A systematic review: pedagogies and outcomes of formal leadership programs for college students

Leadership programs for college students have significantly expanded over the past decades. However, there remains a lack of systematic synthesis regarding pedagogical practices employed in these programs. This article aims to fill this research gap by presenting a systematic review of empirical studies examining pedagogies in formal leadership programs and outcomes of those programs for college students in the United States. The objective of this review is to establish the links between pedagogies and leadership outcomes based on the evidence provided in existing studies so that it will inform the development of evidence-based leadership programs. We systematically collected and analyzed 40 studies published between 2001 and 2020. By extracting relevant information on pedagogies and leadership outcomes from the articles using a coding guide we developed, we identified nine distinct pedagogies and 14 leadership outcomes explored in the studies. By examining qualitative evidence from each article on the links between pedagogies and outcomes, our findings illuminated how each pedagogy contributed to student leadership development. Quantitative evidence occasionally supported our findings. Findings have important implications for both leadership educators and leadership researchers. For educators, this review informs the design of more robust evidence-based programs for college students, suggesting the use of different pedagogies in accordance with their program objectives. For researchers, this review identifies areas for future research on leadership education pedagogy and highlights appropriate research methods to examine connections between pedagogies and outcomes. The generalizability is limited to the United States because we only include the studies conducted within the country.