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Protest of the oppressed: a case study on Black female administrators’ experiences in K-12 education from student to leadership

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Content 1
Protest of the Oppressed: A Case Study on Black Female Administrators’ Experiences
in K-12 Education From Student to Leadership
By
Lori Enilda Andrews
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
May 2024

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ABSTRACT
LORI ANDREWS. Protest of the Oppressed: A Case Study on Black Female
Administrators’ Experiences in K-12 Education From Student to Leadership (Under the
direction of DR CHRISTINE KISHIMOTO)
This study highlights the importance of giving Black female administrators a
platform to share their stories and make meaning of their experiences as
intersectionality. The idea for this study was born of countless conversations I had with
Black female educators at all levels. As I reflect on them, the topic of trauma as a result
of anti-Blackness was always prevalent. At some point I began to catalog these
conversations as stories in my head and in my heart. I recalled them when having my
own experiences, constantly comparing and contrasting them. The following study
provides a glimpse of the type of stories I desire to make meaning of and to apply to
discourse on equity in education.
“To exist, humanly, is to name the world, to change it. Once named, the world in
its turn reappears to the namers as a problem and requires of them a new naming”
(Freire, 1996) This quote speaks to what current researchers on education identify as a
major problem that affects positive academic outcomes, social-emotional progress, and
personal well-being for Black students. This problem is the lack of Black role models on
school campuses, particularly the lack of representation among teachers and
administrators. Researchers found that Black students report a lower sense of
belonging, have lower test scores in reading and math, and have higher incidence of
disciplinary consequences. The literature shows that Black students suffer from what
Gloria Ladson-Billings (2006) calls an “opportunity gap” that is exacerbated by a lack of
exposure to Black school leadership. Interestingly, current research reports that Black

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students thrive when there are adults on their campuses who relate to them from a
cultural context, which is why one central problem addressed in this study is the scarcity
of Black female administrators and how that impacts positive outcomes for Black
students.
As the name of the study suggests, Freire’s theories inspired the methodology of
this study. This was a qualitative narrative case study that allowed the participant
co-researchers to share their stories as dialogic action through reflection. And this
reflexive process was crucial to me while conducting the study as I currently hold a
leadership position, and related to most of the stories I heard. While reflecting on my
own purpose and vision for school leadership, it became pertinent for me to hear the
same reflection from other Black female administrators. My purpose in this study was to
explore Black female leaders' motivation for leadership from their personal point of view.
I wanted to see whether or not their catalyst for leadership was organic or related
empirically to experiences with anti-Blackness.
My study was guided by two conceptual frameworks: Freire’s pedagogy of the
oppressed and the concept of dialogic action towards freedom, and the concept of
Black feminism. I found that Freire’s theory advances liberatory pedagogy which was
applied to this study. It illuminates how Black female administrators are aware of limiting
constructs of anti-Blackness, yet have become interrogators of that construct by
speaking back to it in order to change it. As such, an application of Frair-ree’s dialogic
action empowers the Black woman to self define her future, and to not be limited by her
present or her past. In 2018, Shawn Arango Ricks posited a Feminist pedagogy that
describes Black women as functioning in society through normalized chaos. Ricks

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suggests that Black women speak back to anti-Blackness by embracing their
intersectionality and by enduring the often oppressive experiences that are tethered to
it. Using these conceptual frameworks to direct the data analysis was important
because they provided the foundation for the findings of the study.
In relation to research Q1, the findings are that Black female administrators
cannot bifurcate their identity as women from their identity as Black, so when
considering adverse experiences in the K-12 setting, they attribute them to
anti-Blackness. This is significant because it suggests that any adverse experiences
they had in the K-12 setting were mainly attributed to their identity as a Black women
and not as a women; With RQ2 the findings are that Black female administrators
remember receiving minimal support from adults in their younger, and if they did, it
came from Black family members or community members. This resulted in them
protesting anti-Blackness in academia by being present on school campuses, feeling
responsible for Black students' well being, and preventing them from having
experiences with anti-Blackness. This is significant as it provides an example of the
Postmodern Black woman, who does not shy away from racial trauma and an
explanation for Black teachers' aspirations to be school leaders. RQ3 Findings are that
Black female administrators have definitions of anti-Blackness that center on negative
views and actions directed towards Black people, and that they can experience it in the
Black community as well. This leads Black female administrators into the trenches in all
communities when it comes to protecting Black students from negative experiences in
school, including schools that are predominantly Black.

