Defying Race and Gender Expectations: Asian American Women Administrators Leading for Educational Justice

• In Event: Crown Plaza Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: The Role Of API Administrators and Teachers in Education

Abstract

Asian American school administrators’ experiences leading the K-12 educational system have been under-researched and under-theorized. Drawing on the traditions of critical race theory in education, this qualitative, multi-case study underscores the leadership experiences of seven Asian American women school administrators in one Pacific state. The study finds these administrators’ race, gender and intersectional identities have shaped their attitudes, beliefs, and expectations as school leaders. The women administrators’ race-gender epistemologies provided them the ability to critique the racist and patriarchal norms of school leadership, and to harness expectations of themselves and for others by creating conditions to reject these norms and reconstruct the ways in which equity is defined in their school.

Authors

• Jia Grace Liang, Kansas State University

• Daniel D Liou, Arizona State University