Understanding+leadership+through+service

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** Understanding leadership through service: Examining how international service-learning informs student leadership development through service ** Trisha Gott, Assistant Director of Service-Learning, School of Leadership Studies, Kansas State University [tcgott@ksu.edu]

Mary Hale-Tolar, Director, School of Leadership Studies, Kansas State University [mtolar@ksu.edu]


 * Keywords:** International service-learning, Social Change model, Active Citizen Continuum, leadership curriculum


 * Conference Track:** Higher education student outcomes


 * Format:** Poster presentation

The School of Leadership Studies (SLS) at Kansas State University has measured leadership development through service in its international service-learning curriculum. With the Social Change Model (Komives, Lucas, & McMahon, 2007) as the framework, this study reflects international service learners’ notions of leadership learned through service, with the Active Citizen Continuum (Break Away, 2012) as the measurement.
 * Summary**

SLS houses an interdisciplinary undergraduate minor in leadership studies. A feature of the minor is the uniquely situated international service-learning program called International Service Teams. International Service Teams is a student-run, year-long service-learning program, which selects and prepares students for a 10-week service immersion experience. This year-long program takes students through both the academic study and practice of service-learning and civic leadership in an international context.

In this qualitative study, student participants shared perceptions of service as those perceptions changed over their year-long participation in the program. Data for this study include participant reflections captured in written reports during and after the program and responses to a qualitative survey administered to participants upon their return from their international service experience. Using the School of Leadership Studies Active Citizens Continuum as the means of measuring student development, researchers have identified a rubric to assess students’ notions of service before, during, and after their international service experience. This information has been further examined using the individual component of the Social Change Model to assess student leadership development from the perspective of a theoretical framework.

The poster will outline curricular models that universities seeking to develop leadership studies curricula using service-learning as the pedagogical framework might use. Additional findings of this study speak to the critical nature of applied learning pedagogies, like service-learning, as they intersect with the construction of leadership curriculum. Finally, the data will inform the intersection of the Social Change Model with the Active Citizen Continuum.

Break Away. (2012). //Active citizen continuum//. Retrieved from http://www.alternativebreaks2012.org/philosophy/
 * References**

Komives, S. R., Lucas, N., & McMahon, T. R. (2007). //Exploring leadership: For college students who want to make a difference//. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.


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