Learning to Lead is meant to be used as much as read by individuals in reading groups, workshops, seminars, and classrooms. It is designed as a “syllabus” that asks readers to consider questions associated with the theory and practice of leadership, and in particular the metacognitive practices of leaders, i.e., the ways in which they think about and learn leadership.  

The book brings together scholars and administrators who examine not only what they have learned about leadership, but how they learned it through experience, theory, identity, and relational work. Part 1 focuses on learning from experience, highlighting leadership without authority, teaching-informed leadership, listening, care, and navigating systemic inequities. Part 2 bridges theory and practice, drawing on feminist, Black, queer, and critical frameworks to reimagine institutional change, belonging, and transformation. Throughout, contributors foreground leadership as adaptive, relational, and values-driven, inviting readers to reflect on their own identities, commitments, and theories of change as they learn to lead in complex institutions.

Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn epitomizes the tradition of John Dewey who argued that doing and being, experience and theory are inextricably linked when it comes to learning. To be a leader, one must act as a leader and one must also learn about what it means to lead. This means exploring theories and concepts, but that learning to lead is also about experience and what you learn through trial and error, reflection, and challenges. 

—Adrianna Kezar, Director, Pullias Center of Higher Education, University of Southern California