaching and learning, this text is grounded in the college teaching and leadership education literature. Filled with 60 learning activities for diverse contributors, this book offers a hands-on resource for leadership educators to use when facilitating leadership learning opportunities. Each learning activity includes learning outcomes, activity instructions, facilitation notes, and additional resources offered by the author. The text is organized by the pedagogical methods covered in The Role of Leadership Educators: Transforming Learning. Pedagogical methods covered include Discussion, Case Studies, Reflection, Team-Based Learning, Service Learning, Self- and Peer-Assessments, Role-Play, Simulation, Games, and Art. Each chapter contains six learning activities for each pedagogical method, four focused in instructional strategies (curricular, co-curricular, technology-enhanced, followership-focused) and two in learning assessment strategies (curricular and co-curricular).

Rooted and Radiant: Women’s Narratives of Leadership shares the narratives of 39 women navigating the process of leadership. It seeks to honor the unique experiences of the narrative authors while also challenging the dominant stories of the leadership process. The audience for the book is leadership educators and women looking to further explore leadership as a phenomenon. Rooted and Radiant: Women’s Narratives of Leadership is grounded in the hope and radiance described by Skye, one of the many voices in this collection, where she described how “leadership radiated all around me.” The book is filled with narratives from women exploring their own stories of leadership and gender. These stories are woven together by an author team committed to centering the voices and lived experiences of these narrative authors. This book begins with important literature framing women and leadership. The early chapters also explore the research process of this book in-depth. The core of the book includes chapters focused on critical themes found in the 39 narratives and weaving together women’s narratives of understanding and enacting leadership. The book concludes with critical hope about women and leadership moving forward.