Mobilizing Critical Perspectives on Leadership - Narratives of Early-Career Professionals’ Self-Efficacy in Translating Leadership Theory to Practice

Oct 15, 2026

Given calls to integrate critical perspectives in leadership education, this paper reports findings from a narrative inquiry study examining how efficacious early-career professionals translate these concepts into practice. Centered on nine practitioners after participation in CSP 786, a graduate leadership course informed by equity, the study identifies barriers within institutional contexts, work within spheres of influence, reactions to feedback when enacting theory, and power reflection through social identities. Practice implications follow.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time35 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Purpose and Research Questions

Literature Review

MOBILIZING CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON LEADERSHIP: NARRATIVES OF EARLY-CAREER PROFESSIONALS’ SELF-EFFICACY IN TRANSLATING LEADERSHIP THEORY TO PRACTICE Antonio Duran Adrian L. Bitton Florida International University The Ohio State University Amy C. Barnes The Ohio State University Abstract Given calls to integrate critical perspectives in leadership education, this paper presents the findings from a study conducted to see how efficacious early-career professionals are in translating these concepts into their practice. Guided by narrative inquiry, we centered the stories of nine practitioners after they participated in CSP 786, a graduate program leadership course informed by an attention to equity. Findings included: experiencing barriers within institutional contexts, working within spheres of influence, reacting to feedback when actualizing theory, and reflecting on power via social identities. Implications for practice are then offered. Keywords: leadership education, self-efficacy, critical, early-career professionals, graduate preparation Please direct inquires about this manuscript to: Antonio Duran, [antonio.alberto.duran@gmail.com](antonio.alberto.duran@gmail.com) College Student Affairs Journal, Volume 40(2), pp. 33-46 ISSN 2381-2338 Copyright 2022 Southern Association for College Student Affairs All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. 34 College Student Affairs Journal Vol. 40, No. 2, 2022 programs, to more recently, applying critical perspectives to leadership (Boyd et al., 2019) . Hopefully, this newer pedagogical approach that centers deconstruction and critique as learning outcomesin leadership education will prepare professionals for creating just leadership spaces for students. Seeing the need to further comprehend how students apply learning from their leadership education courses, the purpose of this study was to understand how HESA professionals described their efficacy in implementing critical perspectives to their practice after learning this knowledge in a graduate leadership course. Since the use of critical perspectives is a newer approach in teaching about leadership education, this study has significance for faculty in higher education who are considering incorporating this critical lens. Using leader self-efficacy and Reason and Kimball’s (2012) theory-to-practice model as a framework, we learned how efficacious early-career professionals felt to translate critical understandings of leadership in their work. The guiding research questions were: 1. How do practitioners who took a leadership education graduate course focused on critical perspectives describe their efficacy in applying their learning to higher education contexts? 2. What contributed to early-career professionals’ efficacy when implementing critical perspectives in leadership? Literature Review The field of higher education and student affairs has notably been a space where professionals are overworked and where burnout rates are high, especially when diversity work is concerned (Anderson, 2021) . For professionals of Color, the challenges are greater as the work can “take a toll on their physical, emotional, and social well-being” (Boss & Bravo, 2021, p. 201) . The pressure to conform to unhealthy standards begins during graduate programs, where faculty, supervisors, Mobilizing Critical Perspectives on Leadership 35 and peers socialize students into the norms ofthe field (Perez, 2021) . This socialization continues into their first professional roles, where they may have little power to affect change due to hierarchies and systems of power (Dinise-Halter, 2017) . The socialization of graduate students through curriculum, professional development, and informal messaging is still highly influenced by dominant narratives (Linder et al., 2015; Perez, 2021) . Related, scholars have interrogated how educators have traditionally operationalized and taught leadership development and education (Dugan

FAQs

What does the study examine regarding leadership education and critical perspectives?

The study investigates how early-career professionals describe their efficacy in applying critical perspectives to their practice after learning them in a graduate leadership course informed by equity.

How was the study conducted?

Using narrative inquiry, the researchers centered the stories of nine practitioners after they participated in CSP 786.

What kinds of experiences did practitioners report when translating theory to practice?

Findings include experiencing barriers within institutional contexts, working within spheres of influence, reacting to feedback when actualizing theory, and reflecting on power through social identities.

Oct 15, 2026

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