A study of the change experienced by participants of the Leaders' Project Workshop.

Abstract

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256 p.

This study used techniques of grounded theory methodology to describe the change experienced by former Leaders' Project Workshop participants and reviewed component factors identified in their workshop experience which seemed to contribute to that change. The descriptions and component factors were then used in the study to name the change experienced.The Leaders' Project Workshop, a week-long training program for women in community colleges who aspire to upper-level administrative ranks, is sponsored by the National Institute for Leadership Development, the American Association of Women in Community and Junior Colleges, the League for Innovation in the Community College, and the Maricopa Community College district in Phoenix, Arizona. Currently four Leaders' Project Workshops are held each year with approximately 40 participants in each. Since its beginning in 1981, over 750 women have participated in the workshops.Using interview data from 15 participants from three different workshops, this study concluded that the workshops helped participants to recognize their own abilities, to feel validated for their accomplishments, and to be able to evaluate realistically their career choices for the future. From the data, aspects of the workshop which seemed to contribute most to making this change occur were identified. These are, in descending order of importance, the observations of the leadership styles of others, the sense of kinship and sisterhood experienced in the all-female workshop, the cognitive awareness gained from the presentations, and the retreat atmosphere of the workshop. The change the workshop participants experienced was named "professional self-definition."This study was undertaken to assist adult educators and other workshop planners identify contributing factors of a successful workshop with the aim of replicating those factors with other workshop groups.