Course Overview

Learning to Lead is, as the title notes, a “collaborative syllabus” for and by leaders. The Course Overview occupies the space that might typically be taken by an “introduction” in a more typical collection. Here, though, it previews the nature of the learning that the author-editors hope will be fostered by the collection… learning, in fact, about how leaders have learned to lead. The Course Overview establishes this focus on learning to lead by identifying two critical emphases in each chapter: what chapter authors have learned, and how they learned what they did and put that learning into practice. Emphases on what and how are connected in the Course Overview to metacognition, which itself is connected to aims for readers (students): enhancing metacognitive awareness; defining and refining professional principles; exploring and developing leadership identities; contextualizing and adapting (or “transferring”) knowledge; and formulating individual learning aims. Each of these are associated with defining and enacting theories of leadership and institutional change that are crucial for leaders. The course overview then previews chapters and structure of the book: Part 1, where contributors focus on learning from experience; and part 2, where contributors focus on theorizing practice and practicing theory. The course overview also previews the Playbook that accompanies the collection.