We Have a Story to Tell: A Case Study Exploring the Instructional Leadership Practices of African American and Black Women Principals in Northeastern Metropolitan-Area School Settings in the United States

• In Event: AERA Graduate Student Research in Progress Roundtable Session Three
  In Roundtable Session: Centering the Perspectives of School Counselors and Instructional Leaders (Table 2)

Abstract

"Few framed pictures of experienced African American and Black women (AABW) instructional leaders in diverse school contexts lay on the educational leadership mantle. Situated in an Africentric Black feminist theoretical framework, this qualitative case study examined how sixteen experienced New Jersey (NJ), New York (NY), and Pennsylvania (PA) African American and Black women PK-12 school principals' intersectional identities (i.e., race, gender, cultural norms), and experiences informed their instructional leadership practices. Through a demographic questionnaire, two in-depth, semi-structured interviews, artifacts, social media, publicly available quality review and school report card data, this research gathered stories to document how these women lead. Each of these methods generated data to analyze to answer the research question, How do experienced African American and Black women PK-12 school principals in different contexts make sense of their experiences as instructional leaders in the midst of shifting priorities? Several bodies of literature on culturally responsive leadership, instructional leadership, and African American and Black women PK-12 school principal leadership supported this research. Case study methodology allowed an examination and analysis of the leadership differences and similarities between and across different lifestyles, career cycles, and school contexts. Using each principal as a unit of analysis, Three themes emerged from the data- Based on this study's findings, conclusions were drawn that can expand educational leadership discourse. Recommendations By identifying the practices and resources these women utilize, perhaps student marginalization, as well as principal turnover can be reduced.

Keywords: African American and Black women PK-12 school principals, Africentric black feminist theory, endarkened feminist epistemology, intersectionality, instructional leadership practices, culturally responsive leadership practices"

Author

• Michelle A. Brown-Grant, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Presenting Author