Running head: LEADERSHIP PRACTICE ARTICLE CRITIQUE

Leadership Practice Article Critique

Tyler Sanders
Western Michigan University
EDLD 6020-Educational Leadership, Systems, and Change

LEADERSHIP PRACTICE ARTICLE CRITIQUE

Leadership Practice Article Critique

With an ever evolving society, college students growth and develop is effected by various
parts of their identity. In Sean Gehrkes Leadership through Meaning-Making: An Empirical
Exploration of Spirituality and Leadership in College Students, the author takes a look at the
correlation between leadership and spirituality with college students. Defining spirituality with
three constructs of spirituality, equanimity, and spiritual quest; this article takes a look and how
college students focus on social change in trying to understand the human experience even
through the mystical and mystery. Using a population of 449 students from a single small,
secular liberal arts institution, the study uses quantitative data analysis to describe the
relationship between the measures of leadership and spirituality. Using three emailed surveys, the
assessment compared eight leadership qualities and the three spiritual constructs.
According to the data, there are direct relationships between spirituality and leadership,
including students finding meaning of hardships or have any feeling of peace. The author goes
on to imply that is positive results prove that leadership trainings and workshops can be inclusive
of spirituality and be kit and can be intentionally worked on in the development and growth of
college students.
Article Critique
After attending the annual American College Personnel Association conference this
spring, one of the biggest discussions at the conference was the inclusion of groups that are
forgotten about or not focused on in student affairs. One of the keynote speakers discussed the
idea within the religious or spiritual identity and how often we stay away having these
conversations because we are with the fear of how unique spirituality can be. Well we focus
largely on race and sexuality; I believe that it is important for professional to remain active and

LEADERSHIP PRACTICE ARTICLE CRITIQUE

knowledgeable of diverse populations of students. In one of my first collegiate leadership

experiences was brought to a halt when my actions were observed as insensitive to a specific
religion. This experience not only helped developed my worldview, but also brought forth a
dedication to staying current on diverse populations. Going into this article I wanted to get a
sense of where we are at in the research on when it comes to leadership and spirituality.
Understanding students on a spiritual level helps to navigate some of the difficult climates and
conversations. With these beliefs, continued research is important in developing activity within
practice.
This article broadens the concept of spirituality from more of a religious view to the idea
of making meaning of the life. I believe that it is a great approach when it comes to starting the
conversation of spirituality with students and also researching the value of this concept with and
leadership. With an immense amount of spiritual beliefs, this research calls for understanding life
and discussing these topics. While the research identifies the methodology and the twenty four
quantitative results, the practice of broadening the scope also limits the analytical details. If
practitioners hope to outline learning outcomes or goals including spirituality, it would be
beneficial to see a more elaborate explanation of the twenty-four relationships that were studied
and quantified in this research.
One of my criticisms of the article discussed in the limitations and that is it focused on
one institution instead of polling a bevy of different institutions. For such a simple data
collection process, it could be believed that more institutions could have been surveyed. Also
noted it is the quantitative research that's put into this but the lack there of qualitative analysis
into the meaning making and spirituality piece on that could assist in creating a mixed method
analysis that would probably deliver more results for the implications driven from spirituality.

LEADERSHIP PRACTICE ARTICLE CRITIQUE

Implications on Practice
Although there is minimal analysis, it is clear how important spirituality is with this
current generation. The implication is that practitioners can intentionally put spirituality into our
leadership training. I think it is something that not only hits the mark when it comes to diversity,
but also helps to make meaning of the vision and purpose that starts in these leadership positions.
Specifically looking at dealing with hardships or the unknown, to have the students be able to
talk about these very difficult questions in a teambuilding setting makes the conversation easier
in emergency situations.
In analyzing the articles presence within theory, the article states Astin and Astins (as
cited in Gehrke, 2008) belief that higher education is constructed to help student create a better
society. Astin (as cited in Gehrke, 2008) explained that spirituality contains three aspects of
spirituality and thus this research helps to enforce the discussion of spirituality in practice.
Pascarella and Terenzini (2005) concepts on the importance of student involvement for student
learning would recognize the use of spirituality within leadership development. This research
could be used as a foundation for future research to help guide how learning outcomes could be
created to help with building spiritual foundations for individuals and among teams.
As spirituality and other invisible populations become more relevant in the student
populations that student affairs is working with, it becomes even more vital that research is done
into these principals. This article does start with a foundation, but continued research is dire to
the success of student in their growth and development. Similar to how much of theory is driven
within the white, heterosexual male population, I challenge us to continue to research deeper into
theory and practice. This article justifies that religion can be broadened to discuss spirituality as a

LEADERSHIP PRACTICE ARTICLE CRITIQUE

whole. To continue to grow as a profession, practitioners must grow in their knowledge of
invisible needs.

LEADERSHIP PRACTICE ARTICLE CRITIQUE

Work Cited
Gehrke, S. J. (2008). Leadership through meaning-making: An empirical exploration of
spirituality and leadership in college students. Journal of College Student Development,
49(4), 351-359.
Pascarella, E., & Terenzina, P. (2005) How college affects students: A third decade of research.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.