Self-leadership through self-reflection: guiding nursing faculty in taking ownership of their teaching practices in nursing education institutions

ABSTRACT The ever-changing higher education milieu calls for a new way of leadership that ensures success for faculty working in academic institutions, including nursing education institutions. Whilst the available literature describes faculty self-leadership and its benefits in broader academic environments, there is dearth of literature that describes how nursing faculty’s self-reflection could be enhanced through self-leadership. This article shares four validated guidelines related to nursing faculty taking responsibility for their self-leadership by reflecting on their teaching practices. A broad exploratory, descriptive sequential mixed-methods study was conducted with nursing faculty from two provinces in South Africa to develop guidelines to facilitate their self-leadership. Guidelines were developed based on the findings of an integrative literature review and data from the qualitative and quantitative phases. The integrated data were used to draw concluding statements. Based on these statements, guidelines for the facilitation of self-leadership in nursing faculty were developed. The four guidelines related to nursing faculty taking ownership of their self-leadership of their teaching practices relate to self-reflection, goal setting, self-development, and collaboration. Nursing faculty should be encouraged to take ownership of their teaching practices, acquaint, and align themselves to institutional values and vision, thus prompting them practice self-leadership through self-reflection.