The Social Change Model as Pedagogy: Examining Undergraduate Leadership Growth

Understanding whether leadership can be learned is important as many colleges and universities attempt to develop future leaders through a variety of programmatic efforts. Historic leadership research argues leadership is an innate skill. While contemporary leadership research tends to argue that leadership can be learned. The purpose of this paper is to examine student leadership skill development during a leadership course at a regional, mid-western university. This project explored the effects on undergraduate students after a 16-week, for-credit academic course based on the Social Change Model of Leadership (SCM). This project was completed using a quasi-experimental design between two non-equivalent groups. Participants completed the Socially Responsible Leadership Scale as a pre/post-test. The findings suggested that student SCM skill-based knowledge did improve compared to students who did not receive the intervention and subsequently that post-industrial leadership skills associated with the SCM can be learned in a structured, academic course.