Collegiate leadership development opportunities that enhance student’s leadership
skills are on the rise. This study sought to understand how students perceive their own
leadership development prior to entering college and at an institution that has prioritized
leadership development in recent years. Through this single-case study, 51
undergraduate student leaders completed a questionnaire that resulted in a descriptive
student leader profile and open-ended responses. From those 51 students, 14 were a part
of focus groups. There were three focus groups in total with four, seven, and three
participants respectively. From the 14 participants, five volunteered for individual
interviews to identify their perceptions of their leadership development in their own
words. The research questions for this study were: What are the inputs and
environmental influences that shape college students’ leadership development output
from the student perspective; and, how do college students describe and understand their leadership development? The descriptive profile and close-ended responses are reviewed
in chapter four and report four major findings. The first finding was “Mom made me do
it”: The Influence of Family and Experiences Precollege, and the second finding was The
What and Who Behind These Students’ Leadership Development in College: Purposeful
Experiences and People. The third finding was The Why Behind These College
Students’ Engagement in Leadership Development, which encompassed four themes to
describe the reasons these students’ are interested in leadership development:
encouragement from others, aspirations, self-development, and motivation to support
causes they have grown to want to serve and for which they want to develop. The fourth
finding was Soft Skills - Not Clear in the Terminology of These Student Leaders, Clear in
Their Behaviors and included ways of defining soft skills and the exemplification of
student leaders’ soft skills. Conclusions and recommendations are offered in chapter six
including the proposal of a new model, Closing the Loop in College, developed from the
pattern of findings that emerged in this study inclusive of reflective meaning making in
college as essential for these leaders’ development. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fau.edu/oai:fau.digital.flvc.org:fau_39742 |
| Contributors | Burke, Katie Gale (author), Floyd, Deborah L. (Thesis advisor), Maslin-Ostrowski, Patricia (Thesis advisor), Florida Atlantic University (Degree grantor), College of Education, Department of Educational Leadership and Research Methodology |
| Publisher | Florida Atlantic University |
| Source Sets | Florida Atlantic University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, Text |
| Format | 246 p., application/pdf |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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