This development reflects a shift from seeing identity as fixed to understanding it as constructed and relational. In Worldviews, Cultures & Religion (RCLP 1011), we engaged with "The Leadership Challenge" by Kouzes & Posner (2017). Herein, Kouzes & Posner examine five qualities which good leaders convey. “They Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act [And] Encourage the Heart” (2017). This ties into the concept of leadership by demonstrating in what ways one can be a better leader when they are able to understand the different backgrounds and paths of those whom they lead, breaking down how interpretation is shaped by our experiences and prior assumptions. 

​

Through exposure to diverse backgrounds, including; different cultures, social classes, and histories, I embraced a framework of identity shaped by overlapping systems of privilege and oppression. As recognized by intersectionality scholars, gender, race, socioeconomic status, and other identity factors intersect to shape individuals’ lived realities in complex ways. (CRIAW, 2022) This realization challenged my assumptions of universality and made me more conscious of structural inequalities behind surface-level differences.

In the Integrative Forum courses (RCLP 1111/1112), the practice of dialogical reflection and peer feedback required me to surface those assumptions and revise them in real time. Encouraging group work, participation, and discussion-based experiential learning as a forefront. This course acts as the “core preparation” for the rest of one’s journey throughout the School of Leadership Studies and acts as a foundational base, introducing and developing leadership practice, the art of reflection, and interpretation of feedback into one’s own development. 

Later, Ethics and Leadership (RCLP 3701) introduced virtue ethics (Aristotle), pushing me to consider how character develops through repeated action over time. In my senior year, taking Introduction to the History of Philosophy (PHIL1013) as an elective, these ideas of virtue were expanded upon through studying the frameworks of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Aquinas. These frameworks demonstrated that knowing oneself is an ongoing process of reflection, comparison, and refinement, and that truly understanding others requires acknowledging the limits and situatedness of one’s own perspective.