Abstract
The contribution of community engagement towards shaping leadership development in students is an area that is not well explored in research. A study was conducted to establish the type of leadership skills and values that were acquired by a group of students from an established private school in Johannesburg, South Africa, while they served an underprivileged community. The private school adheres to both Round Square discoveries framework and the International Boys’ School Coalition’s character education and practices the leadership development programs that have been developed by the two organisations. This was a qualitative research study within the constructivist paradigm with a phenomenological approach. Reflection sheets were used to collect data from 120 students. The data was analysed through discourse analysis, where all recurrent terms were coded, and the codes grouped into themes which were then matched against existing literature, the Round Square discoveries framework and the International Boys’ School Coalition’s character education. The study found that community engagement experience helped refine the character of the students, affording them opportunities to develop leadership skills and values that would see them adjust well into the 21st century way of life. The study was, however, not able to determine how other learning areas and developmental fields impacted on the leadership development of the students.
Keywords
Introduction
Good schools are continually looking for ways to improve in order to distinguish themselves as leading schools. One method of improving schools is through training their students to be able to adjust better in the world of work (Adams & Cummins, 2018; Sapaprot et al., 2018; Westgarth, 2018). Developing leadership in students by exposing them to real-life situations was found to place them at an advantage when they got to the workplace. Leaderships skills were also viewed as tools that ensure that students are equipped with skills for 21st century way of life (Adams & Cummins, 2018).
One way of training students for leadership is by making them serve others through community engagement (Preece, 2016). Community engagement exposes students to societal problems and gives them a chance to play a part in finding solutions. The disparities between the poor and rich are extreme in South Africa, the country where this research took place. The apartheid regime preceded by poor governance in many government sectors are to blame for it. The present government is seeking ways to improve life in the more impoverished communities, and one way of doing so was the introduction of a white paper on education (Ministry of Education, 1997) that made ‘Community Engagement’ (CE) an additional component of what is offered by higher education, in addition to ‘Teaching and Learning’ and ‘Research’. CE is charged with promoting and developing social responsibility (Watts & Hodgson, 2019). It is responsible for creating an awareness of the issues facing communities through the offering of service, research and funding of projects aimed at improving living conditions.
CE is defined as a cluster of activities that include service-learning, problem-based teaching and research in communities (Hall, 2009). CE activities involve partnering with communities while utilising knowledge, capital and available resources to meet the development needs of a community at no capital cost. CE is classified into three sections. The first is service learning which enables students to reflect on issues facing their communities (Preece, 2016; Watts & Hodgson, 2019). The second is organised outreaches, involving specific projects that address specific needs of the community, and third is community-based research that addresses the needs of the community by seeking new knowledge, skills or products that will contribute to improving the community.
Community engagement acknowledges that learning extends beyond the classroom and brings insight into understanding and respect for diversity, achieved while seeking sustainable interventions to societal challenges. Other studies have also shown that CE teaches students to be grateful for their privileged position and opportunities. Grateful individuals were found to experience more positive emotions, were more satisfied with life, and were less likely to suffer from depression, anxiety or envy (McCullough et al., 2004). Grateful people were found to work better in social settings, displayed empathy, were forgiving and supported each other because they focused more on the greater good rather than attaining materialistic goals. Another relevance of CE as a tool for social development is that it is mutually beneficial to both the students as ‘the giver’ and to the community as ‘the recipient’. Previous engagement of students in CE have been found to continually transform and enrich them as they engage with their communities, as well as helping those whom they serve (Ayaya, 2019).
These benefits of community engagement, as illustrated by literature, became the basis for selecting CE as a tool for developing students for leadership.
Context
This research involves a collaborative partnership between two groups. The boys under study are 13-year-old grade 8 students from a well-resourced school in a higher income suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa (hereby referred to as the ‘students’). The paper looks at a partnership formed between students from this school and children from an under-resourced and marginalised community (‘the community’) that cares for orphaned and abandoned children. The community runs a preschool for the children (hereby referred to as ‘the children’) and those from the neighbouring shacks (tin houses made from recyclable material by poor communities). The 13-year-old grade 8 ‘students’ visited the ‘community’ each Thursday morning in groups of 12 to 14 boys at a time and spent two and a half hours with the community. The visits took place in the months of February to June. This afforded each of the 150 grade 8 boys 2-day experiences that introduced them to serving in the communities. Before their visit, their parents were notified a week in advance so that they could give their consent, and the boys were informed about what to expect and what to bring. They had an hour’s Leadership lesson taught by the school chaplain, preparing them for service and equipping them with knowledge and skills for engaging in the community. The leadership curriculum was built around the Round Square (RS) Discoveries Framework and the International Boys’ School Coalition (IBSC) Character Education, both of which are discussed in the next section.
