Franciscan education has a long tradition of educating the whole student—educating to make better citizens. The focus of this research was to examine the success of that tradition, namely, whether a positive correlation exists between servant leadership of faculty members and higher levels of engagement with their students. Full-time professors at three Franciscan institutions of higher education completed the Servant Leadership Questionnaire (SLQ), which measures participants’ level of servant leadership, and the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (FSSE), which measures the engagement of the students with faculty. The results of the SLQ and FSSE were organized to answer two research questions: (1) To what extent do faculty in these institutions exhibit the qualities of servant leadership? (2) Among full-time professors teaching at Franciscan institutions of higher education, what is the relationship between servant leadership and deep approaches to learning? This study captured the effects of self-identified faculty “servant ” leaders and their potential to encourage deeper approaches to learning for students, with the hope of creating an environment more squarely within the Franciscan tradition of this learning community. The study’s results indicated a link between servant leadership and deep approaches to learning with a strong correlation to emotional healing. The electronic version of this Dissertation is at OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd
