How do we begin to assess the reciprocal impacts—or lack thereof—of community service on individuals and communities? Community engagement initiatives are increasingly valued as powerful educational tools and vehicles for social change. Yet, the task of measuring their outcomes remains complex. This article outlines core considerations in assessing community service initiatives. This includes the introduction of practical frameworks and core considerations for evaluating impact, and emphasizes the role of storytelling in conveying outcomes to diverse stakeholders. Through integrating assessment and narrative, practitioners can foster both accountability and deeper connection to the values of service, learning, and community development.

Student research teams can serve as powerful learning and engagement experiences for undergraduate leadership learners. This chapter defines the essential components of student research teams and the benefits of scholarly engagement to student learning and leadership. Studies examining the outcomes of undergraduate engagement in research teams and their effects on leadership learning are reviewed. This chapter concludes with a call for more inclusion of student scholars in leadership research efforts and suggests resources to support these efforts.

This chapter takes a big-picture overview of some of theories related to women and leadership. Messages about socially acceptable ways to enact gender begin before birth, accelerate throughout childhood and young adulthood, and are shaped by lessons learned from the media, education, and other systemic forces. Readers are encouraged to challenge patriarchal and misogynistic beliefs about leadership and gender; to not conflate sex and gender; to embrace complexity when it comes to both gender and leadership; and to engage in personal, institutional, and community transformation. This chapter explores the history and context around women and leadership theories, defines these approaches, and concludes with strengths and opportunities.

Identity exploration is a pivotal component in shaping effective student leadership trainers. This article examines identity exploration in student leadership training, highlighting the role of self-awareness, reflection on positionality, and the intricate interplay of power and privilege within identity development. By delving into the nuances of identity, trainers can not only enhance their own understanding but also foster inclusive and empowering environments for emerging student leaders. We conclude with examples of programmatic and assessment praxis.

Activism inherently involves emotional engagement, often stemming from personal experiences, connections to the issue, or fuelled by emotions like anger, frustration, and a drive for positive social change. This article builds upon Hochschild's concept of emotional labour, expanding its scope to encompass the emotional dimensions of activism among college students. We delve into the lived experiences of 67 college student activists in the mid-Atlantic region of the USA, uncovering the emotional impetuses driving their activism, the challenges of activist burnout resulting from their emotional labour, and the strategies employed to navigate its emotional toll. By analysing the emotional narratives shared by these student activists, this article seeks to contribute to the understanding of academics and practitioners by constructing a comprehensive framework that illuminates how emotions affect their activism toward effecting transformative social change.

Leadership knowledge is viewed as an essential aspect of overall leadership learning, yet questions abound as to who decides what forms of knowledge are recognized as legitimate. This article reviews existing frames of leadership knowledge along with prior attempts to codify leadership knowledge. We then examine the function of leadership knowledge within the leadership learning framework (LLF) and explore how it connects to and illuminates other facets of the LLF model. Finally, critical questions are asked about the future evolution of leadership knowledge and the roles of context, culture, and complexity in decolonizing leadership knowledge.

The article summarizes a conversation with early career scholars who utilize the LID theory and model in their scholarship and practice. Authors offer thoughts as to which aspects of leader and leadership identity development remain most useful to leadership education and development, as well as ways this body of scholarship might also be incomplete and insufficient. They reflect on how leader and leadership identity development theorizing is related to identity, equity, and power. The article concludes with ideas about how the scholarship and practice of leadership identity development may evolve in the future for deeper leadership identity development.

After decrying the lack of attention paid to identity, equity, and power in leadership education, this article delineates key concepts such as identity, identity development, and leader/leadership identity development. It explores areas of concordance and distinction across leader and leadership identity development models and suggests increasing convergence across these bodies of scholarship and adding criticality for deeper leadership identity development.

The concluding chapter names some of the forces that reify colonization, dominion, and oppression which limit leadership scholarship to a scholarship of reproduction and harm. Next, it emphasizes scholarly practices that move the field to more liberatory approaches to leadership learning and development, including examples of Indigenous approaches to research that embrace reflexivity and multivocality. Scholars are cautioned not to appropriate these methods without due consideration of context and community. Readers are reminded that is not enough merely to deconstruct everything that came before; we must also find paths forward. Courage, caring, and creativity are now essential competencies for rethinking leadership.