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All of the findings culminate into the concept of the Postmodern Black Woman - I
define this concept as a Black woman who has normalized traumatic experiences
related to anti-Blackness and has built a defense mechanism of resilience to cope with
and transcend it (Andrews, 2024). The postmodern Black woman uses leadership as
activism: she is a warrior who believes that she must endure it all for a good cause: to
save Black children (even if it is primarily saving her own children by achieving a high
paying leadership position and giving her children social status and privilege). She
cannot envision herself as a woman outside of her Blackness, it is how she defines
herself. She is a beautiful Black woman, an educated Black woman, and an
accomplished Black woman. Yet she is also an abused Black woman, a traumatized
Black woman, and an invisible Black woman. She has wounds and calluses that provide
a shield and often equips her with a hard exterior, even though she is soft and delicate
inside.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I dedicate this work to my Heavenly Father and my children: Kiri, Tyre, Christina,
Lawrence, Bryce, and Jasmine. To my beloved Kiri, I miss you more than words can
express. I know that you would be so proud of me, and would have given me such great
feedback on this study. I hope that your two beautiful daughters are as brilliant as you
were, and continue the tradition of college going culture that strongly exists in our family.
To my mother, you are my biggest inspiration. You embody strength, grit, grace,
beauty, and perseverance. Your faith carried me through the beginning to here, and I
hope to make you proud. To my father, the intellectual, the artist, the writer, the
polymath, you have given me a love for learning and I miss you dearly.
I would like to acknowledge the following people for their inspiration, support, and
wisdom. I want to express my gratitude to Dr. Christine Kishimoto for getting me through
this process. Her support and guidance not only motivated me to write, but inspired me
to enjoy it. Dr. Gregory Franklin was my biggest cheerleader in class and through this
process, and in class, Dr. Alan Green gave me the knowledge of concepts that helped
me frame my research topic. Lastly, I want to thank Dr. Juan Olivares for sitting with me
through the hardest parts and providing me with guidance on research, writing and
preparing my dissertation defense. He is the coolest doctor that I know.
To my sisters in the struggle, hold on, fight the good fight, and stay the course.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
Introduction 10
Background of the Problem 12
Statement of the Problem 15
Purpose of the Study 16
Research Questions 16
Significance of the Study 17
Limitations and Delimitations of the Study 18
Definitions of Terms 18
Organization of the Study 23
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 25
Introduction 25
Gender and Racial Identity in Leadership 26
Black Female Leaders’ Positionality and Intersectionality 30
Oppression, Activism, and Power 33
The Oppressed as Change Leader 36
Black Feminism as Protest in Educational Spaces 39
Summary 41
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 42
Methodology 42
Purpose of the Study 43
Research Questions 43

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Selection of the Populations 44
Design Summary 44
Instrumentation and Protocols 48
Data Collection 48
Data Analysis 49
Summary 51
CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS 53
Purpose of the Study 53
Participants 53
Results 54
Research Questions 56
Results: Research Questions 1 56
Results: Research Questions 2 71
Results: Research Questions 3 88
Themes 94
Discussion 95
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION 97
Findings 99
Limitations 108
Implications For Practice 108
Future Research 109
Implications For Practice 112
REFERENCES 114

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APPENDIX
A 122
APPENDIX
B 125
APPENDIX
C 128
APPENDIX
D 131
TABLES TABLE 1 54 TABLE 2 106
FIGURES
FIGURE
1 24
FIGURE
2 94

