Jodean Schmiederer

Schmiederer, J. K. (2018). Threshold concepts in relational leadership and leadership identity development (Publication No. 10837855) [Doctoral dissertation, University of North Carolina at Greensboro]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

Threshold concepts are new understandings within a discipline that create a significant shift in awareness.  They are transformative, troublesome, irreversible, integrative, and bounded.  Grasping a threshold concept leads to an epistemological shift and students move into a deeper understanding of a specific subject.  It also results in an ontological shift as students come to personally identify with the discipline.  Within the Leadership Identity Development model of leadership studies, a key transition occurs when students start to see leadership as a relational process rather than a position of power or authority.  The literature is ripe with studies exploring the experiences that lead to this new understanding. While this knowledge is useful for leadership educators there is a gap in the research identifying the more complex concepts that students struggle with along their journey.  This study explored the specific concepts that students themselves identified as transformational in their understanding of leadership and their subsequent identification as a relational leader.  The phenomenological study utilized student interviews and reflections to explore the threshold concepts within leadership development that moved them along the path.