On the other hand, the marginalised community (the community) that was visited is a facility that runs an orphanage which houses abandoned children from birth to early teenage and runs a preschool that caters for the children from the neighbouring community. The students mostly spent their time at the preschool, which depends on goodwill funding to operate. The abandoned children, about 30 in total, live in one home facility and are taken care of by volunteer foster mothers. The preschool accommodates about 100 children from the neighbouring informal settlement that has mostly unemployed parents that are either illiterate or semi-illiterate.
The collaborative relationship was a partnership that helped the students interpret the needs of the community and engage them in sustainable and respectful ways within their means.
Conceptual framework
The concept of leadership has evolved over the years. In the past, leadership traits were believed to be inherited. This was followed by the thinking that classified leadership according to personality types. In more recent years, developmental models of leadership have identified five leadership practice areas (Marcketti et al., 2011): modelling the way; inspiring a shared vision; encouraging the heart; challenging the process; and enabling others to act. Research further acknowledges that leadership development can be taught in the classroom (Marcketti et al., 2011; Sapaprot et al., 2018) through programmes designed for leadership development. Research (Sapaprot et al., 2018) also recognises leadership according to globally acknowledged competencies that include: cross-cultural relationships, interpersonal skills, values, organisational expertise, vision and technological savviness. Other research in leadership for global competencies (Lokkesmoe et al., 2016) include the characteristics of persuasiveness, curiosity, integrity, communication skill, negotiation skills and business savviness, transformational self, inquisitiveness, global mindset, cosmopolitanism and cognitive competencies.
Research done on leadership in boys’ schools by the International Boys’ School Coalition (IBSC), an organisation that has global membership of schools, defined what they termed as ‘character education’. They believe that boys’ education for the 21st century should include values such as communication, complexity, growth, change readiness, direction, integrity, perspective, citizenship, relationality, collaboration and creative/critical thinking. They found that these values are passed on through knowledge and skills, leading to character formation in young men (Adams & Cummins, 2018). Similar research done by The Round Square International Organisation of Schools (RS), came up with a set of IDEALS under which leadership can be moulded, namely, Internationalism, Democracy, Environmentalism, Adventure, Leadership and Service, as their approach to leadership development and education (Westgarth, 2018). These IDEALS underpin a list of values referred to as the 12 discoveries, which are a set of skills covered in their curriculum and include; Communication skills, inquisitiveness, appreciation for diversity, ability to solve problems, a sense of responsibility, commitment to sustainability, tenacity, courage, self-awareness, teamwork skills, inventiveness and compassion. Both the IBSC and the RS have related developmental and global leadership principles and are in agreement with the earlier findings discussed above (Marcketti et al., 2011; Sapaprot et al., 2018). The IBSC and RS qualities for leadership are summarised in the table that follows and form the guiding principles of leadership development of the students under research.
A table showing a list of RS and IBSC qualities and values.
While the IBSC views Community Engagement as a ‘plan to engage the community in the educational work of the school that includes a schedule of regular community engagement activity as well as plans for special events and campaigns related to character education’ (Adams & Cummins, 2018, p. 253), Round Square is very deliberate when it comes to CE, and it as a major area of focus in its set of IDEALS (Westgarth, 2018).
Rationale for the study
Research into the leadership development of adolescent boys to equip them for the 21st century way of living was explored. Research findings suggest that students who benefit from exposure to leadership opportunities in the classroom are better equipped for the workplace (Marcketti et al., 2011). Leadership development programmes in schools were found to give students the ability to maximise their potential while at school, and to equip them with skills for collaboration with people from diverse cultures at the workplace (Sapaprot et al., 2018). An advantage of having good leadership skills in the workplace is that it leads to better job satisfaction and maximises on employee output. On the contrary, research shows that schools are not adequately preparing students for the workplace – and school do not even have specific programmes designed for leadership development, hence one of the reasons for this paper. Most research that exists in leadership has therefore been found to have been done on workplace executives, and not schools, hence educators lack good programmes to apply when training students for leadership (Sapaprot et al., 2018).
