The competencies of leadership of senior students in Madeira Island (Portugal)

• Author(s): Bento, António ; Ribeiro, Maria Isabel
• Date: 2011
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10198/5960
• Origin: Biblioteca Digital do IPB
• Subject(s): Leadership; Leadership styles; Students of secondary education; Autonomous Region of Madeira; Portugal; Liderança; Estilos de liderança; Estudantes do ensino secundário; Região Autónoma da Madeira; Liderazgo
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

Students of secondary education develop during their schooling path diverse leadership abilities. In fact, the area of investigational study has attracted little attention on the part of Portuguese researchers. The conceptual foundation for this research study was based on the theoretical model of multiple intelligences developed by Howard Gardner. The main objectives of the study were to analyze a) the characteristics of leadership of students of secondary education in two schools (one urban and another rural) of the Autonomous Region of Madeira (Portugal) and, b) to determine the existing differences concerning the type of school and the gender of the students in eight distinct domains: 1) self management; 2) interpersonal relations; 3) problem solving/decision making; 4) cognitive development/critical analysis; 5) organization and planning; 6) self-confidence; 7) diversity awareness; and, 8) technology. It was used, to collect the data, the Student Leadership Outcomes Inventory (SLOI) (Vann, 2004) an instrument with 60 items which was constructed to measure the results of the experiences of leadership of the students in eight distinct areas. There were found several differences although not significant. Therefore and, in general, we can state that secondary students at Madeira Island finish their school studies and arrive to the University or at the job market with diverse well developed leadership characteristics.