Transformational Leadership Research in Agricultural Education: A Synthesis of the Literature

Abstract

Leadership development is viewed as a foundational component of agricultural education and has been associated with the field since the early 20th century. An emerging research topic is leadership style and inquiry that is focused on transformational leadership. In an effort to contribute to the field’s knowledge base in leadership development and to guide a leadership research agenda, a synthesis of literature examined transformational leadership. Premier journals in the field and several affiliated journals published from 1990 to 2008 were selected for analysis. The study concluded that a small but recent number of articles focused on transformational leadership and the majority of research was conducted with extension personnel. Most studies focused on participants from a single state, and almost all of the studies gathered leadership style data through a self-reported procedure. Demographic variables and their relationship to leadership style received the most attention of researchers. Compared to the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) normative sample, college of agriculture deans, extension personnel, and agricultural education teachers perceived they had higher scores for most leadership factors. Suggestions for future research are presented and draw attention to the potential that this line of inquiry has for a field that embraces leadership development.