Abstract
This study sought to explore first-year college student perceptions related to when they first became aware of leadership and perceived influences on leadership. The study was rooted in the Leadership Identity Development Model (Komives, Owen, Longerbeam, Mainella, & Osteen, 2005). Five purposively selected individuals completing the first semester of a formal leadership program for first-year students participated in this study. Content analysis of qualitative interviews revealed two themes related to leadership awareness: pre-college and positional versus non-positional roles; four themes related to perceived leadership influences: external role models, internal beliefs, previous experience, and types of leadership/leadership philosophy. This research supports the importance of both internal and external factors in developing an understanding of what leadership is by first-year college students.
Citation
Shehane, M.R., Sturtevant, K.A., Moore, L.L. and Dooley, K.E. (2012), "First-Year Student Perceptions Related to Leadership Awareness and Influences", Journal of Leadership Education, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 140-156. https://doi.org/10.12806/V11/I1/RF8
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2012, The Journal of Leadership Education
License
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/