Olga M. Welch – författare

the result of a longitudinal study of academic achievement and pre-college enrichment for disadvantaged Black adolescents, offers fresh insights on barriers which continue to impede the academic progress of those students.At a time when increased emphasis is placed on pre-college preparation of disadvantaged students, the number of African American students entering colleges and universities continues to decline and the achievement gaps between these students and their White peers persist. While many enrichment programs report impressive gains, little research on these programs contains the perspective of the Black students. This book presents the results of a longitudinal study of academic achievement and pre-college enrichment of disadvantaged African American adolescents in two inner-city high schools.Through its presentation and analysis of the students' perceptions of pre-college enrichment seen in relation to their definitions of scholarship and the discussion of findings related to parent and teacher involvement, this book provides fresh perspectives on the school experiences of Black adolescents and offers important insights for those involved in both the development and evaluation of enrichment programs.

Considers perspectives from a diverse group of women educational researchers of color who center their discussion within the margins rather than from the center.In From Center to Margins, women educational researchers of color, trained in mainstream Euro-American traditions, interpret the experiences of those, including themselves, who are marginalized by these very traditions. Deliberately looking at research from within the margins rather than from the center, the contributors detail how their perspectives influence the way they frame questions for study, develop procedures to investigate them, and devise strategies for answering them. The contributors offer an alternative to the dominant perspective in educational research that uses its power to determine who shall be centered and who, marginalized. This book presents the margins, where women and other people of color reside intellectually, not as deficient areas from which we need to escape, but as legitimate sites where knowledge, useful to wider audiences, has been and will continue to be generated.

Shedding the Chrysalis: Black Women Leading in Higher Education features the voices of six experienced and emerging Black females in a variety of academic leadership roles. This book provides a Black feminist perspective, highlighting the need to address racial realism within higher education administration. These personal testimonies focus on a variety of levels in the academic hierarchy to emphasize the continuum across the lived experiences of these women, some of whom have served in multiple upper-level administrative roles. The contributors' positions range from postdoctoral research fellows to positions reporting to central administration at predominantly white institutions. Shedding the Chrysalis underscores what these women have learned from mentors, allies, and adversaries that can help us all—executive-level leaders, faculty and staff at all ranks, and those aspiring to leadership positions—to build and sustain a more stable terrain in academic leadership for a variety of minoritized groups.

Shedding the Chrysalis: Black Women Leading in Higher Education features the voices of six experienced and emerging Black females in a variety of academic leadership roles. This book provides a Black feminist perspective, highlighting the need to address racial realism within higher education administration. These personal testimonies focus on a variety of levels in the academic hierarchy to emphasize the continuum across the lived experiences of these women, some of whom have served in multiple upper-level administrative roles. The contributors' positions range from postdoctoral research fellows to positions reporting to central administration at predominantly white institutions. Shedding the Chrysalis underscores what these women have learned from mentors, allies, and adversaries that can help us all—executive-level leaders, faculty and staff at all ranks, and those aspiring to leadership positions—to build and sustain a more stable terrain in academic leadership for a variety of minoritized groups.

Truth Without Tears is a timely and insightful portrait of Black women leaders in American colleges and universities. Carolyn R. Hodges and Olga M. Welch are former deans who draw extensively on their experience as African American women to account for both the challenges and opportunities facing women of color in educational leadership positions. Hodges and Welch deftly combine autobiography with more general information and observations to fashion an interesting and helpful book about higher education leadership. They offer their perspectives on being the first deans of color in two predominately white institutions in an effort to fill a gap that exists in the literature on deanships in higher education. Each chapter offers reflections or examples of the authors’ particular experiences that have taught them how to become effective leaders. The book engages readers to consider ways of learning how to balance the need for action with “deliberative and deliberate approaches” that are grounded in maintaining decisiveness, accountability, and allegiance to organizational goals, especially those that support inclusiveness and diversity of perspective. A nuanced and complex depiction of successful leadership, Truth Without Tears is a valuable resource for current and aspiring higher education leaders.

Truth Without Tears is a timely and insightful portrait of Black women leaders in American colleges and universities. Carolyn R. Hodges and Olga M. Welch are former deans who draw extensively on their experience as African American women to account for both the challenges and opportunities facing women of color in educational leadership positions. Hodges and Welch deftly combine autobiography with more general information and observations to fashion an interesting and helpful book about higher education leadership. They offer their perspectives on being the first deans of color in two predominately white institutions in an effort to fill a gap that exists in the literature on deanships in higher education. Each chapter offers reflections or examples of the authors’ particular experiences that have taught them how to become effective leaders. The book engages readers to consider ways of learning how to balance the need for action with “deliberative and deliberate approaches” that are grounded in maintaining decisiveness, accountability, and allegiance to organizational goals, especially those that support inclusiveness and diversity of perspective. A nuanced and complex depiction of successful leadership, Truth Without Tears is a valuable resource for current and aspiring higher education leaders.