The Good, the Bad, and the Unexpected: Adaptability, Challenges, and Opportunities of Leadership Learning Abroad

Creating a comprehensive, thoughtfully designed, and impactful learning experience abroad can be an overwhelming and uncertain undertaking. This article focuses on how leadership educators can address challenges, anticipate barriers, and design a leadership learning abroad course that powerfully supports student learning and avoids excess stress in the process. This article explores leadership learning in short‐term study abroad programs through the lens of adaptive leadership. Using reflective narrative and practice‐based examples, I examine the opportunities (the good), barriers (the bad), and ethical tensions (the uncertain) that arise when designing and facilitating leadership learning abroad. The article highlights faculty preparation and learning as a critical and often overlooked outcome of education abroad and situates leadership learning as a shared, relational process among students, educators, institutions, and community partners. I offer recommendations for leadership educators, institutions, and the field to support ethically grounded, developmentally appropriate, and adaptive leadership learning in global contexts.