abstract
- Secondary education has a key role in developing sustainable leadership skills in students. Thus, this research study intends to analyze the characteristics of sustainable leadership of the students of secondary education in two schools (one urban and the other rural) of Madeira Island (Portugal) and looks for to determine the existing differences concerning the type of school and the gender of the students in eight distinct domains: 1) self management; 2) interpersonal relations; 3) problem solving/decision making; 4) cognitive critical development/analysis; 5) organization and planning; 6) self-confidence; 7) diversity awareness; and, 8) technology. It was used, to collect data, the Student Leadership Outcomes Inventory (SLOI) (Vann, 2000) an instrument with 60 items which was constructed to measure the results of the experiences of leadership of students in eight distinct areas. A total of 158 senior students participated in this study. Participants of this study had revealed moderate levels of sustainable abilities of leadership in the eight sub-scales. In general, we can affirm that students of Madeira Island finish secondary education with several well developed sustainable leadership skills.