Abstract:
The purpose of this autoethnography was to examine the organizational leadership
development of three Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA) presidents between
1989-2007. The primary question examined was: How do these three former ISTA
Presidents describe their leadership journeys? Six underlying questions included: (1)
How did these three former presidents come to the decision to run for office? (2) Why did
they choose to become leaders? (3) How did they lead? (4) What leadership
characteristics and abilities were evident in their presidency? (5) How did their leadership
characteristics and abilities affect their presidency? (6) What events influenced their
leadership development?
The researcher used his life experience as ISTA president to create a selfnarrative,
which was used with qualitative interviews of two other state presidents to
provide data for analysis. To examine the data, a Thematic Content Analysis was
employed in order to obtain a descriptive view of the research in a textural form. From
this data analysis, five themes, with accompanying subthemes, were found to be
important for leadership development for these three presidents: (1) Definition of
Leadership (Definition, Integrity, Charisma, Persistence, Leadership Teams, and Style),
(2) Leadership Training (Experience, Skill Sets, Mentor/Mentee, Formal Training), (3)
accomplishments, (4) Purpose or Reason for Involvement (Social Justice), and (5)
Background (Career, Youth).
