SUNY series in Women in Education – Serie

Offers surprising insights into the complex worlds of women principals.Balancing Acts uses life history and ethnography to examine the lives and work of three female elementary school principals and highlights their daily use of personal and professional skills. Smulyan examines the principals' personal backgrounds and their effect on their work within the community they serve, their school, and the historical and social structures that frame their actions and interactions. What emerges is a fascinating personal view of the dilemmas, decisions, and consequences faced by the female principalship.

Shares perspectives from twelve successful women school superintendents.Women who seek to be school superintendents or who want to improve their chances for success in the superintendency can clearly benefit from the insights and cultural wisdom of women who have attained the position. Principles of Power shares perspectives from twelve successful women superintendents and puts them in a cultural context that highlights what they can teach us about their methods for success.To illustrate the underlying behaviors that helped them succeed, Brunner uses as a framework the system of beliefs gathered by Carlos Castaneda from Yaqui Indian warrior training. Castaneda calls this system the "riddle of the heart." To understand the riddle of the heart, women must be able to simultaneously comprehend and use two different perceptions of the world: that which is and that which is becoming. To be able to solve the riddle, warriors develop mind set and a discipline that allow them to get the best out of any conceivable situation. This book is the story of these warriors-twelve women superintendents-and how they have solved the riddle of the heart.

Shares perspectives from twelve successful women school superintendents.Women who seek to be school superintendents or who want to improve their chances for success in the superintendency can clearly benefit from the insights and cultural wisdom of women who have attained the position. Principles of Power shares perspectives from twelve successful women superintendents and puts them in a cultural context that highlights what they can teach us about their methods for success.To illustrate the underlying behaviors that helped them succeed, Brunner uses as a framework the system of beliefs gathered by Carlos Castaneda from Yaqui Indian warrior training. Castaneda calls this system the "riddle of the heart." To understand the riddle of the heart, women must be able to simultaneously comprehend and use two different perceptions of the world: that which is and that which is becoming. To be able to solve the riddle, warriors develop mind set and a discipline that allow them to get the best out of any conceivable situation. This book is the story of these warriors-twelve women superintendents-and how they have solved the riddle of the heart.

International in scope, this is an unprecedented compilation of current theories and perspectives on women and leadership issues in schools at all levels.This international collection of work by leading feminist scholars in educational administration from five Western liberal democratic countries presents "state-of-the-art" research on women in school leadership positions. The contributors focus on the need for critical reflections, which reveal hidden aspects of leadership phenomena, and advocate diverse forms of positive action to improve the condition for women in school settings. As such, this collection challenges the reader to consider the partiality of all perspectives on leadership, as well as future directions for research and practice. It also brings together views of schools and school systems at the macro level, with discussions and case studies focused on the micro levels of school life.

International in scope, this is an unprecedented compilation of current theories and perspectives on women and leadership issues in schools at all levels.This international collection of work by leading feminist scholars in educational administration from five Western liberal democratic countries presents "state-of-the-art" research on women in school leadership positions. The contributors focus on the need for critical reflections, which reveal hidden aspects of leadership phenomena, and advocate diverse forms of positive action to improve the condition for women in school settings. As such, this collection challenges the reader to consider the partiality of all perspectives on leadership, as well as future directions for research and practice. It also brings together views of schools and school systems at the macro level, with discussions and case studies focused on the micro levels of school life.

A critical reflection on the field of feminist research in educational leadership.Ten prominent feminist researchers from diverse backgrounds examine educational leadership by focusing on critical questions about the theories, methods, and epistemologies feminist researchers use. The contributors analyze the impact of research on participants and assess the ethical and political implications of researching across groups. They explore the types of strategies feminist researchers have developed to address the problems of the field and propose alternative epistemologies that provide for more sensitive research methods and more complex research results. The book provides a timely examination of how gender inequalities were created and structured within U.S. systems of school administration, how they are maintained and perpetuated, and how they might best be understood and dismantled.

