Toward a Conceptualization of Leadership for Change

Abstract

This paper concerns a conceptualization of leadership for change in adult education, i.e., how change can be effected and who brings it about. The change process, itself, is delineated in terms of research on the subject. Personal influence and opinion leader ship, as these affect the change process, are examined as well as resistance forces, adoption, diffusion, and perpetuation of change. The change leader's helping and leadership roles are detailed. The author advises that this research cannot provide all the answers needed for adult education change leadership. More research re garding communication barriers between social classes, class value difference affecting group participation versus spectatorship, effec tive learning approaches to the lower socio-economic adult, im poverishment barriers to learning, and instruments for measuring these is needed before a definitive, reliable methodology can be provided to leaders of change in adult education.