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Leadership Studies education is a highly personal endeavor shaped by the personal experiences and philosophies of leadership educators. However, when course design collaboration opportunities are presented, teaching approaches and curriculum prioritization may be at odds because of distinct personal narratives. This article frames disagreement over course design as an unexpected yet useful tool for facilitating individual and collective examination of leadership educators’ narratives and how they inform teaching and curriculum priorities. Drawing from standpoint theory and positionality, this work emphasizes that questions about how and what to teach in a leadership course are influenced by life experiences of leadership educators.

Storytelling is one of many instructional strategies used in leadership education with the promise of providing transformative learning through individual and communal meaning-making. In this application manuscript, we offer examples and discussion of how learners identify storytelling in course design and approach, and their perception of its impact in classroom experiences. We present two undergraduate leadership courses at our former respective institutions and reflect on how learner insights about storytelling can inform future course design and delivery. Framing teaching and learning as a relational enterprise, storytelling can facilitate purposeful, inclusive, ethical, and process-oriented learning when used as an instructional strategy. Additionally, our reflection provides leadership educators with a broader view of the responsibilities incurred when using storytelling and offers strategies to build trust and community in classroom spaces.