Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Gender Studies and Sexuality
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Que(E)Rying Leadership on A LGBTQ+ Leadership Development Programme for UK Higher Education Staff
Dr. Alex Baird
ABSTRACT:
Despite LGBTQ+ leaders navigating a rather distinct leadership path there is currently no LGBTQ+ leadership development programme offered by organisations that provide training in aspects of Higher Education (HE) leadership. This highlights the significance of a leadership development programme that ran for LGBTQ+ academic and professional staff in one post-1992 university from Sept 2022 to May 2023. Recognising the potential to query leadership in UK HE, I accessed the programme as an ‘insider’ of the LGBTQ+ population, an ‘outsider’ of the host university, and a ‘participating observer’. Seventeen attendees gave consent for their oral contributions to be included in field notes on programme days. Sixteen of these attendees agreed to be interviewed. I came to understand my research as (post-)qualitative, recognising the blurred edges of the programme and institution, the entanglement of my investment in the programme, my growing relationships with participants, and their evolving connections to one another. Reflexive thematic analysis allowed me to engage with queer theory and identify three interwoven themes: the distinction and potential of LGBTQ+ leadership; the portrayal, empowerment, and collaboration of trailblazers; the possibility, precarity, and rupture of queer space. By reframing leadership, this research helps to make LGBTQ+ leaders’ leadership intelligible and makes leadership more pertinent to LGBTQ+ staff. Significantly, it offers an alternative leadership, one which appears to be relevant to the challenging landscape of UK HE and offers some resistance to the negative pressures and bearings of neoliberalism. This research may also guide future LGBTQ+ leadership development programmes.
keywords: Queer theory, Leadership, Leadership Development