In-country: identification of transformational learning and leadership in human rights observers

Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, has suffered through
centuries of disenfranchisement, poverty, slavery, environmental disasters, internecine
racial prejudice, and foreign infringement. Its people won independence from France in
1804 but only at the cost of huge human and financial losses. Since then, Haiti has
known little freedom or democracy. In 1991, the first truly democratically elected
president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was elected (with a 67% majority). Nine months later,
he was deposed by a military coup d'état. During that time and the chaotic years that
followed, groups of human rights observers traveled to Haiti in an attempt to record and
report publically, officially, what was actually happening to the Haitian people and their
institutions. Although much has been written about the country during that period, there
have been no studies focused on the human rights observers who were intimately
involved with the people and the country. These groups and other groups participating in similar situations have not been studied and, yet, research in that area might provide
important insights in the field of social justice. It is important to identify what encourages individuals to become a part of the effort to make a positive difference in the lives of others, in the most adverse situations, the process by which human rights observers become engaged, and how that engagement affects their lives both during and after their in-country experiences. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to see if there are commonalities (e.g., socio-cultural influence, self-directed learning readiness, etc.) among the initial in-country experiences of several human rights observers and further to discover what, if any, effect those experiences had on their leadership styles.
The study identified socio-cultural influences (self-directed learning readiness and
familial, religious, educational impact); motivational factors; methods of processing the
experience (immediate responses of connectedness/love and reasoned responses
involving individual and group reflection); and multiple outcomes (spiritualty, social
action, and creativity). The overarching findings included identification of
transformational learning in the participants and the evolution of their leadership from the servant model into a transformational/chaos model, including reflection in and on action as an operating context.