The school where the sample students (referred to as ‘the students’) attended was both a member of the IBSC and Round Square. As a RS school, it adhered to a set of 12 discoveries that were incorporated into the school curriculum for leadership development. It was also a member of the IBSC that subscribes to character education as tabulated in the previous section. CE was identified as a viable platform that could drive leadership development that incorporates the skills and values of RS framework as well as the IBSC values for character education.
A needs analysis of the community were identified through prior visits by the researcher, followed by interactive interviews with the leaders of the community, and this was done in order to forge a working relationship. Although the immediate needs of the community were food and material supply for sustenance, psychological and developmental needs were also identified. The interactions of the students with the children of the community in the form of service to the community was deemed to bring more balance, positive influence and exposure to the community.
The study was therefore relevant in establishing if the leadership goals for CE as set out by Round Square and IBSC could be met through these interactions, while at the same time, if the community in question had some of their needs met.
Methodology
Research design
This was a qualitative research study within the constructivist paradigm and with a phenomenological approach. The research opportunity allowed the students to construct their own knowledge using the experience that they had had. They then had to renegotiate the reality of who they are in relation to the lessons learnt from serving communities, based on their own creation of new knowledge and interpretation of it.
Research aim
The aim of the study was to establish the role of community engagement in equipping students for leadership.
Research objectives
(i) To establish the perceptions of students towards community engagement,
(ii) To find out how students embraced the engagement process with the children from the community,
(iii) To establish what lessons (if any) they learnt and how it impacted on their leadership development.
The nature of the research was such that it aimed at interpreting changing behaviours of the students, and it involved practically taking away students from their context into a different setting and establishing their growth in terms of leadership development.
Sample
A sample of 120 grade 8 boys, out of a school population of 750 boys, visited the community of orphaned and abandoned children that runs a preschool for its local community. The students visited in groups of 12 to 14 at a time.
Data collection
The study involved:
(i) Giving students a questionnaire of four open-ended questions to fill in in order to assess their prior knowledge of community engagement and leadership in the communities.
(ii) Observing students for the day as they served, their interactions and behaviours.
(iii) Students were asked to fill out a reflection sheet on their experiences during and after community service. There were six open-ended semi-structured questions on the reflection sheet. The students had been briefed and prepared before the service, and they were given enough time to fill in the reflection sheet upon arriving back to school from the service outing.
Data analysis
This was done through discourse analysis where all recurrent talk was coded, and the codes grouped into themes, which were then given meaning according to existing literature and the IBSC character education/Round Square IDEALS.
Findings
These findings, derived from both the student questionnaires and reflections, together with the observations made by the teacher on duty, were analysed to establish if the role of CE in equipping students with leadership skills was achieved. This analysis was guided by addressing the following objectives of the research:
(i) To establish the perceptions of students towards community engagement,
(ii) To find out how students viewed their engagement with other children from the community,
(iii) To establish if the lessons learnt by students while on a Community Engagement outing had impacted on their leadership development.
The findings are therefore organised in line with the objectives and weighed against the theoretical framework as guided by the Round Square Discoveries and the IBSC character education’s skills and competences and other literature discussed in the earlier sections.
To determine how change in perceptions of CE prepared students for leadership
CE helped to change the false perceptions that students had on life in the disadvantaged communities
Students were asked to write down how they felt before going to the community. While briefing the students earlier on before embarking on the trip, observations made by the teacher who prepared them for the outing indicated that some of the students were a little anxious about going out to the community. The data from the students gave a whole range of responses, mostly based on perceived fear and false perceptions. In general, they had a strong deficit view. Many students expressed a fear of going to the community because they envisaged it to be full of robbers. Poverty in the communities was associated with crime in the minds of the students. They indicated a fear of feeling unsafe, as some of them imagined that there would be rude kids who would attack them. An example of these sentiments was expressed by the student who said:
‘Before going to this community, I feared that the place was full of criminals and that I would be robbed and come back without my cell phone’.
