Learning to Lead

In this chapter we argue that we can teach leadership using a pedagogy of practice. We can teach leadership by practicing leadership, aligning the content of what we teach with the way in which we teach it. We describe principles of this pedagogy, share a curricular framework, and cite examples drawn from a diversity of contexts in classrooms, workshops, campaigns, and organizations. We understand leadership as a practice of accepting responsibility for enabling others to achieve shared purpose under conditions of uncertainty. As teachers we create conditions of uncertainty by requiring our students to accept responsibility for leading a project rooted in their values, intended to achieve a specific goal within a specified time and that requires the collaboration of others. We “enable” them to achieve purpose in this context by providing behavioral, conceptual, and emotional scaffolding combined with critical reflection and cross-contextual learning. Just as a result of effective leadership can be the cascading development of more leadership, our pedagogy generates teaching capacity among our students—an approach that we suggest will equip us to meet the challenges of an uncertain, fragmented world in a more sustainable, interdependent way.