Development of

Minority Student
Leaders
Yvette Bahena Jessy Cheung
Eden Driscoll Abby Moss
Our Population

Multicultural Students who hold executive board positions in student

organizations on Western Illinois University’s Macomb campus.

5 Students
● 3 Female, 2 Male
● 3 Latinx, 2 African American
Confidence in Asking for Help

Dependence Independence Interdependence

Accepting Authority Questioning Authority Self Authoring

without Question

Values and Beliefs Values and Beliefs are Self Ownership of

from Authority Challenged Values and Beliefs
Comfort with Change and Failure

Reactive Proactive
Finding/Defining Self in Culture

Unaware of Acceptance of Embracing

Cultural Identity Cultural Identity Cultural Identity

Passive Participation Active Participation

of One’s Culture of One’s Culture
Learning from the Past

Negative Attitude Positive Attitude

Towards the Past Towards the Past
Frustration Drives Ambition

A constant element, no directionality

Comparing Psychosocial Theories
Similarities:
● Students move through different constructs (vectors) instead of a stage
theory
● No specific path through constructs in different ways; farther along in some
than others
● Cultural identity influences psychosocial development
Differences:
● Chickering and Reisser - Generalizability to “all” students vs Intentionality of
working with student leaders
● Maekawa Kodama - Specificity to one kind of minority student
Comparing Social Identity Theories

Similarities:
● Mechanisms to overcome racism ideologies
● Negotiating social stigma

Differences:
● Cycle - Recycle Process
● Cross Et al: Crude Manifestation - The Defensive Functions
● Social discrimination seen as an imposition
Comparing Moral/Cognitive Development
Theories
Similarities:

● Movement from external to internal validation

● Accepting responsibility for increasingly complex decisions

Differences:

● Not a stage theory

● Development as a continuous (non-discrete) process moving from one
element to another
● Gilligan focuses on the women’s experience
Comparing Adult Development Theories

Similarities:

● Transition from 3rd to 4th order thinking

● Subject - object theory

Differences:

● Frustration is subject to our leaders

● No evidence of them shifting that emotion to object (constant trait)
Questions?