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CHAPTER ONE: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
Introduction
The decision to become a school administrator can be a daunting idea for Black
female educators (Roberts, 1982). It takes immense courage for a Black female teacher
to decide to pursue a career as a K-12 public school administrator because it requires
making the personal decision to lead within a racialized system designed to oppress
people like her (Wardell, 2020). Courage or situational amnesia among Black women, is
akin to Stockholm Syndrome, where they become enamored with the system of
oppression that formed a large part of their personal identity; a system which was
grounded in racism, bigotry and White centeredness (Painter, 2010). Indeed, the
historical design of public schools was to enculturate students of color into accepting
their role as inferior citizens in an American society, and to always aspire to fit into a
White paradigm of acceptance (Massey, et al., 2014). Thus the role of the public school
administrator, in part, was essentially to manage the process of setting up social
hierarchy and to produce adults who knew and accepted (perhaps even agreed with)
their place in society (Massey, et al., 2014). As such, this study imagines the possibility
of Black female administrators as teachers who decided to career climb as a practical
protest, change agency, and resistance to anti-Blackness in education.
Black female teachers were once young Black students going through the public
school system, dealing with White-centeredness, which inherently places them in a
category of students who have experienced educational trauma, either covertly or
overtly (Ladson-Billings, 2006; Love, 2019). Black teachers who thrived as students
despite their educational trauma, and somehow developed the resilience to engender

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the desire to become educators may have had to repress their feelings of racial
inadequacy in order to become teachers (Patel, 2015; Love, 2019). It is well
documented that few Black students who have attended or attend K-12 public schools
anywhere in the nation have the experience of instruction administered by Black
teachers (Matias, 2013). One question to consider in this study is did these Black
children, who experienced the insidious enculturation of a White centered education,
decide to become educators, and by design decide to emulate and enforce the
hegemonic, meritocratic burden of assimilation onto their Black students (Patel, 2015)?
Or did they decide to resist that enculturation, engaging in a practical protest as an
oppressed group by aspiring to school leadership in order to become an agent of
change (Freire, 1996)?
Black female teachers aspiring to be K-12 administrators have historically had no
choice but to extend their exposure to educational trauma by earning a teaching and
administrative credential, and often a masters degree and doctorate (Jordan, 2018).
Considering research like Jordan’s (2018), one can wonder if Black female teachers
who desire to become K-12 administrators must often complete more college
preparation than their White female, and White and Back male counterparts to even be
considered for promotion; going as far as achieving a doctorate degree in education to
enhance their qualifications for administrative positions and ensure that the contents of
their resumes will procure them an interview (Wardell, 2020).
It is highly possible that Black female teachers in the public school sector have
waded through the water of systematic oppression for a long time before they become
administrators (Roberts, 1982; Steele, 2017). The purpose of this study is to explore the

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experiences of Black female K-12 public school administrators as they navigated
through educational spaces: K-12 students, undergraduate students, teaching
credential students, administrative credential students, aspiring leadership programs in
their school districts, and entry into administrative positions at the site and district levels.
The deeper purpose is to explore their motivation for pursuing school leadership in the
first place.
Background of the Problem
The fulcrum of this study supports the research and theoretical framework of
Paulo Freire and his sociocultural masterpiece, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1996).
Freire argues that invisible, marginalized communities possess the ability to materialize
in the margins of society when they activate their voice and turn their minds toward
resistive action (Freire, 1996). Some Black female administrators belong to Freire’s
oppressed community. Research has shown that Black female leaders, in all
professional sectors, report that they experience anti-Blackness in their workplace
(Steele, 2017). Research points out that they report such perils as: microaggression,
unconscious bias, overt racism, lack of promotion, others taking credit for their work,
having to work twice as hard to be recognized for their accomplishments,
second-guessing, blatant lack of regard, being left out of important conversations,
hegemony, gaslighting, undermining, ridiculing in team meetings, minimizing of their
ideas, and mental/physical distress on the job (Wardell, 2020; Steele, 2017). In
ethnographic, qualitative, quantitative, and phenomenological research studies, Black
female leaders state that they feel unappreciated and unwanted at their jobs, and
secretly harbor a desire to leave, but ultimately do not leave as they fail to see it as a

