Imaginative (un)learning in leadership education: how cognitive tools and community-based collaboration cultivate imaginations

Purpose In complex and economically, socially, politically and ecologically volatile times, leading is exceptionally difficult. Imagination is vital in navigating unprecedented challenges and in exploring new possible solutions. Imagination is increasingly recognized as essential to leadership; however, it is unclear how imagination is taught or cultivated in leadership education programs. The purpose of this research is to understand the catalysts of learning about leadership and about imagination in an imaginatively designed, community-engaged leadership series called the Imaginative School Symposium Series (ISSS). Design/methodology/approach The ISSS involved a three-part series of community-engaged workshops intentionally designed to cultivate and enact imagination and to practice imaginative-focused leadership by employing a pedagogical approach called imaginative education (IE). The ISSS was part of a two-year imagination-focused Master of Education (MEd) program. This project builds upon previous research exploring participants’ learning in the imagination-focused MEd program. In that research, participants identified that their participation in the ISSS was transformative. In the current study, we conducted a content analysis of participants’ reflective assignments to better understand their learning in the ISSS. Findings Findings reveal how cognitive tools of IE employed in a community-engaged collaborative learning context can provoke emotional unlearning and can create time and space for exploring and cultivating leadership imagination. Originality/value Practically, leadership education programs can benefit from employing IE pedagogy and by including real-world community-based components that simultaneously cultivate imagination (thus increasing its fertility) and require leadership students to enact imagination in relation to leadership issues.