Offers both a theoretical and concrete example of what W. E. B. Du Bois called "spiritual strivings."Winner of the 2008 Critics' Choice Awards presented by the American Educational Studies Association This engaging book offers a personal look at how centering spirituality in an academic life transforms its very foundations-its epistemology, paradigm, and methods-and becomes the site for spiritual healing and service to the world. Focusing primarily on her work in Ghana, West Africa, Cynthia B. Dillard presents a unique perspective on Africa as a site for transformative possibilities for African American academics/scholars and explores the deeper spiritual meanings of being "African." Through poetry, personal narrative, meditations, and journal entries, Dillard shares her experiences as an African American scholar and, in the process, provides a concrete example of what W. E. B. Du Bois called "spiritual strivings."

Offers both a theoretical and concrete example of what W. E. B. Du Bois called "spiritual strivings."Winner of the 2008 Critics' Choice Awards presented by the American Educational Studies Association This engaging book offers a personal look at how centering spirituality in an academic life transforms its very foundations-its epistemology, paradigm, and methods-and becomes the site for spiritual healing and service to the world. Focusing primarily on her work in Ghana, West Africa, Cynthia B. Dillard presents a unique perspective on Africa as a site for transformative possibilities for African American academics/scholars and explores the deeper spiritual meanings of being "African." Through poetry, personal narrative, meditations, and journal entries, Dillard shares her experiences as an African American scholar and, in the process, provides a concrete example of what W. E. B. Du Bois called "spiritual strivings."

Explores the issues inherent in critical and postmodern feminism in educational leadership.Winner of the 2007 Critics' Choice Award presented by the American Educational Studies Association Performing and Reforming Leaders critically analyzes how women negotiate the dilemmas they face in leadership and managerial roles in Australian schools, universities, and continuing education. To meet the economic needs of the post-welfare nation state of the past decade, Australian education systems were restructured, and this restructuring coincided with many female teachers and academics moving into middle management as change agents. The authors examine how new managerialism and markets in education transformed how academics and teachers did their work, and in turn changed the nature of educational leadership in ways that were dissonant with the leadership practices and values women brought to the job. While largely focused on Australia, Performing and Reforming Leaders strongly resonates with the experiences of leaders in the United States and other nations that have undergone similar educational reforms in recent decades.

Explores the issues inherent in critical and postmodern feminism in educational leadership.Winner of the 2007 Critics' Choice Award presented by the American Educational Studies Association Performing and Reforming Leaders critically analyzes how women negotiate the dilemmas they face in leadership and managerial roles in Australian schools, universities, and continuing education. To meet the economic needs of the post-welfare nation state of the past decade, Australian education systems were restructured, and this restructuring coincided with many female teachers and academics moving into middle management as change agents. The authors examine how new managerialism and markets in education transformed how academics and teachers did their work, and in turn changed the nature of educational leadership in ways that were dissonant with the leadership practices and values women brought to the job. While largely focused on Australia, Performing and Reforming Leaders strongly resonates with the experiences of leaders in the United States and other nations that have undergone similar educational reforms in recent decades.

Women professors of educational administration share their personal stories of being female firsts.Winner of the 2011 Critics' Choice Award presented by the American Educational Studies Association These are the inspiring and illuminating stories of women professors who first broke into the exclusive, all-male academic club of educational administration. Women of this pioneering generation tell how they overcame daunting challenges, traumas, the naiveté of others, sexual harassment, and retaliation, as well as how they encountered unexpected kindness and support along the way. Their difficult paths, complex choices, and triumphs are revealed through the experiences of the first black woman professor in educational administration, a fight to the death for tenure, a genteel southerner's confrontation with the aloof North, and a brash northerner's survival of the cultural complexities of the South. These stories speak not simply to women, but to all trailblazers in the workplace, and to those still facing discrimination and relegated to outsider status.