Intersectional Identities and Educational Leadership of Black Women in the USA

Sonya Douglass Horsford, Linda C. Tillman, Sonya Douglass Horsford, Linda C. Tillman

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781134913381
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Liderazgo en educación

This volume examines the educational leadership of Black women in the U.S. as informed by their raced and gendered positionalities, experiences, perspectives, and most importantly, the intersection of these doubly marginalized identities in school and community contexts. While there are bodies of research literature on women in educational leadership, as well as the leadership development, philosophies, and approaches of Black or African American educational leaders, this issue interrogates the ways in which the Black woman's socially constructed intersectional identity informs her leadership values, approach, and impact.

As an act of self-invention, the volume simultaneously showcases the research and voices of Black women scholars – perspectives traditionally silenced in the leadership discourse generally, and educational leadership discourse specifically. Whether the empirical or conceptual focus is a Black female school principal, African American female superintendent, Black feminist of the early twentieth century, or Black woman education researcher, the framing and analysis of each article interrogates how the unique location of the Black woman, at the intersection of race and gender, shapes and influences their lived personal and/or professional experiences as educational leaders.

This collection will be of interest to education leadership researchers, faculty, and students, practicing school and district administrators, and readers interested in education leadership studies, leadership theory, Black feminist thought, intersectionality, and African American leadership.

This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.

Introduction
Inventing herself: examining the intersectional identities and educational leadership of Black women in the USA

Douglass Horsford Sonya^a and C. Tillman Linda^b

^aThe Lincy Institute, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, USA; ^bThe Lincy Institute, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, USA

And she [Black woman] had nothing to fall back on; not maleness, not whiteness, not ladyhood, not anything. And out of the profound desolation of her reality she may well have invented herself. (Morrison 1971, 63)

In the 1971 New York Times Magazine article, “What the Black women thinks about women’s lib,” Nobel and Pulitzer Prize award-winning author Toni Morrison commented on what she described as the source of Black women’s despair and despondency. She explained how the daily pressures of housework, childrearing, and working outside the home in “a place her mate could not get or which his pride would not let him accept,” challenged the Black woman’s reality, a place where she was rendered largely invisible to society and unworthy of the privileges associated with being male, white, or a “lady” (63).

Morrison’s remarks, which would later make their way into her 1973 book, Sula, reflect the oppositional discourses that reemerged in the 1970s and 1980s by Black women who rejected the limited conceptions of feminism purported by white women feminists, and sought to theorize Black feminisms in the tradition of women such as Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Anna Julia Cooper, Mary McLeod Bethune, Septima Clark, and Ella Baker (James and Busia 1993). In fact, Black feminist scholars of the twentieth century continued this legacy of inventing herself through self-definition, theory building, and heeding Collins’ (1990) call to proffer “theoretical interpretations of Black women’s reality by those who live it” (22).

This special issue is yet another response to the call. Research on Black women in educational leadership has focused primarily on their lived experiences as graduate students and/or faculty members (Cleveland 2004; Grant and Simmons 2008; Green and Scott 2003; Guy-Sheftall 1993; Peters 2011; Tillman 2001, 2011), school principals (Loder 2005; Reed and Evans 2008; Tillman 2004, 2009; Witherspoon and Mitchell 2009), superintendents (Alston 2005; Horsford 2010, 2011), and across various historical, political, and cultural contexts (Alston and McClellan 2011; Bass 2009; Cooper 2007; Loder 2005; Randolph and Sanders 2011). While this growing body of work has expanded our understanding of Black women educational leaders in important ways, research on how the intersectional identities of Black women inform their leadership in school and school communities warrants greater study.

The purpose of this special issue is to examine the educational leadership of Black women in the USA as informed by their raced and gendered positionalities, experiences, perspectives, and most importantly, the intersection of these marginalized identities in school and community contexts. Although there exists research literature on women in educational leadership (Biklen and Brannigan 1980; Gardiner, Enomoto, and Grogan 2000; Shakeshaft 1999; Young and McLeod 2001) as well as the leadership development, philosophies, and approaches of Black or African-American educational leaders (Gooden 2005; Horsford 2010, 2011; Lomotey 1990; Moody 1971; Morris 2009; Tillman 2009; Walker 2009), this issue interrogates the ways in which the Black woman’s socially constructed intersectional identity informs her leadership values, approach, and impact. When articulating the challenges of Black women principals or superintendents, one must carefully consider whether the challenges are due to their Blackness, womanhood, neither, or both.

