No abstract

This research investigated the female adolescent view of leadership by giving voice to student leaders through focus group discussions. The questions: What is leadership? Where/how was leadership taught?, and How was leadership practised? were explored within the context of girls' schools located in Australia, with one school located in South Africa. The findings of this research indicated that girls not only had an understanding of leadership, they also actively performed it. Students viewed leadership as the active process of working with others in a positive way. Leadership was mostly taught through specific programmes and activities and practised both formally and informally by students. It was also acknowledged that leadership was often learnt through experience. Further exploration of this concept is needed in order to ascertain the ways in which these understandings of leadership can be better utilized in order to develop the leadership potential of girls when they enter adulthood.

In this article, I explore the concepts of mentoring and role modeling with regard to developing student leaders within the girls' school context. The foundation for this discussion lies in two qualitative studies involving staff and students from girls' schools located in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Both survey and focus groups were used as methods of data collection. Mentoring and role modeling in school settings is reported in this study as taking place in two different forms: student/student and staff/student. This research identified the multidimensional nature of these relationships with regard to female school staff who then became role models for female students. Ultimately, mentoring and role modeling may help female students in developing the knowledge and skills required for leadership as well as assisting in an understanding of gender barriers in relation to leadership roles.

No abstract

No abstract