Developing Leadership Skills in Students with Mild Disabilities

Student Leadership Development: A Functional Framework

“…Insights gleaned from recent research have indicated that student leadership is a topic worthy of investigation (Appleton, 2002;Archard, 2009;McNae, 2011), that the provision of leadership opportunities is vital to the promotion of student leadership (Appleton, 2002;Hawkes, 1999;Lavery, 2006;Lavery & Neidhart, 2003;Lineburg & Gearheart, 2008), and that much is to be learned from future research efforts (Neumann, Dempster, & Skinner, 2009). Practitioners and researchers alike have heralded many benefits of student leadership initiatives within middle and secondary schools (Fertman & van Linden, 1999;Karnes & Stephens, 1999;Myers, 2005), and more specifically, within special-ized programs for gifted and talented children (Milligan, 2004;Parker, 1983), and those children with special educational needs (Imada, Doyle, Brock, & Goddard, 2002;Milligan, 2004). Importantly, attention has also focused on factors that hinder the successful promotion, implementation, and maintenance of student leadership programs (Freeborn, 2000;Johnson, 2005;Karnes & Stephens, 1999;Willmett, 1997).…”