Historically, women and minorities have been underrepresented in executive school leadership. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the lived experiences of Five African American women who in spite of historical statistics became superintendents. The pathways taken by African American women superintendents have failed to manifest educational leadership literature. Researchers, who have chosen to study African American women in leadership, focus mostly on the barriers they face. Findings from this study may be used to inform minority women with superintendent aspirations of experiences that led others to the top. The findings may also be use to support efforts made by university administrators to include the stories of African American women in educational leadership discourse. The methodology used for data collection was a semi-structured interview with Five Superintendents across a southeastern state. The themes that emerged from this study include: Early Aspirations, Professional Experiences, Job Attainment, Mobility, and Reflections. The professional experiences of each participant varied, as each took a different route to the superintendency. They credited their job attainment to student success, their ability to develop teachers, being the only qualified candidate, and a reputation of being fair and consistent. Findings that emerged from an investigating into past mobility, reveals that majority of the participants were the first African American Women Superintendents appointed to their respective districts. Overall, an attribute common to all their stories of ascension was a Barrier-to-Opportunity mindset. Each addressed what others would consider a barrier as an opportunity to grow and showcase their abilities.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-09042013-193017 |
| Date | 07 October 2013 |
| Creators | Johnson , Kimberly Gales |
| Contributors | Kotrlik, Joe W., Wei, Yung-Chiao, Mitchell, Roland, Machtmes, Krisanna |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-09042013-193017/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein 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 LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, 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. |
Page generated in 0.0017 seconds