Additionally, it is important to assess whether or not other factors such as age, professional experience, sexuality, ability, and context (e.g. a predominately Black urban high school where gender may become more of an issue as opposed to a pre-dominately white college campus where race may be the focus) have an impact. This degree of analysis is increasingly important in fields of study where maleness, whiteness, and/or ladyhood have dominated theoretical, epistemological, and methodological approaches and perspectives, thus limiting the richness of research informed by a diversity of racial, gendered, and intersectional points of view. In our effort to contribute to the research literature on intersectionality and Black women’s leadership in the field of educational administration, this special issue and the articles herein draw heavily from Black Feminist Thought, leadership theory, and intersectionality.

Content of the special issue

As an act of self-invention, this special issue showcases the research and voices of Black women scholars — perspectives traditionally silenced in the leadership discourse generally, and educational leadership discourse specifically. Whether the empirical or conceptual focus is a Black female school principal, an African-American female superintendent, a Black feminist of the early twentieth century, or a Black woman education researcher, the framing and analysis of each article interrogate how the unique location of the Black woman, at the intersection of race and gender, shapes and influences their lived personal and/or professional experiences as educational leaders.

In the opening essay, “This bridge called my leadership: an essay on Black women as bridge leaders in education,” Sonya Douglass Horsford contextualizes the current research literature on leadership for diversity, equity, and social justice in education with a discussion of bridge leadership as historically practiced by Black women leaders in the USA from emancipation to the present. Her essay seeks to demonstrate how the intersectional identity of the Black women leader has resulted in her “serving as a bridge for others, to others, and between others in multiple and complicated contexts over time” and concludes with a discussion of how bridge leadership can serve as an effective model for leading today’s diverse and dynamic school communities.

In the next article, “Leading through the challenge of change: African-American women principals on small school reform,” April Peters uses Afrocentric feminist epistemology to analyze the experiences of two Black female principals charged with implementing a small school reform initiative in an urban school district in the northeastern region of the USA. While the study focused on their racial and gendered identities, Peters also found that the age and middle-class upbringing of both individuals informed their leadership identity and practice in important ways, along with perceptions of being “cleanup women” within the context of top-down small school reform.

Similarly, Latish Reed’s article, “The intersection of race and gender in school leadership for three Black female principals,” underscores the significance of race, gender, age, and leadership context for three urban secondary school principals who are Black, female, and leading predominantly Black school communities. Using a multi-case study approach framed by Bloom and Erlandson’s (2003) assumptions about Black feminist epistemology regarding historical context, shared lived experiences, diverse intersectional identities, and varied degrees of experiences with oppression by Black women, Reed’s findings contribute to the extant literature on the “long-standing tradition of Black women school leaders making quiet, but steady advancements on behalf of the children they serve” while reflecting the complexity of Black women’s leadership given their multiple identities, contexts, and experiences.

In “Making the case for the outlier: researcher reflections of an African-American female deputy superintendent who decided to close the achievement gap,” Karen Stansberry Beard explores the identity, values, and efforts of a Black female deputy superintendent committed to closing the achievement gap. Using Black feminist theory as an analytical frame, Beard describes how the participant’s leadership identity informed her decision-making processes and practices in ways that resulted in improved academic outcomes for children in her school district.

In the article, “When care trumps justice: the operationalization of Black feminist caring in educational leadership,” Lisa Bass presents findings from a qualitative, exploratory, multi-case study that examined the ethic of care as demonstrated in the leadership practices of five African-American women within the context of education. Her analysis extends our understanding of how the characteristics of Black feminist caring are operationalized in schools and recommends “care promoting” policies designed to improve conditions for teaching and learning in schools.

Patrice McClellan’s, “Race, gender, and leadership identity: an autoethnography of reconciliation” offers a personal journey of her experiences researching the educational leadership of Black men and how this process informed her own leadership identity as a Black woman researcher and higher education administrator. She describes her expectations of connecting with the study participants who shared her race, but subsequent feelings of disappointment and frustration that manifested based on her positionality as a Black woman researching Black men as opposed to Black women.