One of the RS discoveries expected to be developed by students is an appreciation for diversity (Westgarth, 2018) which was missing in this instance. Adams and Cummins (2018) talk of qualities of ‘change readiness’ and ‘growth’ as an IBSC character expectation for a 21st century man. That is why one of the tasks for the day was to read to the preschool children. Although each student had been previously asked to bring their favourite preschool classic for the reading activity, some of the students reported that they feared to look stupid in front of the kids when reading to them as they did not view themselves as good readers, while others feared that the children might not enjoy the story they had selected, or that the children would feel disinterested or unhappy with the story. This indicated the fear of the unknown, which is characterised by wrong cultural beliefs that prevent people from cutting across cultural divides (Tyrer & Fazel, 2014). As one student wrote:
‘I thought that I would meet children with very sad and poor faces, and I feared that they wouldn’t listen to me when I read to them, or laugh at my jokes that I had prepared to share with them’.
On a positive note, a small number of boys indicated that they were excited to go to the communities and had no fears whatsoever. These could have been boys who had previously visited the communities, or boys who had optimistic views on life in general.
CE helped students understand different ways of life
Many students initially reported that they associated life in the community with that of children suffering and homeless people hanging around the streets. They had imagined underprivileged and depressed kids with sad faces. Others reported that they imagined the community facility to be in a rural, dirty, dusty and underdeveloped area with bugs everywhere and animals roaming around; as one boy put it:
‘I imagined that the place was smelly and dusty with litter all over the place and animals like rats and wild dogs roaming the place’.
Creative activities that provide opportunities for students to engage with others while visiting different communities have been found useful for constructing new knowledge, interacting with others and demonstrating empathy. They are of benefit when it comes to problem-solving and elimination of false beliefs (Tyrer & Fazel, 2014). That is the reason why the students could engage in various activities that enabled them to break the ice and engage with the children to understand them as we shall see in the sections to follow.
‘I learnt that even though they are poor, they were happy to see us. I now understand that I should not judge others before I know them. I feared that I would not fit in, but I ended up having a fun day’.
For the students, socio-economic class and cultural divides that stem from the days of apartheid continue to keep them cut off from the majority of the South African population that is poorer, even though it is more than two and a half decades since apartheid ended. Exposing them to the different ways of life was necessary for their civic education, and for improving their perspective on life, as is in line with the IBSC character education (Adams & Cummins, 2018).
The experience made students change their views with regards to life in the communities
Before the community engagement outings happened, many students had imagined that life in the communities was mediocre, characterised with laziness and a lack of excellence in what they did; as one student wrote:
‘I expected to see sad faces of children suffering and unable to read or write, but when I saw the children, they were happy and smart children. Although thy did not have much, they were happy and thankful for the little they had’.
After engagement with the community and reflecting from their visiting, all the students had transformed views about this particular community that they visited and were cautious of generalising all poor communities as mediocre. They reported that they viewed CE to be important and something to be encouraged to the other boys to do because they viewed it as an activity that was making a difference to the community and improving lives of children. They strongly felt that it should be continued as it was promoting social justice as supported by research findings by Watts and Hodgson (2019). They viewed CE not only as a means of improving the communities but also as a way of uniting themselves with the communities hence promoting appreciation for diversity as prescribed by the RS discoveries (Westgarth, 2018).
How the engagement process with children from the community instilled leadership values in the students
CE made students realise that as children they have more similarities than differences
CE widened the sense of self-awareness in the students to include new dimensions. The students connected easily and freely with the children on the playground. The students became more self-aware and learnt that, under a secure environment, they both love to play, to have fun and adventure, that they were both energetic and loved spending time with each other and making friends. This linked to the RS value of self-awareness (Westgarth, 2018) as well as the IBSC value of relationality (Adams & Cummins, 2018).
‘We laugh the same way, and the things that make us happy were the same, like dancing and playing together’.
‘They are energetic like us, and they love to have fun and talk to each other’
One of the activities that the students shared together was a dance lesson. They discovered that they both enjoyed doing fun physical activities like the dance lesson, which the teacher who stayed with the boys observed had been an enjoyable activity for both groups. They learnt that, even though they come from different socio-economic backgrounds, they are physiologically the same, and that they smile, laugh and dance in the same language, hence creating more self-awareness. Laughter is an expression of joy which displays their feelings. One student mentioned that IsiZulu, which is a local dialect among some South Africans, was a language that he shared with some of the children.
