| Many educators and higher education administrators believe that leadership skills are a desired outcome of the undergraduate experience (Astin & Astin, 2000; Lucas, 1994; Shertzer & Schuh, 2004). While the importance of leadership development in higher education is well supported, research on how students perceive and define leadership is lacking (Logue, Hutchens, & Hector, 2005; Haber, 2011; Marcketti & Kadolph, 2010; Shertzer & Schuh, 2004). Furthermore, the research that is available on perceptions of leadership should be expanded to include and represent a diverse student body, as it has been shown that minorities' perceptions of leadership differ from those of the dominant White culture (Arminio et al., 2000; Haber, 2011; Lo, 2011). Dugan, Morosini and Beazley (2011) also suggest that the literature in college student leadership has not advanced to include attention to cross-cultural considerations.;As higher education evolves globally, there has been an increase in the number of American institutions that have opened campuses internationally (Wildavsky, 2010), spreading the idea of undergraduate leadership development to different cultural contexts. This inductive, qualitative study explored undergraduate leadership perceptions among Qatari students studying at an international branch campus of an American institution of higher education. After an extensive review of the literature, no current research on student leadership development discussed leadership experiences within the cultural context of the Arabian Gulf, including Qatar, or at international branch campuses of American institutions.;This study contributes to the literature on undergraduate leadership definitions and perceptions by expanding the research on leadership development to include the global experiences at international branch campuses of higher. The findings identify Qatari students' perceptions of leadership experiences at the campus and how Qatari students construct leadership within their cultural context. The findings from this study also suggest that perceptions of leadership are embedded within the social and cultural context of Qatari culture. Five themes emerged from the data providing a framework to describe the social and cultural construction of leadership within the Qatari students' community. This study affirms that Western postindustrial and industrial definitions of leadership are not independently relevant to Qatari students studying at an international branch campus. This study provides a set of guidelines that can be used by educators at international branch campuses in Qatar to develop leadership programs that resonate with the social and cultural construction of leadership within the Qatari context. |
