Student Research: Development of Leadership Curriculum on NGCSU Campus

Introduction

"My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group. There is much less competition." - Gandhi

There are more than 1,000 colleges and universities that offer leadership courses. Some of these institutions have majors, minors, and graduate programs. Still, the development of a leadership curriculum backed by research is in its infancy. Longitudinal research of students that have been trained in leadership is greatly needed. A longitudinal study would track students at their entry into the institution, and then beyond graduation to determine the effectiveness of the leadership courses and co-curricular activities that they engage in at NGCSU. The study will seek to identify whether the curriculum prepares students for the future. The preliminary research is a start to that longitudinal approach. A student group created a questionnaire, with input from a survey designer, to be used to interview junior and senior students. The survey included questions about past course work, current/past issues faced as a leader and their perceptions for what information would be most relevant to real world situations. Students were also asked to rank order the most and least important issues in which they believe an education is critical. Therefore, both quantitative and qualitative data was gathered.

Methods

Students interviewed 49 student leaders across campus. For the qualitative data the research group divided the interviews up between two students and created themes using ground theory methodology. Raters were trained in card sorting in order to create a concise list. This list and the interview protocols were then given to two more students that rated the themes for accuracy. Themes had been discussed and defined prior to the second rating. The quantitative data was entered into an excel spreadsheet and is presented below.

Results

Of the 49 student leaders interviewed 17 are in the leadership minor. The break down of student leadership positions was as follows: 14 Greek leaders, 13 Corp leaders, 6 Student Activity Board members, 5 Residential Assistants, 3 Introduction leaders, 2 Commuter Council Leaders, 2 CMLA, 1 Student Government Association leader, 1 business owner, 1 athlete, and 1 church organizer. All 49 student leaders ranked the following issues as most important for the training of new leaders based on their experience:

• Knowing your leadership style
• Communication and interpersonal skills
• Time management
• Crisis management
• Motivational and inspirational ability
• Conflict resolution skills

The 49 student leaders ranked "knowing theories" and "working with case studies" as the lowest priority for training new leaders based on their past and current experiences in the different context.

Effective Leadership Questionnaire