Abstract

College is a major critical juncture for students in which they learn to author their lives. For students who are pre-service teachers, college provides an opportunity for them to develop their leader identity, a skill critical to their professional success. We posited there is a relationship between leader identity and self-authorship, such that those students with a high level of self-authorship are likely to have a high level of leader identity. To test our hypothesis, we use a cross-sections design surveying a sample of preservice teachers to assess their leader identity and self-authorship. Our survey garnered quantitative and qualitative data. Our analysis revealed traits associated with levels of leader identity and self-authorship. We found a strong positive correlation between the two variables, indicating a potential relationship. We explored the findings in our discussion and implications, recognized our study limitations, and suggested directions for future research.

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