Emergent teaching movements in leadership development: Group relations, case-in-point, and intentional emergence.

In a post-pandemic context, the need for leadership students to navigate ambiguous conditions and examine their automatic responses to authority has increased. Yet, common approaches to teaching leadership, such as group discussions and simulations, overlook the potential for using development spaces as living laboratories. This article explores three emergent-based pedagogies (group relations, case-in-point, and intentional emergence) that de-center the instructor, prioritize co-creation and emergence, and provide living laboratories for students to examine their assumptions and default behaviors related to leadership.

The classroom as laboratory: A theoretical grounding of the intentional emergence framework for leadership development.

Leadership development, like other professional areas such as medicine, teaching, and law, requires students to become as adept at practicing leadership as they are at understanding the theory behind it. For example, K-12 teachers have student teaching, medical students have residencies, cadavers, and virtual reality-but where is the learning laboratory for leadership? The intentional emergence (IE) pedagogy provides a framework for instructors and learners that both honors the role of the instructor as a goal/outcome-setter while also embracing the complexities of the leadership development space as a living laboratory and practice field for leadership. Additionally, IE attempts to bring unconscious and default behaviors to the foreground so that critical components of leadership development such as power, privilege, and identities can be seen and included.

Cautions and limitations of emergent pedagogies in leadership development.

While emergent pedagogies offer potentially high impact, the risks in using such pedagogies can be significant when not handled carefully. This article explores the cautions and limitations of emergent-based pedagogies such as case-in-point, intentional emergence, and group relations. Leadership educators who use emergent-based approaches need to be well-versed in how to hold the heat in the classroom, even when the heat may be directed at them. The learning and impact from the pedagogy may sometimes take months or even years to be felt. As such, considerations like administration buy-in are necessary in addition to the adequate development of the facilitator. This article explores resources to develop educators in their use of emergent pedagogies, including hallmark readings and trainings that are available to those interested in learning more.

Compassionate noticing and stopping the action: Bringing intentionally emergent teaching into leadership education.

Emergent-based practices of leadership development (such as intentional emergence (IE), case-in-point, or group relations) rely a great deal on stopping the action in order to publicly notice group behaviors and patterns and connect what is happening authentically to conscious actions and ideas (such as course content, readings, theories, etc.). However, when a facilitator or participant practices stopping the action and calling out these behaviors, there is a danger that they will go beyond productive tension into a level that causes casualties. This article explores the foundational need for compassion and purpose when using the common tools of heat and noticing in intentionally emergent spaces.

Addressing the unique needs of graduate and professional student leadership identity online, in-person, and through turbulent times.

From differences in brain development to balancing complex roles, the needs of graduate students significantly differ from undergraduates and yet often go unacknowledged. In this article, I explore how these differences can be taken into account when supporting graduate student leadership identity during turbulent times and beyond through in-person and online leadership development programs.