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possible solution to the problem of White-centered practices in the workplace. Black
female leaders report feeling a profound sense of loneliness as a result of being the
only one of their identity in their positions or in their workplaces in general. They endure
it, yet it is difficult for them to forge meaningful, trusting relationships with their peers
(Roberts, 1982; Steele, 2017). These feelings are exacerbated by the outside influences
that they experience in a racist society that on one hand looks to them to work hard, and
yet refuses to acknowledge their hard work (Du Bois, 1999). This is the experience of
Black women who are not leaders in their field of work; therefore, it is doubly so for
Black women who have climbed the ladder of success to become leaders on the job
(Steele, 2017). Researchers such as Cyr Burton (2020) have documented the effects
that Black female leaders experience as a result of anti-Blackness in America, and note
the negative mental and physical toll it can take on their wellbeing. They discuss the
pressure that Black female leaders feel from always feeling under scrutiny, judged as
inappropriate, uncouth, uneducated, unsafe, unqualified, unworthy, unwanted,
unattractive, tolerated, not tolerated, dangerous, angry hostile, difficult to work with,
unteachable, ignorant, dumb, stupid, below standard, ungrateful, unhygienic,
misunderstood, and unwanted (Martin, 2011). These studies suggest that feelings of
oppression often manifest themselves in mental illness and physical disease among
Black female leaders (Diallo, 1998).
Mary Wardell, author of Twice as Good (2020), a book that addresses the
microaggressions and high level of scrutiny that women of color experience in their
professions, discusses this phenomenon as she reminisces on her own experiences as
a young Black girl: “My mother was under no false pretense regarding how the country

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disregards the gifts and talents of African Americans.” She further expounds: “Through
my Black identity I know Twice as Good as an inspiration to push beyond the limited
goals society had for me; a strategy and perhaps prescription Black parents gave their
children for living and potentially thriving in America” (Wardell, 2020). Here, Wardell’s
ideas are vital to the focus of this study, showing how Black women push past
boundaries, and resist anti-Blackness well enough to become leaders who strive to
forge a better path for future generations. This reality addresses the conceptual
foundation of the study: Black female administrators responding to anti-Blackness and
microaggression through practical protest.
Yet, is being “twice as good” good enough as a practical protest? At what price
do Black female leaders who protest anti-Blackness and microaggression succeed?
Researchers like Bridges (2010), Burton & Weiner (2020), Gutierrez et al. (2012),
Dowdy (2011), Martim (2011), and Steele (2017), provide insight into some of the
potential negative consequences Black female leaders endure; such as: resentment,
disenfranchisement, and poor health, in addition to other career and personal risk
factors.
In certain respects, Black female administrators in K-12 public schools have to
accept their Blackness in order to navigate a white supremacist system of meritocracy.
They either have to accept that they are Black in order to reject it and assimilate and act
more White or they must be unapologetically Black and work “twice as hard” to gain the
leadership status that they are often over qualified to attain (Wardell, 2020; Patel, 2015;
Du Bois, 1999). The risk of not assimilating though can be a lack of access to

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promotions. Without access to leadership promotions, these leaders remain outside of
the system of power that they are seeking to change (Wardell, 2020).
Many theorists and researchers have discussed the challenge that Black women
have had to fight since slavery, reconstruction, and the introduction of postmodernist
society. Black female leadership had its start in slavery, as some Black female slaves
were chosen to groom, christianize, manage younger slaves on the plantations, serve
as wet nurses and nannies for the slave masters children, bear the slave masters
children, and manage their masters households (Du Bois, 1999). What must be
acknowledged and studied is how Black women still carry the burden of the nation on
their knees in K-12 public schools, and whether or not Black female administrators see
their work as a burden or a worthy form of resistance.
Statement of the Problem
This research study centers on Black female administrators and their
experiences with anti-Blackness during their career pathway from teachers, to aspiring
school leaders and to their current leadership roles. Another function of this case study
is to illuminate the struggles of addressing the need to increase and sustain Black
female administrators, which research has shown is sparse in K-12 education (Douglas
& Nganga, 2013). This study further examines why this is the case and how it can be
remedied. This is important as we consider what the research studies have made clear:
there is a negative impact on Black student success when there is a shortage of school
staff that look like them (Ladson-Billings, 2009). Black students have shared in many
published research studies that they have less of a sense of belonging on K-12 school
campuses because they do not see teachers and administrators who look like them,

