In this blog series we focus on discussions of leadership learning and development for improving the dialogic conditions of democracy. Put plainly, we will talk about how we talk and how our everyday interactions help us assign meaning to leadership activity necessary in a democracy. How does our practice of dialogue, listening, writing, retweeting, and communicating about ideas, values, and beliefs within our democracy shape our expectations for leadership activity? What does this have to do with how we teach, learn, and practice leadership in a democracy that aspires toward a common good?
While planned prior to the insurgence at the U.S. Capitol, the first piece in this series highlights the mob assault on the peaceful transition of government power, a hallmark of U.S. democracy.
This series will consider the role leadership learning, development and practice has in advancing democracy and responding to the growing threat of ethnonationalist authoritarianism.
Associate Professor of Civic Leadership for the Staley School of Leadership Studies, Brandon W. Kliewer, Ph.D., opens the series by providing the framework for the topic.
On Jan. 6, 2021, alt-right ethnonationalists coordinated an insurrection in Washington, D.C. The mob broke into the U.S. Capitol building and temporarily prevented a joint session of the U.S. Congress from fulfilling their Constitutionally-mandated duty of certifying the Electoral College.
President Myers and Provost Taber addressed the K-State community in response to the insurrection. The message reminded the K-State community that peaceful transitions of power are a hallmark of democracy. And, any effort to undermine the legitimacy of our institutions and principles associated with our democratic republic through violence and subversion should be condemned.
The five freedoms in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: Freedom of speech, religion (freedom of thought), press, peaceful assembly, and the right to petition government for redress of grievances, are not only enumerated in the U.S. Constitution, but also tell citizens something about the cycle of civic leadership activity expected within systems, organizations and institutions of our democratic republic. President Myers and Provost Taber ended their response with a call on each of us to bring “…calm leadership to a country that needs a thoughtful response to these events.”
See Message from President Myers and Provost Tabor on violence at Capitol.
To produce civic-minded graduates, institutions of higher education can prioritize the leadership learning and development focus areas below. With the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and ongoing threat of ethnonationalist authoritarianism across the United States, institutions of higher education must grapple with our role in producing civic-minded gradates now more than ever. Over the spring 2021 semester, we will share content through this blog and our social media accounts to help people teach, learn, develop and exercise leadership in ways that affirm our commitment to democracy and institutions essential to our constitutional republic.
Content and posts in this series will be organized within the following categories:
- Deepening our understanding of democracy and the common good
Developing an understanding of systems, structures, and institutional arrangements that support the practice of democracy must be an element of leadership learning and development. - Defining and practicing small “d” democratic teaching and learning
Higher education should define processes and develop teaching methods that acknowledge authoritarian, anti-democracy ethnonationalism and design leadership learning and development experiences that can respond to them using small “d” democratic practices. - Rooting leadership practice in media literacy and group, system, and institutional dynamics
Leadership education must include media literacy and political argumentation that prepares learners to avoid basic logical fallacies, to develop and offer reasons for their public positions, and to evaluate the rationale offered by others.
This work is essential to preparing learning for leadership activity in a democracy. The series, written by Staley School team members and guest writers, will continue to explore leadership in democracy.
