by:
  Kris Bulcroft,
  Carmen Werder, and
  Glenn Gilliam

  Diffuse Leadership

The continuing dialogue of students and faculty within the TLA has continued to form a powerful community of change at Western. During winter quarter 2001, the TLA conducted discussion groups consisting of two TLA faculty and two learning seminar students. The students contacted their assigned interviewer and arranged for appointments.

The interview protocol included questions exploring the nature of their lower division experiences at Western and inviting recommendations about how to enhance it. These interviews created quite a bit of excitement within the TLA, with both students and faculty enjoying the opportunity to talk about educational reform.

Students learned more about the faculty as well and gained a greater sense that instructors sincerely did care about their experiences and valued their perspectives. Faculty enjoyed the opportunity to talk with students in a personal setting and acknowledged that students were far more engaged than they had expected.

Together, faculty, students, and staff have learned to candidly share their perspectives for effecting change. According to the Astins (1996), "...leadership is a process that is ultimately concerned with fostering change…directed toward some future end or condition that is desired or valued" (p.8). Increasingly, the Western community represents an example of diffuse leadership in which "…every member of the academic community is a potential leader (i.e., change agent)." In this way, our university is maximizing "the number of faculty, students, administrators, and staff who become committed and effective agents of positive social change" (p.10).

Several themes emerged during the Winter 2001 TLA discussions. Some of these included the desire to share the Academy's work with the campus community as a whole and the need for further reflection via the student voice concerning the undergraduate experience.

The idea for a public rally for learning was introduced in response to these themes. The goals for the rally event included celebrating the TLA efforts to enhance the quality of teaching and learning at Western and expanding the data collected from undergraduate students regarding their university experiences. Understanding the potential of such an event, the TLA members eagerly drafted questions for a fixed-response questionnaire as well as qualitative face-to-face interviews. These questions outlined many of the themes discussed throughout the history of the campus discussions, primarily the reflection on scholarly teaching and learning and the current condition of our campus curriculum and culture.

• Introduction
• Campus Conversation at Western Washington University (Parts I & II)
• Where are the Students?
• Leadership Inside Out
• The AAHE Summer Academy
• A Web of Connections
• The Teaching and Learning Academy
• A New Course on Learning
• Diffuse Leadership
• A Public Rally for Learning
• Lessons Learned from the Students
• References
• print version