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leaving them at a loss for an adult to relate to (Ladson-Billings, 2009; Love, 2019).
Education scholars and researchers have inferred that this is one reason why Black
students have continued to show a decline in academic achievement in K-12 schools.
Keeping student impact in mind, this case study will explore whether some Black female
administrators decided to become administrators when they were teachers because of
experiencing anti-Blackness as students themselves (Ladson-Billings, 2006).
Purpose of the Study
This case study seeks to understand the intersectional experiences of Black
female administrators early in their leadership career. This study will gather the
perspectives of women leaders on approaches that they perceive help or hinder their
access to leadership within the sociopolitical context of a racialized education system.
Research Questions
The following questions were used to guide this study:
1. To what extent do Black female administrators believe they were impacted by an
institutionalized White-centered culture, including perceptions of anti-Blackness, in the
K-12 public school system?
2. How have Black women risen above the indoctrination of a White-centered education
system, within which they were educated, to gain agency as school leaders?
3. How do Black female administrators experience anti-Blackness?
This study is a qualitative case study that explores the various experiences that
Black female administrators have had as students matriculating through K-12 schools,
as teachers working in K-12 schools, and as school leaders in K-12 schools. The study
will focus on five Black female administrators. The participants will be interviewed two

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times in sessions that focus on two areas of their experiences in K-12 schools: 1) K-12
student experiences; 2) K-12 professional experiences. The research protocols seek to
illuminate Black female administrators' experiences with anti-Blackness and
microaggressions and demonstrate their practical protest in an effort to be an agent of
change for Black students . Ultimately, the study hopes to engage the participant in
Freirean dialogue, to engage their “voice,” and derive meaning from their experiences
as a Black woman navigating through K-12 education. The interview questions were
designed to identify implications and results that address the participants’ overall job
satisfaction, and expose the sustainability they either feel or do not feel in their
leadership positions as a Black female administrator (Steele, 2017). The participants will
be asked questions about their perceptions of themselves as leaders and their
perceptions of how others view them as a leader at their site/office. The desired
outcome is that the participants have an opportunity to feel heard. The researcher
further hopes that they will find meaning in their experiences and will lend voice to
speculation and inferential debate around the scarcity and lack of longevity of Black
female administrators in public schools.
Significance of the Study
Using a case study approach will provide the participants a chance to express
themselves individually using their own authentic language to describe their
experiences (Nash & Grogin, 2021). The interviews could expose some reasons why
Black women are not pursuing or given the opportunity to thrive in school leadership like
their White counterparts. They may also give insight into possible solutions to this
problem of practice and the potentiality to alleviate the poor sense of belonging that

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Black students continue to express in school surveys and focus groups
(Ladson-Billings, 2006). In some way, it may even address the need to have more Black
leader representation in schools by providing a real examination of why that
representation does not already exist. We must do more than listen to Black students,
we must be agents of change, and redirect the blame for the generalized lack of school
achievement plaguing them throughout the nation to its proper channel (Ladson-Billings,
2006; Ladson-Billings, 2009). It can be inferred that Black students having leaders who
look like them on their public school campuses will be a viable start to school
reformation towards equity (Grogin & Nash, 2021). Black administrators can contribute
to systemic change to ensure that White students see a different cultural paradigm, are
taught about people of color, and replace an education that teaches them how to be
anti-Black.
Limitations and Delimitations of the Study
This study is limited to interviews with Black female administrators who work at
school sites or district offices in K-12 public school districts. The study is ultimately
concerned with the presence of Black female administrators at K-12 public school sites,
which excludes higher education.
Delimitations are female Black administrators working at public school sites and
district offices in Southern California. The sample size is not limited to Black female
administrators that work at public schools that are traditionally characterized as urban
(Carroll Massey et al., 1975).
Definition of Terms

