Leadership Development Through Participation in Peer Education and Peer Support Programs
Abstract
A goal of leadership development is to hone a persons intrapersonal and interpersonal skills to improve leader effectiveness. The United States Naval Academy (USNA) is a four-year undergraduate institution with the aim of producing leaders. While all students at USNA experience the core leadership curriculum, students also participate in specific activities that build leadership skills. In this study, we evaluate two such programs.USNAs Sexual Harassment Assault Prevention Education (SHAPE) program and its Guidance,Understanding, Information, Direction and Education (GUIDE) program are opportunities for Midshipmen to educate (SHAPE) and support (GUIDE) their peers around issues related to interpersonal violence and harassment. While these programs focus on content-specific topics and skills, program leadership believes that they also contribute to the development of participants leader identity. In this preliminary evaluation, we examine responses to an open-ended question about perceptions of effective leadership and categorize the responses in accordance with stages of understanding leadership development. We found that within these categories, Midshipmen's understanding of leadership effectiveness varies, but certain trends exist suggesting that further research may show that over time, through individual maturation and leadership development, that participation in the SHAPE or GUIDE program improves Midshipmen's understanding of effective leadership.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2023
- Accession Number
- AD1213187
Entities
People
- Andrea M Coutoulakis
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School