Teaching leadership as exploring sacred space

Abstract

This paper explores the sacred space of teaching and learning by examining a five‐year personal inquiry into the study and practice of teaching leadership. The research described exposes the value of engaging in action inquiry as a heuristic in the ongoing process of teaching and learning about leadership. The writing reflects five years of work and explains a parallel process that describes students’ learning and the author’s own learning and development as a teacher, scholar, and university leader as a result of working together in experiential undergraduate leadership classes. The data used for this research included student interviews, journals, and reflective papers as well as personal insights gained through my own journaling and reflection throughout the five‐year period. Real action inquiry requires a disciplined reflective capacity, and it is one way for students and teachers to transform themselves and their organizations.

Keywords:

• teaching leadership
• action inquiry
• undergraduate teaching and learning
• action research
• case‐in‐point pedagogy
• group relations