Kansas State University

In this special blog series, Leadership Communication doctoral student Jurdene Coleman considers how academic frameworks, research agendas, and the associated leadership studies literature contributes understanding and support to the exercise of leadership during the COVID-19 outbreak locally.

COVID-19 is presenting our nation with countless adaptive challenges; public education is no exception. Adaptive challenges differ from technical problems in many ways. First a technical problem, while it may be complex, has an identifiable solution. An example in public education might be choosing which math curriculum to implement. Next, technical problems can be solved by an entity with the right expertise and using a known process for problem solving. If we keep with the curriculum adoption example, we typically have teachers volunteer to use one of several curricula and give feedback to administrators who then bring the final recommendation to the school board. Adaptive challenges on the other hand, can only be addressed through changes in people’s priorities, beliefs, habits, and loyalties (Heifetz , Grashaw & Linskey, 2009). Adaptive challenges require an organization to go beyond any authoritative expertise to mobilize discovery, shed certain entrenched ways, tolerating losses and generating the new capacity to thrive anew (p. 19). The new adaptive challenge is what does education in USD 383 school district look like without our classrooms and school buildings?  

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In this special blog series, Leadership Communication doctoral student R.J. Youngblood considers how academic frameworks, research agendas, and the associated leadership studies literature contributes understanding and support to the exercise of leadership during the COVID-19 outbreak locally.

Our connection to space is intimately contested, negotiated, and resisted.

This connection serves to shape our understanding of self in relation to both material and conceptualized notions of space and allows us to build relationships as a result of a connection to shared purpose. We can understand exercises of leadership as deeply connected to both the physical spaces that we interact with and the conceptual spaces we create in conversation and interaction with others.

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In this special blog series, Staley School of Leadership Studies graduate teaching assistant Mafule Moswane considers how our academic framework, research agenda, and the associated leadership studies literature contributes understanding and support the exercise of leadership during the COVID-19 outbreak locally.  

The role of 21st century farmers in South Africa: a case of Kgabo Moja and Mothupi Kgopa

On March 5, 2020, I visited Mary Kay Siefers’ Global Food Systems Leadership class to share about the role of 21st century farmers in South Africa. My purpose was to share my perspective about the role of farmers in South Africa who are currently involved in farming in the post-apartheid South Africa, and are leveraging 21st century technology to advance their work and mobilize others. In the conversation which I characterized as an unfolding story, I gave a juxtaposition of my story and the stories of Kgabo Moja and Mothupi Kgopa.

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