Cross-Culturalism and the Application of Leadership Education in Practice in Mainland China

The internationalization of United States higher education has been described as a “two-way street” where students arrive at knowledge transfer. That transfer occurs through a curriculum deemed “unidirectional” with no relevance to local issues or needs and results in limited application and educational colonialism perceptions. Specific to leadership education, the extant literature presents implications of neglect to cultural contexts traditionally reflected in the curriculum within a host nation. We used an explanatory mixed methods design for this study to investigate the degree to which undergraduate Western-based leadership studies courses taught in China reflect the notion of “neocolonialism” by prioritizing Western interests and values. While the study’s quantitative results reveal cultural differences in leadership education concepts, the qualitative follow-up phase finds students’ appreciation in the utility of leadership concepts and knowledge gained from the leadership curriculum. Students could cite specific situations in which they employed leadership concepts acquired from their respective leadership courses