Voices from the village: A multi-voiced relational perspective of character development in leadership learning

Abstract

This article builds on previous work that has investigated character development within leadership learning. We take up the analogy of developing character through ‘being in a village’. We do so by gaining unique access to leadership learning within a Norwegian military academy (the village). We take a Bakhtinian perspective in analysing the data, and by doing so, we uncover multiple and competing voices that situate themselves within and across character dimensions. We contribute to the learning and development literature by showing how character dimensions are narratively constructed from differing perspectives within context. Hence, they must be considered in relational terms in any attempt to develop character and/or leadership. We show that character development is not dependent on explicit character frameworks but perhaps the role of the social dynamics in a community (village). We also uncover some of the interrelated, intertwined and competing voices that make up character in this given context which points to the way these character dimensions are ‘lived’, ‘rehearsed’ and ‘re-rehearsed’ in any context or setting. We go on to make recommendations for further research and practice.