Lens 2: Opportunities, Careers, Representation

• In Event: Whose Truth Is Heard? Women School Leaders Across Continents

Abstract

This lens is represented by four researchers who have studied women’s career opportunities and representation. They have primarily used survey research and qualitative interview methods.

Representation of Women of Color in the Superintendency in the United States. These researchers examined the status of nationwide district level leadership and the pathways that lead to them. They developed a comprehensive profile of the 43 women of color superintendents who participated in the most recent iteration of the Association of American School Administrators’ Decennial Survey 2020. Endeavoring to establish an asset-based investigation of the experiences of women serving in the superintendency, they used an intersectional lens to explore the following research questions: (1) What are the characteristics of schools that women of color serve in the superintendency? (2) What are the priorities of women of color in the superintendency? (3) What are the educational experiences and professional pathways of women of color in the superintendency? Their analysis is a selection from the 74 survey questions and focus on data from the African American/Black women, Latinas, Asian American and Pacific Island, and indigenous women respondents. Major themes include the influence of the historicity of research in the field, the intersectionality of gender and race, and counter-stories and narratives of lived experiences.

Women’s Career Pathways and Networks. Numerical ratios are frequently employed to highlight both equality and inequality in many spheres of human endeavour. Over the past forty years both quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches have exposed a lack of gender parity in the field of educational leadership. While recent scholarship notes that progress has been made and women now inhabit more positions of leadership in education circles than heretofore was the case, nevertheless convergence towards parity remains more idealistic than realistic. This international phenomenon reflects sentiments expressed by women who aspire to leadership positions in post-primary schools in Ireland and who have sought and accessed supportive networks which encourage and aid their career aspirations. This study explores the role of informal networks which act as support structures for women who aspire to leadership within post-primary schools in Ireland. It interrogates the deficits encountered by women who engage with formal leadership preparation programmes which negate to recognise or acknowledge the often labyrinthine nature of female career paths. The study explores the agency exercised by aspiring female leaders who establish and seek out informal and secure networks which allow them to express the fears, anxieties that are their travel companions on the road to becoming school leaders. Professional conversations which inspire, as yet unwoven tapestries, to emerge and bring clarity of vision for leadership roles, are vital for these women. The study also seeks to determine the consequences of engagement with informal networks of support and how career goals are altered as the women become more embedded and secure within these structures of support.

Authors

• Mary Elizabeth Cunneen, University College Dublin
  Presenting Author

• Margaret Grogan, Chapman University
  Presenting Author

• Angel Miles Nash, Wallace Foundation
  Presenting Author