Transformational Leaning in Student Clubs: Opportunities for Underserved-Populations to Develop Leadership Experience and Gain Cross-Cultural Soft Skills
Conference Thread
Expanding Transformative Learning Contexts
Past research has shown a great deal of learning takes place outside of the traditional classroom space. Student clubs are one such area where these interactions take place. These spaces traditionally serve students who share common interests or identities. Unfortunately, these campus organizations operate in silos, meaning they rarely interact with other student clubs and diverse others. This is especially true in clubs and organizations aimed at underserved-population students. Yet, the extant literature demonstrates students significantly benefit from joint, cross-cultural exchanges. Unfortunately, discussions about cultural sensitivity and communication competence, well-known hallmarks of leadership, are often lacking in the traditional classroom.
This program hopes to demonstrate how working with other campus clubs can rectify this problem.
Our session will begin with a brief explanation of Relational Leadership Theory (Uhl-Bien, 2006) in order to provide a theoretical foundation for our discussion. This will be followed with an interactive session where participants are encouraged to create meaningful programs with other campus organizations to improve leadership skills and increase cross-cultural communication.