First-Generation College Students: Personal Best Leadership Experiences and Intramural Sports Participation

The phenomenon of interest in this exploratory case study was the self-reported leadership skills of first-generation college students who were actively participating in intramural sports. Specifically, the purpose was to describe participants' reports of engaging in behaviors or actions, during intramural sports, that are aligned with the leadership practices described by Kouzes and Posner (2014). Kouzes and Posner's (2014) "Student Leadership Challenge: Five Practices for Becoming an Exemplary Leader" served as the lens for this investigation. Kouzes and Posner (2014) identified Five Practices of exemplary leaders: (a) Model the Way, (b) Inspire a Shared Vision, (c) Challenge the Process, (d) Enable Others to Act, and (e) Encourage the Heart. Practices, as defined by these authors, are behaviors and actions that are developable and available to anyone who wants to take on the challenge of leading. The participants in this study included 12 first-generation college students who were actively participating in intramural sports at a public four-year institution in the Northeast United States. Students who volunteered to participate in the study completed a paper and pencil version of the Student Leadership Practices Inventory (S-LPI; Kouzes & Posner, 2013). Each student also submitted a research-driven photograph and participated in a semi-structured interview focused on his or her personal-best leadership experiences related to intramural sports participation. The data were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative procedures. This generated 47 notable findings related to the self-reported leadership skills of first-generation college students who were actively participating in intramural sports. Conclusions were drawn and recommendations for practice and future research are presented. Overall, findings from the survey, photographs, and interviews revealed that students most often reported engaging in leadership behaviors or actions related to Enable Others to Act followed by Encourage the Heart, Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, and then Challenge the Process. Additionally, students explained that they acquired the leadership skills they described during the interviews by being nurtured early on by family members, participating in sports and recreation, and work and school experiences. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]