Urban Education

Using five of her own journal entries, the author tells a collective story. Through this form, she raises some issues that are both in the theoretical literature and in the everyday work lives of Black women.

Although women are obtaining and maintaining powerful positions in education and other entities, African American women represent a serious minority. This article examines the lack of literature on Black women in leadership and offers some suggestions to help fill the void of Black women in the role of superintendent.

It is clear that role models are important for all aspiring educational administrators. What, then, can be done when role models and representations of women of color are so difficult to find for female graduate students who aspire to the superintendency? This article examines the effect of representative literature on one Black female graduate student as she focuses her attention on the possibility of becoming a superintendent.

This article is a personal account of experiences of discrimination against an Asian American female educator as she attempted to obtain a county superintendency position. The concept of faultlines is used to address issues of social similarities and differences. Policy implications and practices intended to bring about change are explored.

For Hispanic women, the succession process is controlled by those who wish to bring order and stability to the district through ethnic representation. In a limited sample of 12, the majority of cases show that succession is controlled by school board members and former superintendents holding search committee membership.

This article describes the ways in which mentoring provides the means for women of color to gain entry and access into educational administration. Briefly, the authors sketch the mentoring relationships of their respondents of color and explore how issues of race and gender might have affected careers in educational administration and how mentoring aided in negotiating their way within Whitemale-dominated organizations.

This article presents examples and research findings that contradict the typical stereotypes of Latina leadership. The idea that Latina superintendents are atypical of their ethnicity and gender is examined for the purpose of claiming Latina leadership legacies. These legacies bring an alternative perspective to the discourse on leadership.

This poem was composed from the interview data of a participant in a qualitative study on what it is like to be a woman superintendent. These are all her words. The author has rearranged them a little and added or deleted a preposition here and there. The author chose this method of representation to capture the superintendent’s original rhythms, images, and metaphors.

In this article, the author uses the metaphor of a tempest to describe superintendency succession and reform in urban schools. This article describes the context of a city corporation’s attempt at initiating reform and focuses on two city school administrators—one a newly hired Latina superintendent and the other an African American female assistant superintendent.

In this piece, the author discusses recent feminist theory, in particular feminist theory of cyborg identity, and examines some media representations of a woman-of-color superintendent. It is suggested that the cyborg image offers alternative ways to consider the issue of diversity and educational leadership, including the superintendency.

This kinesthetic piece evokes and provokes the reader into a visceral experience. This provocation is used to transfer the internal emotional reactions of women of color as they continue to face a world that does not recognize or value their worth as leaders.

Non-Native American superintendents who lack the qualities of spirituality and community connectedness engage in discourses that silence and destroy relationships with the community. Lakota Indian Sandy White Hawk views the quality of community as essential in redirecting a superintendent’s role from power over to power with to nurture community relationships.