Some made cognisance of the observation that, while reading with the children, some of them struggled to follow. This implied that learning challenges could be experienced by both the students and the learners, regardless of their background. They concluded that they both faced different struggles in life, a profound revelation that brought perspective (Adams & Cummins, 2018) in line with the IBSC character education and could lead to empathy.
CE made students realise that the power to positively influence change in their environment through service lay in their hands
The students did their service through various activities. Reading to the children has the value of helping them improve their vocabulary, widen their imagination and develop a love for reading. Research affirms support that is aimed at improving literacy skills in disadvantaged communities, as it is a form of fighting against socio-economic injustices and ensuring that all children have a fair chance in life (Watts & Hodgson, 2019). Fighting for justice is in line with IBSC’s character education values of citizenship and the ability to solve problems. As discussed earlier, the students also helped the children during their dance lesson with their dance moves, their orientation and staying in straight lines – an activity that the students also enjoyed being a part of. They were both able to participate in a dance, an event that brought much happiness according to research (Grewal, 2014). Creative art-based interventions like dance incorporated psycho-educational, creative and relaxation techniques and were found to decrease levels of anxiety (Tyrer & Fazel, 2014). One boy on reflecting wrote:
‘It was good to give some hope to children who grow up in poverty so that one day they can grow up to get a good job. It helped me to put others first before myself and to show kindness’.
Another contribution by the boys was working in the vegetable gardens. This activity was viewed, as teaching the children the life skill of learning how to grow their own vegetables hence contributing towards fighting hunger and creating a useful part-time occupation for the community dwellers. Such activities could also improve standards of living thus adding more meaning to the life of community dwellers (Grewal, 2014). The study, however, found the students to have idealistic views when asked to give their ideas on how to improve the centre. They quoted unrealistic ideas such as building a swimming pool, arising from a failure to understand the difference in lifestyle. As one student put it:
‘It is better if they build a swimming pool for the children to learn how to swim’.
Although this was a chance for them to think creatively in line with the IBSC values as inventors (Adams & Cummins, 2018; Westgarth, 2018), their ideas were not supported by the reality on the ground. The community had more dire needs such as housing problems, and most of the people were living in makeshift tin houses. On the other hand, some students had practical ideas that were in line with the RS value of commitment to sustainability (Westgarth, 2018). These included recycling initiatives like having litter bins and the picking of litter, the digging of boreholes to supply water and the growing of organic vegetables to serve the community.
Supportive forms of engagement from students working with communities can lead to reduced unemployment in the future (Mendolia & Walker, 2015) because they lead to better educational attainment for the children, which then leads to improvement in the standards of living.
Students felt that they had influenced the children through their role modelling
At the end of each day of engagement, there was a sense of gratification from work done by the students. Most of them wrote that kindness was an attribute that was valued by both parties and had been particularly emphasised by the students who had been reminded to practice it during their leadership lessons prior to CE. They observed that the young ones had looked up to them, and they had mostly felt confident that they could offer direction as role models, hence taking on a new responsibility (Westgarth, 2018). For instance, one reflected:
‘When we entered the room, the kids looked at us like we’re giants. They wanted us to lead them in the activities, and they followed us around and did what we told them to’.
The students came to a realisation that all people, regardless of their backgrounds, have an inert desire for guidance to which they respond in relation to how they are treated. They also noticed that since the children were much younger and smaller than them, they had in return looked up to them in expectation for guidance and direction, just in the same way the students looked up to their seniors. This instantly made them role models for the day.
Lessons learnt by the students and how CE impacted on their leadership development
Students felt that they understood better the meaning of happiness
Students felt that they understood better the meaning of happiness, both because of an experience that they received through serving, and also as a virtue that they gave to those that they served. They observed that the children were happy to have an opportunity to interact with them, and the happiness of the moment was not affected by the state of poverty that the children lived under. Research has shown that feelings of happiness can be correlated with viewing life as pleasant and free from troubling events (Grewal, 2014). The same study also showed that for some people, happiness could also be because of having money. Happiness has been said to correlate with good health and general wellness, which may apply to the students but was not necessarily the case while they were at CE. Their happiness was because of serving. Their serving gave them a new feeling of significance for a greater purpose in life. This was ignited through their association with the community. It is worth noting that happiness was experienced by both the givers (students) and the takers (community); as one boy wrote:
‘They have extraordinarily little, but they were happy just to have us. I think you don’t need money to be happy; you can use the little resources you have to create a happy place’.
