Negotiating race and gender in marginalized work settings

Building on earlier research and discourse on women in educational leadership, we conducted a qualitative secondary analysis on conceptual and empirical research. A permeating theme throughout literature was women’s ability to negotiate gender and race in a historically marginalizing working environment. A key assertion made by authors is that by incorporating this dimension to their leadership can be helpful for those who search for life-sustaining contexts while simultaneously empowering themselves as agents of transformative change (Shields, 2010) who align everyday practice with core values. Implications and recommendation are offered that capture the impact of how women leadership behaviors interplay with race and gender

Preparing practitioners to conduct educational research and evaluation: What the research says and what our experiences taught us

The purpose of this article is to share the insights gleaned from the literature and our on-the-ground realities teaching practitioners to conduct educational research and evaluation. We focus on four areas we have found most important for teaching practitioner-scholars: (a) giving careful attention to andragogy versus pedagogy, (b) engaging the potency that team teaching affords, (c) addressing challenges associated with the practitioner-scholar model, and (d) building on the strengths of the cohort model. We share the challenges and possibilities of each strategy and close by offering recommendations for the educational leadership field in moving forward

The importance of safe space and student voice in schools that serve minoritized learners

This article is based on an ethnography conducted over a six year period that used participant observation, photography, focus groups, and interviews to discover and describe the emergent school culture and the lived experiences of female secondary students in an all-girls college preparatory school. This article shares the story of a group of women educators who created a novel school culture, and the female students who meet them there, to disrupt and transform the dailiness of sexism, racism, and classism. Through a commitment to building a supportive school culture that includes developing robust relationships and forefronting the voices of women, this community of learners is working in a very socially just way so as to confront the past and interrupt the present, and revolutionize future trajectories of historically minoritized peoples

Negotiating the double mandate: Mapping ethical conflict experienced by practicing educational administrators

The purpose of this study was to capture and describe ethical conflict experienced by seasoned educational administrators. Narrative inquiry via electronic survey was conducted with 42 participants with follow-up interviews conducted with a smaller sample of purposefully-selected participants. Findings suggest that ethical conflict is inherent in the practice of educational leadership and is most often experienced in relation to colleagues when the ethics of justice and care collide. Moreover, leaders’ ability to mitigate conflict, which is exacerbated by institutional and external factors, is improved when coupled by longevity and diversity of leadership experiences. Finally, the role leadership preparation programs and in-service professional development play in building theoretical foundations and competence in applied ethical decision-making cannot be overestimated

A study of Career Pathways policy with implications for educational leaders

This explanatory mixed-methods study began with a quantitative survey to investigate counselor beliefs and implementation behaviors related to providing college and career planning services to high school students. Survey results informed the development and implementation of interview protocol designed to provide deeper insight into counselors’ decision-making and implementation fidelity. Findings revealed that while counselors place substantial value in state and district policies, and believe their implementation decisions connect student interests and postsecondary goals to appropriate high school programs of study, they spend more time assisting students of higher socioeconomic status with college planning, resulting in less time for supporting students more likely to need their specialized assistance. Implications for educational leaders are discussed

‘Creating smooth spaces in striated places’: Toward a global theory for examining social justice leadership in schools

This chapter shares an original social justice framework that emerged in conjunction with conducting a 2-year ethnography studying the culture of an urban all-girls’ secondary school. I refer to this new interpretive lens as “Facilitating social justice by creating smooth spaces in striated places” or the striated-smooth construct. The meaning-making that occurred during and after the study did not follow a firm temporal chronology or emerge linearly within tidy categorical disciplines. Essentially, my path of learning was a porous and rhizomatic interlacing of past, present, and future – germinating from the intellectual, spiritual, and corporeal –scaffolding upon knowledge, faith, and lived experience. In short, this theory-building experience was more akin to dialogue between mind, soul, and body. Rather than “own” this theory of social justice and explicitly detail a list of “rules” one must follow, I offer this inspiration as just one conception of social justice that might be used to facilitate the creative thinking of others that has potential to move the field forward as well as be applied to other societal contexts

The color of giftedness: A policy genealogy implicating educators past, present, and future

This article offers a critical rereading of gifted education in the United States using a genealogical framework as defined by postcolonial theory. Using genealogy is appropriate because it sets the education profession within a family research tradition, implies the close connection between past and present, and enables us to systematically trace the evolution of exclusionary practices. The purpose of this article is to (a) demonstrate the utility of using historical research to undergird justice work in education, (b) show how gifted education policies and practices in the United States operate under a global context of whiteness and colonization, and (c) foster dialogue around ways educators can begin to disrupt taken-for-granted assumptions and work toward establishing more equitable schooling processes and outcomes

Mentoring educational leadership doctoral students: Using methodological diversification to examine gender and identity intersections

An essential component to learning and teaching in educational leadership is mentoring graduate students for successful transition to K-12 and higher education positions. This study integrates quantitative and qualitative datasets to examine doctoral students’ experiences with mentoring from macro and micro perspectives. Findings show that students have varied perceptions on what constitutes quality mentoring and wide-ranging experiences in terms of the quantity and quality of mentoring experienced. Moreover, findings suggest that the ways students perceive and experience mentoring is related to their identity factors, especially gender. Findings have implications for strengthening this essential component of leadership preparation programs; and thus, recommendations for different strategies, programmatic supports, and structural changes within university departments and professional organizations are forwarded

The growth of single-sex schools: Federal policy meets local needs and interests

Changes to Title IX allowing the growth of single-sex schools have garnered media attention promoting the benefits of separating boys and girls. Alternately, civil rights groups such as the ACLU continue to oppose any type of school segregation. Within this context, a private philanthropy, the Foundation for the Education of Young Women (FEYW) has established public-private partnerships with six Texas school districts to open all-girls’ public college prep magnet schools with plans to expand. This multi-year ethno-historical case study explores the meaning making of one community in the FEYW network as it attempts to make sense of federal policy at the local level. The topic is important to the field of education because it is timely: changes to Title IX and the growth in single-sex arrangements pose interesting legal and sociological questions about equity and justice since it links Title IX (an equity-driven policy) with the choice provisions in NCLB (a market-driven policy). The significance of this study lies in the unique use of ethnography as interpretive policy analysis to show how local communities (re)interpret federal policy to better align with their personal values and more adequately address contextual complexities in their attempts to do what they believe is best for students

What do students have to do with educational leadership?: Making a case for centering student voice

The purpose of this article is to illustrate the value of educational leaders intentionally including students in shaping the policies and practices that affect young people’s schooling experiences. First, we share the literature on student voice and introduce Principal Orientations for Critical Youth Educational Leadership as a conceptual model, advocating ways leaders can engage young people in school governance. Second, we share an empirical example from our research that holds promise to build caring, equitable, and responsive classrooms and schools by centering students’ voices. Finally, we consider what our findings mean for educational leadership preparation programs