Outreach initiatives are typically framed as informal learning environments that provide an opportunity to increase the participants’ interest in science. Research in chemistry outreach has mainly focused on designing and implementing demonstrations for outreach. Recent studies indicate student organizations are at the forefront of chemistry outreach, describing their outreach practices and facilitators’ conceptual understanding of demonstrations. Although leadership has been linked to success of groups and organizations, the leadership structure of student organizations is an understudied aspect of chemistry outreach. Here, we conceptualize student organizations participating in chemistry outreach as a community of practice (CoP) to explore the relationship between leadership and chemistry outreach events. Specifically, we aim to characterize leadership styles within the student organization in the context of an outreach event. Using a case study approach, we collected multiple sources of data, including: the organization’s outreach practices, observations, semi-structured interviews and an assessment on leadership style. Preliminary results indicate leaders of the student organization, specifically those leaders in charge of planning outreach events, displayed behaviors associated with the transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles more frequently than behaviors associated with the transformational leadership style. As examples of behaviors, lack of communication with members of the organization acting as facilitators of the outreach event, or intervening only when mistakes are made, negatively influence how facilitators interact with attendees of the outreach event, how they explain chemistry activities, and how they perceive their role as a facilitator of outreach. As a long-term outcome for this project, the results can be used by national societies and organizations to inform the development of new workshops for leadership training, with the purpose of teaching practices to student-leaders that can bring success to their chapter or local group.

Using leadership styles to characterize student organizations in chemistry outreach

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

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