The leadership development and preparation of Black women for the professoriate in the field of educational leadership is also an area requiring greater study. In her article, “Advancing our legacy: a Black feminist perspective on the significance of mentoring for African-American women in educational leadership,” Cosette M. Grant explores the specific mentoring experiences of five African-American females during their doctoral programs in educational leadership and their influence on their advancement into faculty posts at predominately white institutions, providing insight into the mentoring experiences most salient to their successful transition into the academy.

In “Inventing ourselves: an informed essay for Black female scholars in educational leadership,” Linda C. Tillman shares her lived experiences as a faculty member and educational leader. She argues that Black female scholars must keep their eyes on the prize and offers suggestions for defining one’s own success, developing a strategic plan, and building and sustaining mentoring relationships.

The issue concludes with Judy Alston’s, “Standing on the promises: a new generation of Black women scholars in educational leadership and beyond,” which highlights the contributions of Black women who engaged ethical leadership, transformational leadership, critical servant leadership, and social justice leadership practices. Alston argues that these leadership models and their subsequent contributions are worthy of serving as units of analysis in the study and practice of educational leadership.

Student voices and concluding thoughts

We found it important to include the voices of doctoral students who are Black, female, and interested in the research literature on K-12 and higher education contexts. As such, we solicited questions from doctoral students of educational administration and conclude with Professor Linda C. Tillman’s responses to inquiries from twins Crystal and Willa Barker, doctoral students in Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Oklahoma.

Crystal: Does the representation of African-American women in educational leadership correspond to the increased presence of African-centered perspectives in school settings?

Tillman: It is important to put school site leadership in context. While many of the largest K-12 public school systems are very diverse in terms of student population (some of them with single race schools), 82% of K-12 public school principals are white, while only 11% are Black. Of that 11%, Black females make up approximately 4% of the principalship. Thus, school site leadership continues to remain primarily dominated by men, and particularly white men. However, the increased number of Black women who earn Masters degrees, the PhD and the EdD in educational leadership indicates that more Black females are employed as either assistant principals or principals and that the pipeline for such positions is growing. Additionally, there is a growing body of scholarship focused on the leadership of Black females in K-12 leadership. While much of this work is based on case studies, it is significant that the field of educational leadership has seen an increase in scholarship that documents the lives and work of Black female principals. There have also been increases in the number of Black female faculty in educational lead-ership. Since I joined the faculty ranks in 1996, there has been tremendous increase in the number of Black females who earn the terminal degree and assume faculty positions as well as administrative positions. I think that in both K-12 education and higher education the increased number of Black women is a sign that there is some relationship between the recognition of the knowledge and unique perspectives that Black women bring to K-12 and higher education.

Crystal: What triumphant stories can be told of African-American women who have shattered the glass ceiling in educational leadership?

Tillman: With respect to K-12 public education there are numerous examples of Black women who lead successful schools, who have provided for the social, emotional and academic needs of the children they serve, and who have then assumed positions as district superintendents. For example, Rosa Smith, Arlene Ackerman, and Maria Goodloe-Johnson, all Black females, became superintendents in districts which were traditionally led by white males. I am sure that there are many other Black women who have poked holes in and then eventually shattered ceilings that existed in school districts across the country and went on to assume top leadership positions. Again, the context of public school leadership at this level is primarily white. However, Black women continue to make gains as they aspire to top leadership positions in public schools. With respect to higher education, I think the most significant gains for Black women leaders can be found in the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Unlike predominantly white institutions, there are far more Black women who are presidents, provosts, vice presidents and deans in HBCUs. Among the predominantly white institutions, I think the most striking example of Black female leadership is Dr. Ruth Simmons who is President of Brown University. Dr. Simmons made history when she became the first African-American President of Smith College. She was an outstanding leader as President of Smith and has been what many con-sider to be an excellent leader at Brown. Another example is Dr. Shirley Jackson who is president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is considered to be one of the leading experts in the sciences, having served as the Chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission under former President Bill Clinton. So there are many examples of Black women leaders who have not only shattered glass ceilings, but poked a hole in a ceiling big enough so that other Black women could have opportunities to lead and experience success.

Crystal: Is there a correlation between pay discrimination and the degree of expressions of Afro-centricity in African-American women leaders?

Tillman: In resear...