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Anti-Blackness: the societal vilification of darkness in relation to color of skin, and then
as it relates to cultural beliefs, actions, customs, and phenotypes. The notion that
anything that is associated with “blackness,” as in hair texture, skin color, vernacular,
art, scholarship, discourse, phenotypes, mannerisms, and culture, is negative,
unacceptable, bad, ugly, undesirable, and unworthy.
Assimilation: an act of acquiescing (and ascribing) to hegemonic norms in order to
secure social capital and maintain a space among white people with privilege.
Black Feminism: An approach to feminism that focuses on the experiences of Black
women, acknowledging the intersectionalities and complexities of their identity as
women and Black.
CHAT Framework: A conceptual framework that is being applied to research in many
disciplines to understand human praxis. Through the process of mediation, individuals
engage with artifacts and tools to make sense of their experiences as they interact with
others. Viewing human praxis from a holistic perspective allows us to analyze
interactions amongst the components of an activity system and identify contradictions
which often go unrecognized when attempting to address problems in urban education
(Cong-Lem, 2022).
Deculturation: the process of erasing the natural behavioral and emotional ties that
one may have with their original cultural background in order to infuse another one.
Dialogic Action: a deliberate act by the oppressed where they engage with their
oppressor in open dialogue and in an exchange of ideas. Freire challenges the
oppressed to activate their voice in resistance and protest. He encourages them to tell
their stories and speak to their oppressors with an open heart (Friere, 1996).

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Enculturation: infusing cultural ideals, behaviors, beliefs, and actions in a systematic
way that resembles brainwashing.
Epistemology: “How we know reality” and “one’s epistemology
is a highly nuanced filter that is constructed from an amalgamation of the social,
political, and historical dynamics of lived experience.” (Douglas & Nganga, 2013).
Gaslighting: “a form of psychological manipulation in which the abuser attempts to
sow self-doubt and confusion in their victim's mind. Typically, gaslighters are seeking to
gain power and control over the other person, by distorting reality and forcing them to
question their own judgment and intuition” (Newport Institute, 2022).
HEADS UP: “a critical literacy exercise, started “to make a list of common problems
with campaigns and educational initiatives that gloss over the complexities of global
issues. The first letter of the seven common problems in my checklist combined in an
interesting acronym: ‘HEADS UP’ (i.e. Hegemony, Ethnocentrism, Ahistoricism,
Depoliticisation, uncomplicated Solutions, and Paternalism). HEADS UP since then has
become an educational tool (which is still a work in progress) to support engagements
with local and global initiatives to address social justice. In line with critical literacy
approaches, it is based on the principles that, if we want to work towards ideals of
justice, we need to better understand the social and historical forces that connect us to
each other.” (de Oliviera Andreotti, 2012). Use of this tool will provide a reference for the
systemic foundation of anti-Blackness.
Intersectionality: Intersection of identities that place individuals in societal spaces that
may or may not provide social capital. “Intersectionality can be conceptualized as an
overarching knowledge project whose changing contours grow from and respond to

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social formations of complex social inequalities; within this overarching umbrella,
intersectionality can also be profitably conceptualized as a constellation of knowledge
projects that change in relation to one another in tandem with changes in the
interpretive communities that advance them” (Collins, 2019).
Microaggression: “Microaggressions are defined as the everyday, subtle, intentional —
and oftentimes unintentional — interactions or behaviors that communicate some sort of
bias toward historically marginalized groups. The difference between microaggressions
and overt discrimination or macroaggressions, is that people who commit
microaggressions might not even be aware of them. Someone commenting on how well
an Asian American speaks English, which presumes the Asian American was not born
here, is one example of a microaggression. Presuming that a black person is dangerous
or violent is another example. A common experience that black men talk about is being
followed around in stores or getting on an elevator and having people move away and
grab their purses or their wallets” (Limbong, 2020).
Positionality: “how one is situated through the intersection of power and the politics of
gender, race, class, sexuality, ethnicity, culture, language, and other social factors”
(Villaverde, 2008).
Predominantly White Institution (PWI): an institution of learning, at any level, that
traditionally and historically has a higher percentage of White students in attendance.
Racial Bias: a bias that is born with a particular preference and affinity for people who
are members of one’s own race. Racial bias ascribes to the acceptance of the concept
of race as a social construct derived from an ideology based on paternalism, cultural
hegemony, social hierarchy, and discrimination based on phenotypes.