Serving has a way of shifting focus from one’s worries to doing good for the greater good (Mendolia & Walker, 2015) making them instil in themselves the value of change readiness as prescribed by the IBSC character education. The students served in groups, spending more time with friends, and working towards improving lives in the community.
Students felt more appreciative and grateful for what they have
Students, through their interaction with the community, realised how little material possession the communities own. They realised that they had taken for granted their privileges in life. They felt reminded of the true meaning of gratitude by their exposure to the community that had received them with gratitude. The students, therefore, saw this opportunity of giving back to their neighbouring communities, as an appreciation for what they possess. One boy reflected:
‘I should always remember to give back and be content and appreciative for what I have’.
Another lesson that they learnt from the community was how the children improvised their playing material, for example, making up skipping ropes and balls from plastic bags and strings. The children took advantage of every opportunity to play together instead of waiting for proper sporting equipment to play with; as one wrote:
‘I should never take things in life for granted. I liked the teamwork today and feel like we have a brotherhood’.
Research findings stated that students who were found to be higher in gratitude were less stressed and more supportive of one another (Wood et al., 2010). Consequently, research findings suggest that gratitude fosters resilience and has the potential of improving well-being, hence creating resilient and virtuous men in line with character education (Adams & Cummins, 2018).
Gratitude is held to be of great importance when it comes to job satisfaction at institutions. Institutional gratitude is defined as ‘gratitude that is culturally embedded within the organisation, through its people, policies and practices, such that thankfulness and appreciation are customary features of daily work life’ (Waters, 2013, p. 1174).
Students were more empathetic
‘This outing taught me how to listen to instructions because I did not want to make a mistake in a new environment’, wrote one student.
Learners reported that they now understood and shared in the suffering of the underprivileged. It took them an engagement process with a disadvantaged community in order for them to learn empathy under enjoyable moments of fellowship. They came to understand that happiness was a choice and that they can choose to be happy regardless of circumstances. This highlighted the point that one can understand themselves by serving others because empathy helps us understand ourselves and what we are going through. The ability to empathise is essential for building quality and meaningful relationship as it brings us closer and builds trust (McDonald & Messinger, 2011).
One boy shared his sentiments with a few others when he said:
‘Helping out today made me happy to see underprivileged children learning from us. It is good to be helpful without expecting anything in return’.
Empathy promotes positive behaviour and helps one become a socially competent person. RS endorses it as one of the discoveries (Westgarth, 2018).
Students had reformed character and valued their contribution
When evaluating the skills and values that students had learnt from their experience of CE, students were asked whether they felt that CE was a worthwhile experience. Their responses included the mention of the values that they had learnt, such as, respect, ability to listen and follow instructions, hard work, teamwork, getting out of their comfort zones and empathy for what others go through. These values are covered in Round Square discoveries and the IBSC character education (Adams & Cummins, 2018; Westgarth, 2018). They agreed that their character had been stretched through helping the communities and that they had grown in their values system. One boy noted:
‘I learnt valuable lessons from the activities that we did, like respect, and how to work hard in life because not everyone is privileged, but we can help each other’.
Appreciation for nature, caring for the environment and fighting for justice are among the expectations that were set to prepare young leaders for the 21st century way of living (Adams & Cummins, 2018; Westgarth, 2018). Creating awareness and an understanding of the communities around them, and people’s struggles is an important citizenship education. A sense of responsibility for the communities and how they impact on surrounding communities was built. For example, they understood their role in helping to keep children out of the streets and back to the classroom. Some of their ideas on improving the place were:
‘We can start a recycling project with them to reduce their carbon footprint. I am glad that we worked in a sustainable garden that grows vegetables using compost made locally, which is like renewable energy’.
Both the observations made by the teacher and the reflections from the student showed that there were new ways of connecting that were developed, that involved building bridges where there were barriers. Learning how the underprivileged persevere through improvisation helped the students with respect to setting their long-term goals (Mendolia & Walker, 2015) This in return helped the students to build personalities of hard work, tenacity, perspective and gratitude as they pursue their long term goals and plans for the future. It led to the development of grit that could play a role in determining their choices while shaping into ideal 21st century men of integrity (Adams & Cummins, 2018).
