Leadership : considerations and implications for women in physical education

Leadership is acknowledged as a most important phenomenon associated with the process of education. It was the purpose of this thesis to interpret leadership methods and understandings which would assist in formulating suggestions for leadership study in the teacher preparation program. In addition, a procedure was developed to ascertain if there were any unique leadership traits which could be identified in a selected group of active women leaders in physical education. The traitist, group, situational, and interactional theories which attempt to interpret leadership were discussed. The situational and the traitist theories were combined to form situation-reaction problems which were sent to selected women leaders in the profession. Leadership was identified as those who had received the Honor Award of the American Association for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation and had been elected to the American Academy of Physical Education. The selected group of women leaders indicated no unique leadership traits. However, they did show a preference to the intellectual and social components of leadership