The Scholarship of Engagement for Politics: - Higher Education ...

The Scholarship of Engagement for Politics
Complete within three weeks a 1000 word analysis of a possible career,
using the template provided, and with reference to resources available
via the module web ct space as appropriate
Consider one or two political leaders who you particularly admire. Please
note: do NOT choose a leader such as Hitler, Stalin or Mao Tse-Tung or
another who is notorious primarily for the murderous regime they
created. The exercise is about positive leadership characteristics. In
preparation for the next class, produce some notes on the question of
what exactly makes/made them such an admirable leader. Consider what
political and personal challenges they faced in their career, the values
they stood for, and also personal qualities, way of doing politics, what
about their character or achievements inspires you, and anything else
relevant to the issue at hand. Come prepared to talk briefly about the
leader you’ve chosen.
You may also like to browse the rich resource that is the Leader Values
web site (www.leader-values.com/default.asp) or listen (MP3 format) to
Margaret Wheatley’s ideas about 21st century leadership at:
http://www.shiftinaction.com/discover/luminaries/margaret_wheatley/le
adership_for_an_uncertain_time
http://www.scottlondon.com/interviews/wheatley.html
http://www.berkana.org/articles/core_practices.htm
Week Three: The craft of politics: what is admirable about leaders we
admire?
Main themes
The aim of this week’s class is to clarify expectations for the task of
analysis of an individual leader and begin to plan your assignment.
Consequently we will consider a range of possible approaches to this
exercise, as well as reviewing some of the academic and non-academic
literature on the what constitutes effective leadership.
After the class
Begin to draft your leadership analysis. The deadline for submission is
week 9, and you have until Wednesday of week 7 (5 th March) to submit
drafts for comment.
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