Interpretation of the findings
Research suggests that students benefit from exposure to leadership opportunities that are presented to them as part of their learning experiences (Marcketti et al., 2011). CE was used as a vehicle to teach and instil leadership values in students. It was useful at eliminating false perceptions that students had about life in the disadvantaged communities. This research established that the fear that the students had about visiting the communities, coupled with concerns about feeling unsafe was unfounded and had no links to their lived experiences. The character education that the IBSC promotes is contrary to such perceptions as it expects students to build courage that confronts fear (Adams & Cummins, 2018; Marcketti et al., 2011), and to have a mind that embraces ‘change readiness’ and ‘growth’. This is in support of Round Square discoveries that expect students to have an appreciation for diversity, develop curiosity and inquisitiveness (Lokkesmoe et al., 2016; Westgarth, 2018).
Fear of the unknown is characterised by false cultural beliefs that prevent people from cutting across cultural divides and prohibits growth (Marcketti et al., 2011; Tyrer & Fazel, 2014). CE is supposed to be viewed as a ‘vehicle that equips students with knowledge and skills for living in a diverse society’ (Ayaya, 2019) and eliminates such false beliefs. For students, CE teaches them to be responsible future citizens that develop their communities and understand sustainable development (Belu & Manescu, 2013). Their recommendation to other students to visit the communities indicated a transformed mind that promoted social justice and an appreciation for diversity (Watts & Hodgson, 2019).
CE helped students to understand the different ways of life, especially life in the disadvantaged communities (Marcketti et al., 2011; Preece, 2016) by giving them an insight into the struggles of the people in the communities. Exposing students to different ways of life opened them to a new perspective on life, for example, respect for diverse views (Adams & Cummins, 2018; Preece, 2016). CE is, therefore, an intervention for teaching leadership that harnesses cultural resources aimed towards correcting students perspectives on different ways of life, while at the same time bettering the lives of those in the community involved (Marcketti et al., 2011; Tyrer & Fazel, 2014). This is a useful tool for equipping them with attributes for life that will help them adjust better in the world of work.
When it came to engaging with the activities of the day, CE opened the students to the realisation that they had more similarities with the children in the communities than the differences that separated them. This realisation helped them connect from a human perspective through play, dance, fun activities and adventure (Sapaprot et al., 2018; Westgarth, 2018). Their differences in socio-economic backgrounds did not equate to a difference in physiological and emotional makeup. They realised that they spoke, laughed and smiled in the same language and that they both faced struggles in life, some similar, for example struggling with schoolwork, and some materially different. This profound revelation brought perspective into how they viewed their similarities and differences (Adams & Cummins, 2018; Marcketti et al., 2011), leading to a mutual understanding of empathy for one another, hence inspiring a shared vision.
Serving in the communities, an intervention that required a planning process with the community, made the students feel that the power to influence change in the communities lay in their hands. Activities such as reading to the children helps to improve vocabulary and develop a reading culture that enhances literacy skills in disadvantaged communities. This is emancipatory as it promotes the rights of children in the underprivileged communities – a step towards the fight against socio-economic injustices. Literacy skills are aimed at guaranteeing the children a fair chance in life (Watts & Hodgson, 2019). It instilled empowering beliefs in the students who felt that they had made a difference (Marcketti et al., 2011). Creative art-based activities have been deemed as interventions that incorporate techniques that promote psycho-educational and social wellness hence reducing anxiety (Marcketti et al., 2011; Tyrer & Fazel, 2014) and promoting well-being. Some of their ideas on how to improve the community were however idealistic and not sustainable, while others were more sustainable (Westgarth, 2018), like recycling initiatives which proved more viable and could create employment opportunities and improve the standards of living (Mendolia & Walker, 2015).
Students felt that they had influenced the communities through role modelling, and this gave them a sense of gratification (Westgarth, 2018), as it made them responsible for how they treated the children. Marcketti et al., (2011) refer to this as a leadership practice area. Research has shown that individuals that display low self-esteem, or those that experience failure in life, tend to focus on external locus of control (including children from impoverished backgrounds). Such individuals are more likely to drop out of education and employment (Mendolia & Walker, 2015), endorsing the reference to role modelling to be of great help to children from poor background since it gave them an example to look up to.
