Looking back to chart the course forward: New directions for student leadership from 2015–2023

Educating students to lead has always been an important part of education in the United States; especially higher education, with roots as far back as Harvard College's opening in 1636 (Guthrie & Osteen, 2016). In a recent study of US higher education mission statements from the Integrated Postsecondary Educational Data System (IPEDS), Devies and Guthrie (2022) found over 840 instances of the words "leader," "leaders" or "leadership." Postsecondary education is, and has, in no uncertain terms, explicitly named student leadership development a goal. However, as our local, national, and global contexts continue to evolve, we need to recommit to new ways of providing leadership learning opportunities for students across all educational contexts. The field of leadership education continues to dynamically adapt to the changing needs of learners and our communities. Navigating this landscape has required using the maps drawn by leadership educators, scholars, and practitioners. However, charting the way forward necessitates the exploration of new ways of creating leadership learning opportunities for students. Chung et al. (2021) challenged leadership educators to think and practice differently after the confluence of crises in 2020, which continue to occur today in local, state, national, and global communities. Shifting how we teach leadership, connect with learners, and understand our role as leadership educators in making change is critical to forging new paths for the future. Reflecting on the past 9 years and 45 issues of New Directions for Student Leadership shows how the leadership educator community has collectively come together to blaze new trails through important topics. Issue editors and article authors have crafted new directions and forged new ways of fostering leadership learning grounded in scholarship, while also situated in practice through examples, narratives, and implications of research. When New Directions for Student Leadership published the first issue in Spring of 2015, Dr Susan R. Komives and Dr Kathy L. Guthrie, founding series editor and associate editor, expressed the purpose of the series was to display the, “…evolving picture that will further advance good practices and research on student leadership.” (Komives & Guthrie, 2015, p. 1). Table 1 maps how past issues have, individually and collectively, produced new knowledge to advance student leadership. The New Directions for Student Leadership series explores leadership conceptual and pedagogical topics of interest to high school and college leadership educators. Issues in this series are grounded in scholarship featuring practical applications and good practices in youth and adult leadership education. (Wiley, n.d.). However, as a newly forged team, we will undoubtedly take a new perspective in realizing these goals. The work of leadership education has never been more challenging, more rewarding, or more uncertain. We take it as a solemn responsibility to honor those who are committed to our field, the students we intend to serve, and the context which has made leadership dangerous, with more risks for some than others. Our vision includes continuing to seek new ways of creating student leadership learning opportunities for an uncertain future. Just as your favorite smartphone map app routinely updates to account for changes in the terrain, we take this as a chance to reflect on the pathfinders who came before us and dedicate ourselves to leaving the best possible breadcrumbs for those who will serve New Directions for Student Leadership in the future. Our view of the leadership learning landscape is improved because we have stood on the shoulders of titans; and yet, the road ahead seems cloudy, unpredictable, and largely unpaved. New maps, with new signposts, better directions, and stronger safeguards are sorely needed, and we look forward to finding our ways through this untamed landscape alongside the best and brightest leadership educators, scholars, and practitioners among us. As the new series editors, we frame leadership as both processes and goals that can be learned alone, practiced together, and used collectively to reshape society to be fair toward, and protective of, all its members. Leaders are the people who commit themselves and their efforts to these outcomes and the initiatives necessary to achieve them. Not everyone becomes a great leader, but great leaders can come from anywhere. The world becomes a better, kinder, and more sustainable place when students who want to lead find their ways to it. Our job is to give you the best possible map, compass, and directions to grow, teach, train, challenge, and nurture your students for the journey. Despite all we already know, there is so much more to share with one another about student leadership; across contexts, among diverse populations, around emerging research, and cutting-edge scholarship. Our goal remains to platform the most rigorous thinking, highest impact practices, and sharpest insights to our readership as we all continue to contribute to the new directions for student leadership. We welcome you to continue this journey with us. Kathy L. Guthrie (she/her) is professor in the higher education program, director of the Leadership Learning Research Center, and coordinator of the Undergraduate Certificate in Leadership Studies at Florida State University. Kathy has authored and co-authored over 80 referred articles and book chapters and co-authored/co-edited 11 books. She has been honored as a NASPA Pillar of the Profession and as an ACPA Diamond Honoree. Her research focuses on leadership learning, culturally relevant and socially just leadership education, and student affairs professional development. Vivechkanand S. Chunoo (he/his) is teaching faculty at the College of Education at Florida State University. His scholarship focuses on the intersections of social justice and leadership learning. He has co-edited two books on socially just leadership education. In 2020, he led a team in developing one of the nine strategic priorities of the 2020–2025 National Leadership Education Research Agenda (NLERA).