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Social Capital: Tools, aspects, and attributes that one can often attain in order to
achieve status and a position of privilege in society.
Unconscious Bias: a belief of inherent inferiority that one may have of a person or
social group which they are unaware that they have.
● Affinity Bias: an unconscious preference for a group in which you belong,
involving the exclusion of other groups.
● Attribution Bias: a belief that all people who belong to a specific group have
certain attributes that are often negative in nature to the person who holds the
bias.
● Beauty Bias: the unconscious belief that certain phenotypes, body types/sizes,
hair textures, and complexions are superior and more attractive than others, and
sets the standard of beauty that other groups should ascribe to. A strong position
that physical looks give value, prestige, perfection, and qualifications to those
who fit into a White supremacist standard of beauty.
● Confirmation Bias: a rigid and unbending belief that one group is inherently
inferior to another which makes the believer assign any imperfection, slight or
major, as confirmation of the inferiority.
White Supremacy/Centeredness: a belief that social dominance, superiority (physical,
intellectual, anatomical, and political) is assigned to a color of skin and physical features
(phenotype). White supremacy is the driving force behind and foundation of the act of
racism in all aspects of a society and political systems. It is the driving force behind the
educational systems in America as a system of deculturation and enculturation of
people of color that positions them as minority and inferior. It is the counterpart to

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“Blackness,” which is a concept of inferiority, evil, unacceptable, and marked. It is the
foundation of institutionalized White centeredness.
Co-Conspirator: an ally that works to abolish inequity and to be an antiracist.
Postmodern Black Woman: a Black woman who has normalized trauma experiences
due to anti-Blackness and has built defense mechanism of resilience to cope with and
transcend it (Andrews, 2024).
Organization of the Study
Figure 1
This study will derive its instrument design from Linda Tillman’s (2002) idea of
culturally sensitive research and use a CHAT Framework (Figure 1) to develop the

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study’s organizational framework (Cong-Lem, 2022). The theoretical frameworks are
Dialogic Action from Friere’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Black Feminism while the
conceptual framing overlays anti-Blackness and microaggression. Deeper meaning
around responses to oppression will develop as the study explores the stories of
empowerment from the participants who belong to a population who have been
historically marginalized and oppressed (Friere, 1995).
This case study consists of five chapters. Chapter One consists of an overview of
the study from the impetus of thought to the theoretical and conceptual perspectives. It
moves on to Chapter Two where a Literature Review will develop the scope of the study
by deepening understanding gleaned from empirical research by other theorists and
authors. Chapter Three will discuss the methodology that was used to conduct the study
and display the qualitative research design in practice. The last two Chapters will center
on the results and conclusion of the study. Chapter Four presents the research findings
and provides a comprehensive overview of the study results. Chapter Five states the
result implications for the problem of practice and the application for educational
change, along with a revisit to the conceptual framing through a deeper application of
CHAT.

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CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
Introduction
Both research and cultural historical narratives throughout the past one to two
centuries have explored and told the stories of Black women as hard workers, often
pushed to and beyond their limits of physical, mental and spiritual strength. They have
filled their quota of bushels of cotton, birthed babies in the slave fields and went back to
work often within hours, raised their oppressors' children (which were sometimes their
children too), and managed the slave masters' houses (Lightsey, 2020). They have
been nothing if not resilient and industrious while simultaneously enduring the suffering
of racism, discrimination and violence. Slavery ended centuries ago, reconstruction
gave birth to Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights movement gave Black women rights de
jure, but not de facto.
Research has shown that Black women have experiences that are unique,
varied, and personal, and that they need avenues in which to express their voice.
Empirical research, which documents the lived experiences behind identity and social
cultural theories, provides one means of capturing the voices of women, who have been
traditionally silenced. This research explores the positionalities and intersectional
identities of Black women who choose to become leaders in an American system that
perpetuates institutionalized racism against them: education. This study seeks to
explore the ways that Black women have risen above their status as Black students who
were indoctrinated within a white supremacist educational system to gain agency as
school leaders. The study will illuminate their authentic responses to holding positions of
power while surviving (or not) anti-Blackness and how they have navigated through a

