Teaching leadership and teaching leaders.

A Chinese philosopher, whom I paraphrase, stated that a leader is one who knows the self, knows the other, knows the task and knows the situation. In this second AEQ issue of Teaching Leadership and Teaching Leaders, we share with the reader essays that deal with these four areas of leadership knowledge. As the authors come to the knowing of self, other, task and situation from various frameworks, and cross boundaries of leadership knowledge, we hope the reader enjoys the essays on teaching leaders and leadership contained herein.

Understanding the self is an important aspect of teaching leaders and developing a reflective approach to leadership. Pennington explores the theoretical and philosophical foundations of an authentic collegiate leadership development course and shares recommendations for those who want to implement a personal leadership development course on their campus. While Bon, Gerrick, Sullivan, and Shea describe their use of the case study method as a pedagogical approach to encourage and support dialogue and reflection on the role of values and ethics in educational leadership, Stader helps the reader understand how to develop morally competent school leaders using Habermas' discourse ethics as a framework for reframing ill-structured problems. Teaching leadership to individuals not yet identifying as leaders, according to Middlebrooks, requires a conceptual framework that provides opportunities for explicit lessons, implicitly emulates the processes of leadership, and facilitates students' engagement in constructing a coherent understanding of leadership. Middlebrooks provides an example of a creative problem-solving process as an effective pathway to engaging leadership. Additionally, Peckover, Peterson, Christiansen, and Covert report from their research on a professional development program their discovery that transformations in teacher thinking, problem solving and professional identity are aided by the structuring of long-range constructivist professional development practices.

Deal, Garger and Jacques examine the effects of leader/follower gender and how gender similarities and differences impact ratings of leader behavior. Interestingly, they discovered that female professors were rated higher in transformational leadership than were male professors who, in turn, were consistently rated higher on transactional leadership. In order to develop leaders engaged in active citizen democracy, Johnson, Kidd, O'Brien, and Shields utilize a model of applied political and civic leadership education based both in theory and practice, and discovered that students became more confident of their ability to become involved in political and community life after participating in their program. Brazer and Ross engage the reader with a case about teachers' perceptions of the hierarchical or collaborative nature of decision making and how this perception is related to their beliefs about who has influence over decision making and the implications for educational leaders.

When confronting the tasks of leadership, Cooner, whose purpose is to address the thinking that underlies the exercise of leadership, uses critical incident technique to explore themes in the principal internship and demonstrates the difficult, complicated and chaotic role of the school principal. Bostock, on the other hand, argues the case for a Problem-Based Learning (P-BL) approach to the learning and teaching of Leadership by sharing the problems confronting two very different leaders, Mordechai Rumkowski and Josephine Baker, providing examples from P-BL and leadership theory.

Finally, with respect to knowledge of and in various situations, several authors attempt to cross the boundaries of theory and practice. Barbour shares strategies and rationale for using film as a pedagogical technique to help students understand organizational theories and applications of those theories to the complex nature of leading in organizational settings. Within organizational departments and divisions, Rogers, Roberts and Cowan suggest that collaboration across professional orientations can result in a shared framework of insights that intersect theory and practice, enhancing both student learning and faculty development. Furthermore, Wamba argues that educators who incorporate action research in school leadership programs can narrow the theory-practice gap by involving students in solving real workplace-based problems.

We hope that by sharing these intriguing glimpses of research, reflections on leadership practice and teaching practice, and creative teaching ideas that the reader will come away with a variety of understandings of how to teach leadership and leaders. More significantly, however, it is the desire of this editor that teachers of leaders are also leaders in our fields, leaders who know ourselves, know the others (those with whom we work, lead, and teach), know our task, and know our situation.

JoAnn Danelo Barbour, Ph.D.

Professor of Educational Leadership, Texas Woman's University