Students felt that they understood better the meaning of happiness through service. Happiness was received as a pleasurable experience by both those serving the community, ‘the givers’ and those being served, ‘the takers’. Feelings of happiness were found to strongly correlate with a moment of pleasant experience (Grewal, 2014) and not material wealth. Happiness correlated with a greater sense of purpose in life – service to others. Service to others shifts the locus of control from selfishness to a greater purpose (Mendolia & Walker, 2015), and was well complemented with happiness.
CE made the students realise the need to be more grateful and appreciative of what they have. Witnessing the great lack of material resources in the communities reminded the students how privileged in life they were. Research findings show that students who display gratitude were less stressed and functioned better in groups (McCullough et al., 2004; Wood et al., 2010). Grateful people were found to work better in social settings, displayed empathy, were forgiving and supportive of each other as they focused on the greater good of the collective. Gratitude has also been found to foster resilience and improve well-being, hence, creating virtuous humans (Adams & Cummins, 2018). Gratitude was also found to be a determinant of job satisfaction at institutions (Waters, 2013, p. 1174).
CE taught the students empathy. Through spending time and working with the children, the students reported that they understood and shared in the suffering of the underprivilege. They discovered themselves better and their true feelings through serving others. Empathy helps to build quality and meaningful relationship (McDonalds & Messinger, 2011). This is because it brings people closer and builds trust, a skill that many graduates were found to be lacking when entering the market place for employment (Marcketti et al., 2011) and is held to promote positive social behaviour (Westgarth, 2018).
The CE experience was, therefore, a rich way of refining the character of the students’ leadership skills and values in helping them to adjust well into the 21st century way of living. As a result, cross-cultural relationships were established, and the students mentioned that they had learnt values such as respect, listening attentively and empathy, which are competencies for global leadership (Sapaprot et al., 2018). Other values included an appreciation for nature, caring for the environment, creating awareness of issues facing our societies, understanding of the communities around them and creating a sense of responsibility – values that increased their capacity for leadership (Mendolia & Walker, 2015; Sapaprot et al., 2018). They also developed a hard-working attitude, tenacity and the pursuit of long-term goals through the development of grit (Adams & Cummins, 2018).
Limitations of the study
The study focused mostly on the leadership growth of the students from the independent school in an affluent community while serving their underprivileged counterparts. It assumes that the students did not have some pre-existing skills, nor does it state if the skills can be acquired from engagements other than CE. There is a need for a similar research to be conducted to establish if there is a follow through with the transfer of the knowledge and values that were instilled in the children of the communities by their student role models.
Recommendation for further Studies
This study was carried out in one school that is well resourced, with a range of good programmes in place for the students. It is not clear how much of those existing programmes and the influence of good teaching and upbringing contributed to the growth in the leadership of the students; hence, although there was a significant difference in the response of the learners before and after the service outing, it would be interesting to find out how students who do not do any form of service end up leading in life. It would be of benefit also to do a similar study in a school which is less resourced or educationally less developed. It would also be of interest to monitor whether any community connections are sustained.
This research was done before the break of the Coronavirus pandemic and the demonstrations of ‘Black lives matter’ after the killing of George Floyd in America. This new situation should stimulate further initiatives and research into how black and white communities can work together from a school perspective.
Conclusion
This study provided an opportunity of uniting children from two communities that are divided by socio-economic status, through CE activities. The students from the well-resourced school confronted their false perceptions about the underprivileged community and learnt life lessons about what made them different and what united them as human beings, an enlightenment that gave room for self-development.
It can be said that most of the values and skills expected from the leadership development program as set by RS discoveries framework and the IBSC’s character education, and supported by research literature findings, were met through this CE interactions of the students and the community. By serving the less privileged, the students understood other people’s lived experiences better, learnt about cultural diversity, and in so doing, understood themselves better. They learnt valuable skills and their character developed in line with Round Square discoveries and the IBSC character education, transforming them into 21st century virtuous men with a right perspective of life, with great values such as integrity, empathy and appreciation for life. The social-emotional support that comes from working with the communities was therefore found to be of mutual benefit at helping with intervention for the abandoned children. On the flip side of the coin, by empowering the children through role modelling and educational support, the dignity of these children was restored as they had hoped to live for achieving social justice. CE became a way of harnessing cultural resources towards a better life for both the parties involved (Tyrer & Fazel, 2014). It was found to offer life-changing opportunities for the community and at the same time was powerful at developing well-adjusted young leaders who might leave school equipped with skills for living in a diverse world.