Communities still look upon universities for leadership because university coordinated programs are regarded as catalysts for change. My study is an exploration of a university-coordinated forum that provides a gendered space for women to excel in school leadership. My research, conducted as a case study, explored ways in which women as participants of the Jean Winsand International Institute (JWII) are fostering a community of practice among aspiring and practicing educational administrators in Western Pennsylvania. By focusing on womens perceptions, this study helps reshape and document the collective voices of women in educational administration in Western Pennsylvania in order to provide formative feedback for the Institute. Using communities of practice as an analysis tool, my case study focused on the broader picture of professional development by addressing the how, why, for whom and by what means the JWII affects its participants. This case study used mixed methodology research design and is framed within constructivism. All past and current attendees of this forum were my informants. For data collection, I used informal interviews, a pre-survey with 7 open-ended questionnaire items and a demographic section, and a final original survey instrument with 94 structured Likert-type rating scale and 9 open-ended items. I used forum agendas for document analysis and also collected data through participant observation of the annual conference. Major findings show that although the JWII is serving multiple cohorts well in fostering women school leaders it still lacks racial diversity and has difficulties attracting young professionals because of systemic and policy constraints. Overall, the JWII is attuned to issues of social justice as it provides a gendered space for practitioners to acquire and share knowledge and skills relevant to their practice in the schools.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-04282006-150423 |
| Date | 01 May 2006 |
| Creators | Matambanadzo, Annamore Masiiwa |
| Contributors | Dr. William E. Bickel, Dr. R. Tony Eichelberger, Dr. Elaine N. Rubinstein, Dr. Maureen K. Porter |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-04282006-150423/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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