Participation in a professional association's annual national conference A phenomenological inquiry into the perceptions of underrepresented educational leadership faculty

Researchers have noted the persistent challenges that underrepresented faculty still encounter in higher education. For example, female and ethnic minority faculty members continue to experience barriers in achieving tenure and promotion. In spite of efforts to increase their presence and visibility, structural barriers account for the continued under representation of these minority faculty. Within this context, this study investigated the perceptions of underrepresented faculty regarding their participation in annual national conferences conducted by the leading professional association for Educational Leadership faculty. Three research questions guided this study: (1) What are the perceptions of underrepresented Educational Leadership faculty members regarding their experiences at their Association's annual national conferences? (2) How do these perceptions relate to their career advancement and professional development as professors of Educational Leadership? (3) What differences, if any, are reflected in the perceptions of assistant, associate, and full professors; and what factors are associated with these differences? Participant observations and open-ended interviews during two of the Association's annual conferences were the primary data collection methods. Conference activities included governance meetings, general assemblies, scheduled meetings, roundtable discussions, paper presentations, symposia, and informal evening receptions. Data were gathered from 18 participants: nine underrepresented Educational Leadership faculty and nine non-underrepresented faculty [i.e., Anglo male]. The professorial rank of participants ranged from pre-tenured assistant professor to full professor. Data were analyzed using a phenomenological approach that enabled the researcher to explore in depth the lived experiences of participants. Results are presented in the form of three "composite" personal narratives representing a synthesis of perceptions of underrepresented faculty members at the assistant, associate, and full professor levels. One "amalgamated" portrait is of a young African-American male who recently received his Ph.D.; another is of a 45-year-old White female tenured associate professor; and the third is of a nationally known Latina full professor. Results suggest that issues of inclusion, exclusion, status, recognition, gender, identity construction, reference groups, specialized development and treatment, and racial diversity were challenges faced by the participants

Theological authority in the hymns and spirituals of American Protestantism, 1830-1930

This dissertation examines theological authority in the hymns and spirituals of American Protestantism within the period 1830-1930. It investigates the deuterocanonical status of hymns in hymnic-theological commentary, and demonstrates the functional canonicity of hymns in three case studies (children's hymnody, African American spirituals, and hymns of marginalized groups), and two representative areas of praxis (conversion and missions). This dissertation consults a variety of primary source materials, both elite and popular, including journals, biographies, conference minutes, academic addresses, theological works, hymn prefaces, domestic novels, newspapers, and poetry. These sources are used to situate the hymnal in the cultural context of American Protestantism and determine the status and role of hymnody. As the Bible is acclaimed the exclusive canonical text of Protestantism, consideration of the hymnal's theological authority in canonical terms is at odds with Protestant biblicism. As such, this dissertation's claim that the hymnal shared, to a significant degree, the Bible's place as a textual source of theological authority, is intellectually innovative. In identifying didactic and doctrinal themes in hymnals, primarily through systematic theology, this dissertation shows the role of hymns and spirituals in regulative theology and audible faith. Thus defended in this dissertation, is the hymnal's capacity to adjudicate on matters of faith and praxis. Of additional importance to this dissertation is its contribution toward hymnic theology, as well as demonstrating the hymnal's influence upon historical theology, liturgical theology, cultural theology, and evangelistic theology. This dissertation yields various insights for theology, especially the soteriological efficacy· of hymnody, the role of hymns in regulative theology, and the discussion of antiSemitism and black-liberation theology in African American spirituals. In applied theology and congregational studies the ramifications are critical, with the analysis of hymnic authority, the intersection of singing and doctrine (lex cantandi lex credendi), and the Bible and hymnal as mutually constitutive, all of paramount importance