Browsing by Subject "Superintendents"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    African American female superintendents: resilient school leaders
    (2012-01) Johnson, Bernadeia H.
    Six African American female superintendents who had served as superintendents in at least 2 school districts were interviewed to understand ways in which they responded to barriers and adversity in their roles, with a particular emphasis on issues related to sexism and racism. Study participants shared that they work to engage the community and build relationships with stakeholders. They also reported being courageous and clear in defining where they would take a stand. This required knowing who they are and being true to personal values and ethics. These African American female superintendents reported having strong religious faith and benefitting from the love, support, and encouragement of parents, family, and friends. They identified listening as critical to their success. Mentoring new and aspiring African American women superintendents is one way they intentionally give back to the profession. They expressed the need to be continuous learners and to work hard while still striving to achieve life-work balance.
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    Diminished aspiration: women central office administrators and the superintendency.
    (2009-04) Ottino, Krista Leigh
    The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine perceptions of women central office administrators who do not aspire to the superintendency in order to better understand this lack of aspiration. In addition, the study examined perceptions of aspiring women to provide a comparative base. Specifically, the study uncovered 1) perceptions related to the nature of the superintendency, and 2) conceptions and practices of power. This purpose was achieved through a secondary analysis of a pre-existing data set drawn from the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) National Study of U.S. Women Superintendents and Central Office Administrators (Brunner & Grogan, 2007). The study analyzed data from 5 of 8 open-ended questions contained in the survey through an emergent theme analysis method. The conceptual framework for the study was an adaptation of Farmer`s (1985) Model of Career and Achievement Motivation and also contained elements of Bandura`s (1986) Social Cognitive Theory. Data was sorted through an open coding procedure in order to discover patterns or concepts and also allow for a systematic analysis of the data. Conclusions of the study on the effects of background, environmental, and personal elements are: 1) It was concluded that background characteristics have very little, if any, affect on aspiration to the superintendency; 2) Environmental elements identified by participants were school boards and politics, although aspiring women ranked school boards at a much higher rate. Recent research by Kim and Brunner (2009) indicates that career paths of aspiring and non-aspiring women central office administrators differ in that aspiring women come up through line positions and non-aspiring women come up through staff positions. The different paths may shape their perceptions through the experiences to which they are exposed; 3) Personal elements (conceptions of power) identified with high frequency by non-aspiring and aspiring women central office administrators were influence and collaboration. A notable difference was that aspiring women identified research and data at a higher rate of frequency. Again, power perceptions may be influenced by career path experiences. It was also found the non-aspiring women central office administrators were more likely to identify with power as power-over than were aspiring women. This discovery may be used to inform superintendent preparation programs to train women about their understanding and use of power. Other emergent themes that hold possibility for future research was the identification of long hours and hard work. Although both groups identified long hours as a way they get things done, non-aspiring women deemed the work as hard as a much higher frequency than aspiring women; 4) The high frequency themes identified in What else needs to be known was Good Old Boys and Gender-bias by both groups. A notable difference between the groups was that aspiring women were more concerned about mentors and networks than non-aspiring women. This finding may have implications for professional organizations.
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    Minnesota Superintendents' Attitudes Toward Gifted Education
    (2015-01) Lindberg, Phyllis
    Abstract The key to success or failure of opportunities for gifted students is affected by what a school district provides, how it views giftedness, and how it supports academic flexibility and individualized or differentiated learning. Gifted programs are selected by administrative decision makers based upon their knowledge and understanding of the foundational theories in the field of gifted education. The implementation of policies and provisions for gifted education vary from state to state and often district to district. A commonality often reported is of the negative attitudes towards giftedness and gifted education by staff, faculty, and administrators. Many of the policy decisions in gifted education by administrators, although guided by theory, are influenced by personal experiences, myths, and stereotypes. A review of literature reveals a chronicled legacy of myths and misconceptions providing conflicting concepts of giftedness, gifted education, and educational programs. The effect of these perceptions may directly skew an administrator's ability to make unbiased informed decisions in relationship to this diverse population of gifted learners. The purpose of this study was to investigate Minnesota public school superintendents' attitudes toward gifted students and gifted education, and what factors affect these attitudes. This study utilized the McCoach and Siegle's revised edition of Gagné and Nadeau's survey, Opinions About the Gifted and Their Education. The survey is divided into three subcategories for analysis: support, elitism, and acceleration. Also included are sections on self-perception as gifted and demographic information. Survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. This exploratory study sampled 119 of 336 Minnesota superintendents in regards to gifted education. Results show mild to moderate support for funding, with women superintendents perceiving themselves as gifted more than male superintendents and showing greater support for gifted education. Among the predictor variables, superintendents who had education or training in gifted education were more supportive toward giftedness and gifted education, less negative about gifted education as being elitist, and more positive toward acceleration of gifted students. With gifted programming relying on the discretion of local administrators and implementation of programs falling on the school faculty, it is important that these stakeholders have a working knowledge of gifted student development and gifted education. Therefore, further research might explore these attitudes in teacher education and administrator training programs.
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    “Stronger With Each Other”: A Case Study of a Shared Superintendency and Multi-District Partnership in Rural Minnesota
    (2020-09) Chamberlain, Rachel
    This study of a multi-district superintendency in rural Minnesota reveals how schools act as spaces where community boundaries expand as a result of partnership and collaboration. The project, informed by grounded theory, seeks to fill a key gap in understanding the experiences of school staff and community members in multi-district resource sharing. In addition, it provides insight into how the sensemaking of rural community identity is negotiated through the school-community relationship. I used theories of positive psychology (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Mukund, 2016; Biddle & Azano, 2016), critical theory (Delpit, 1988; Foucault; 1977) and social frontiers (Burt, 1992; Miller, Scanlan, & Phillippo, 2017) as conceptual tools. The notion of boundary-spanning (Tajfel & Turner, 1985; Lamont & Molnár, 2002) was utilized in the analysis of how school staff and community members defined rurality and who was considered an insider or outsider in their communities. This qualitative case study utilizes interviews, observation, and document analysis to provide an in-depth look at how rural community members and school personnel perceive the efforts of their district to share resource and staff positions with a neighboring district. A consideration of history and the significance of place in rural communities provides context for findings that reveal the ways community identity is shaped by shared struggle and survival. When this experience is extended to a neighboring district, community identity expands to include those outside the traditional boundaries of geography. School leaders, including the district superintendent, are key actors in boundary-spanning and the bridging of resources between districts. However, this study also shares how students, families, and community members play equally important roles in increasing the permeability of community boundaries.