Leadership Traits in the Door of Opportunity and Teachers’ Perception of a Leader

Abstract

The paper analyzes the attributes of a colonist or a leader in ‘The Door of Opportunity” aiming to investigate contemporary teachers’ perception of leadership characteristics: courage, intelligence, valuing oneself, knowledge, aesthetics sense and stereotype gender roles which are portrayed in “The Door of Opportunity”. It also focuses to evaluate the extent teachers are in line with the perception of leadership of the society presented in the story, and shown in Alban’s personality, the protagonist of the story. The study uses mixed method; quantitative and content analysis. Based on the results of the content analysis, a questionnaire is designed without referring to the story for the sake of objectivity. The results of the content analysis point out courage and masculinity as an important characteristic of a leader or colonist. The quantitative analysis through a questionnaire shows that a vast majority of the participants consider courage, intelligence, protecting people and good literary taste as positive leadership traits; while, feminine characteristics in male leaders and masculine features in female leaders are viewed negatively. The paper concludes that the participants’ views about stereotype roles of gender in a leader are somewhat compatible with Ann and the society’s perceptions in the text but incompatible with Alban’s stance on leadership qualities.