The Impact of Gender, Ethnicity, School Setting, and Experience on Student Leadership: Does It Really Matter?

Abstract

This research examined how gender, ethnicity, school setting, and experience influenced students’ leadershippractices. Significant differences were found in how student leaders behaved on the basis of these variables.However, further analyses suggested that these differences did not significantly influence the effectiveness of studentleaders. That is, the most effective student leaders engaged in the five leadership practices more than the lesseffective leaders, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or school setting. The impact of these findings for both assessingstudent leaders as well as for developing their leadership capabilities is discussed, along with ideas for future studies.