Required Reading for Transformational Leaders

Chapter 5 addresses the paradigm of transformational lead­ership, which has brought crucial concepts like ethics, social change, and empowerment into the leader­ship lexicon. The authors illustrate these concepts through the story of LeShaun, a student-affairs profes­sional who leads a service-learning program. The program’s community partners, who are people of color, request payment for their work and more input into the curriculum. Notably, the students are predomi­nantly white. This contrast helps LeShaun understand the importance of fostering greater reciprocity in service-learning relationships, and he collaborates with the staff and faculty to develop a new vision for the program based on a reciprocal model. However, the vice president of student affairs notes that there is no budget to support this initiative, creating a barrier for LeShaun. The authors emphasize that leadership should be both transformational and humane. This vision calls for leadership to be more experimen­tal—challenging and disrupting existing systems, encouraging diverse viewpoints, and reducing hierarchical structures.

In chapters 6 and 7, the authors explore “cognitive leadership perspectives” and “chaos and com­plexity leadership perspectives,” offering guidance for current and aspiring higher education lead­ers. They emphasize that leaders interested in advancing equity must engage in structured reflection and dialogue to confront and address their cognitive biases, which influence their decisions and inter­actions. As an example, in chapter 6, they discuss a search to replace the president of the pseudonymous Green Valley State College, who had resigned after twelve years of service. The board of trustees collaborated with a search firm to identify two finalists for the position. The first candidate was a white male, Mark Simon, who had a business background and twelve years of experience as a state senator. The second candidate was Linda Martinez, a Latina woman who had advanced through the aca­demic ranks and served as a provost at a historically Black institution. The board ultimately selected the white male, leading the only Black woman trustee to resign in protest, citing objections to the race and gender biases used in evaluating the candidates’ leadership experience and style. The authors describe this as a leadership selection contro­versy, noting that a cultural shift in understandings of leadership is essential to foster transformative learning experiences. They advo­cate for leaders to challenge and dismantle institutional hierarchies that often hinder the public-good mission of higher education and argue that leaders must embrace an abolitionist, anti-neoliberal, and anti–white supremacist mindset to effectively navigate and transform oppressive systems.

In chapters 8 and 9, the authors discuss the importance of leadership styles in higher education. In chapter 8, they explain the influence of fac­tors like history, identity, and culture on leadership: Cisgender women often lead in a more collaborative and relationship-focused way, emphasizing teamwork and mutual support, while racialized minorities also have leadership styles shaped by their specific experiences. For example, the authors discuss how Linda Martinez, one of the candi­dates for the presidency of Green Valley State College, highlighted in her interview her involvement with a public health institute while serving as provost of a historically Black college. The curriculum of the public health institute—informed by the principles of applied criti­cal leadership—helped Martinez to “recognize the ways her race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic class, immigration status, and other salient social identities have shaped her leadership experiences and approach to facilitating change.” She shifted from a hierarchical model and decentralized decision-making to a style emphasizing collaboration, open communica­tion, and consensus-based decisions. The authors note that this approach holds promise for contesting and dismantling the twin ideologies of neoliberalism and white supremacy.

Chapter 9 shifts to processual leadership, which focuses on how leadership is a shared process that changes over time based on the situation. The authors point out that processual leadership research shifts the focus from individual, hierarchical leadership to collective engagement that depends on context and evolves over time. They offer two critiques: first, the need for a deeper consideration of power and oppression within leadership processes and, second, the method­ological challenges in studying these complex processes. They argue that leadership is influenced by individuals’ commitment to various systems, structures, and ide­ologies, and processual leadership should reflect this reality. Addi­tionally, they highlight obstacles such as navigating administrative barriers and the need for extended fieldwork, which complicate the study of leadership in real time. Therefore, the authors recommend that researchers ensure that they have sufficient time and financial resources to conduct studies of leadership processes as required by processual leadership theory. In chapter 10, the authors offer recommendations for the future of leadership practices and research. They point out that, although more scholars are pushing for leader­ship research to adopt critical and postmodern perspectives, progress has been slow in the movement away from neoliberal and white supremacist assumptions in higher education leadership studies. They suggest several important principles for leadership, such as prioritiz­ing people over profit, focusing on equity, and centering liberation, social justice, and humanization. The authors also highlight the significance of transformational, cognitive, and cultural leadership and introduce new leadership theo­ries. They conclude by arguing that the direction of leadership in higher education can change through critical self-reflection and ongoing examination of current practices.

This book should be required reading for higher education schol­ars, practitioners, and institutional leaders who want transformational change in higher education. It is for everyone who is ready to push back against the status quo and elevate equity-driven and socially just perspectives. Amid increas­ingly tumultuous times in higher education, every postsecondary educator should apply some of these much-needed leadership principles in order to demonstrate outright commitment to students at the margins.

Arsene Frederic Jr. is a doctoral student in his fourth year of the Higher Education Leadership and Policy Studies PhD program at Howard University’s School of Education. His email address is [email protected]. Jorge Burmicky is assistant professor of higher education leadership and policy studies at Howard University. His email address is [email protected].