Adult cultures matter. In today's volatile political climate, the call for human-focused leaders is stronger than ever. Guided by adult development theory and supported by multiple scholarly sources, the researcher synthesized a theoretical framework for understanding what human-centered leadership entails: Honing compassion; Understanding one's…

Leadership development is a multi-billion-dollar industry with a strong focus on learning through experiences, yet most experiential leadership development efforts typically center on work-based experiences and not personal life experiences. This study delves into the relationships among significant life experiences, leader identity, and adult…

This research study breaks new ground in exploring differences in how managers' reflection patterns, do or do not differ across levels of adult development as delineated by Robert Kegan's Constructive-Developmental Theory. It was a basic qualitative study exploring upper-level managers' thought processes and patterns of reflection in revisiting…

At the bachelor's level, there exist a number of former students who have successfully completed a considerable portion of their degree and have earned a significant number of credits. They have put a significant investment toward the earning of their degree and many have come within one semester of degree completion. As former students, they have…

In order to assist community college students in completing their program of study at a more rapid pace, this quantitative, correlational study examined the effectiveness of acceleration as a method to help community college students complete the developmental reading sequence quickly and more successfully. Acceleration is a curricular redesign…

Human beings have spent much time and effort in trying to understand themselves, others, and their world. Mankind uses intellect when trying to understand life but the majority of people continue to encounter frustration, confusion, and a variety of obstacles when dealing with daily challenges and people. Theorists and researchers understand that…

A recent movement in international development has seen the expansion of capacity development activities to include adaptive approaches to education. Adaptive approaches are distinct from traditional approaches to education as they seek not only to provide new knowledge, but to cultivate more complex and flexible qualities of mind. Borrowed from…

The purpose of this research was trifold. First, it was an attempt to gain an understanding of the experiences of fourteen unaccompanied, homeless youth between the ages of 18 and 24, living in the Twin Cities metro area, who have utilized services at two or more of the six grantee organizations. The second purpose was to understand how the shared…

This qualitative case study explored how U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC) students decided whether or not to attend graduate school. The focus was on how U.S. Army students made their decision. The purpose of the study was to illuminate the issues related to this decision in adult development, adult learning, career decision…

This qualitative study explores the correspondence between contemplative practices and "orders of consciousness" from a constructive-developmental perspective, using Robert Kegan's approach. Adult developmental growth is becoming an increasingly important influence on humanity's ability to deal effectively with the growing complexity of…

This multiple-case study explored the nature of the experiences of family members of service-disabled veterans who participated in the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans Family Program (EBV-F), an entrepreneurial learning and coaching program designed to assist family members of service-disabled veterans to support the discontinuous life…

The purpose of this qualitative research was to describe and analyze the ways in which newly inducted supervisors (in the first three years of their work) tasked with clinical supervision, cognitive coaching, and similar forms of developmental instructional supervision were engaged in a "reflective dialogue" between their supervisory…

Women of color, especially Black women, are underrepresented in the extant literature and research of adult development and mind, body, spirit leadership. This in-depth qualitative portraiture study explored the lives of three Black women who have been leading their communities as adult educators of mind, body, spirit practices. This examination…

The purpose of this study was to explore the relevance that executive mentors' Dream journeys had for their mentoring practices. Dream journeys are the visions of where young adults see themselves in the future, and how they integrate themselves into the adult world over time. It was anticipated that a better understanding of executive mentors'…

The purpose of this study was to increase an understanding of spirituality's place in the holistic adult adjustment of new faculty members during their transitional years at a public research university. Many have been concerned about the sense of fragmentation experienced in the academy and have called for cultural reforms of the conditions that…