26
world that would have them either assimilate to racial and gender hegemony or rebel
with the power that social and positional capital provides them as school administrators.
This review of the literature will lend theory and research perspective to the topic, and
guide the analysis of results of the findings. In this chapter, I will first review the
research that has addressed the topic of the study from a historical perspective to
consider their theories and findings, then I will look at new literature around the study
topic for new perspectives. This chapter is organized around six major themes: Gender
and Racial Identity in Leadership; Black Female Leaders’ Positionality and
Intersectionality; Oppression Activism and Power; The Oppressed as Change Leader;
Black Power and Gender Politics; and Black Feminism as Protest in Education Spaces.
Gender and Racial Identity in Leadership
Black female public school administrators use tools of practical resistance:
social capital, racial capital, leadership, and privilege. The research helps us to
explore how separate experiences of Black female administrators might converge
into one collective call to action towards the resistance of anti-Blackness in
schools.
Female Leadership in K-12 Settings
● Bridges, V. (2010). African American Female High School Principals: Their
Pathways and Perceptions of the Position.
○ A study of the career paths of Black female principals in South Carolina.
○ Black female school principals show perseverance in the face of additional
pressures placed upon them to succeed.
○ “Her statement that if she had to apply for her job today she wouldn’t get
it, is profound. Last school year, she experienced extreme stress related to
the security of her job and she continues to feel uncomfortable. Melissa
feels like a target…..Despite this success, her job security has led to
self-doubts about her leadership” (pg.123).

27
● Burton, L. J., Cyr, D., & Weiner, J. M. (2020, May). “Unbroken, but bent”:
Gendered racism in school leadership. In Frontiers in Education (Vol. 5, p. 52).
Frontiers Media SA.
○ Exploring how Black women experience genderized racism in various
types of workplaces.
○ A Black female school leader shares her story and experiences with
anti-Blackness in her professional setting.
○ “We ground our work using an intersectional frame as the influence of
sexism and racism cannot be parceled out as discrete experiences for our
participants (Crenshaw, 1989; Collins, 1991).”
● Gutiérrez y Muhs, Niemann, Y. F., González, C. G., Harris, A. P., & Gonzalez, C.
G. (2012). Presumed incompetent: The intersections of race and class for
women in academia (Vol. 9780874218701, pp. xiii–xiii). Univ. Press.
○ An anthology of essays from women of color expounding on their various
experiences of discrimination in academic institutions.
○ Black female school leaders explain the impact of their intersectionalities
on their role as leaders.
○ “In one of the earliest studies that examined the climate for African
American women scholars at predominantly white institutions (PWIs),
Moses (1989) declared that their professional development or job
satisfaction was not achieved without constant struggle. (pg. 65)
● Dowdy, J. K., & Hamilton, A. (2011). Lessons from a Black Woman
Administrator:" I'm Still Here". Negro Educational Review, 62(1-4), 189.
○ A case study of the experiences of one Black female administrator at a
PWI of higher education.
○ A Black female school administrator shares how she endures and
overcomes feelings of isolation and strives to maintain her identity as a
Black leader in a PWI of higher learning
○ “She admitted that she did not know she was the first Black woman
administrator until she was told very late in her tenure.”
○ “At the same time she was fully aware that the setting needed to grow in
terms of diversity.”
● Martin, J. L. (Ed.). (2011). Women as Leaders in Education: Succeeding Despite
Inequity, Discrimination, and Other Challenges [2 volumes]. ABC-CLIO.
○ Exploring the implications for Black women experiencing systemic racism
in education.

28
○ An illustration of how intersectionality poses a challenge for Black female
school leaders from their perspective.
○ “Being a black woman in academe is not an easy thing. We are double
minorities but frequently find ourselves being expected to ignore one of
our identities, either our gender or our race. If we involve ourselves in
“women’s issues,” there is rarely any discussion in the room of race and
racism; if we involve ourselves in antiracist work, there is rarely any
discussion of sexism. In many ways the question asked by Sojourner
Truth so many years ago, “Ain’t I a woman?” is still very relevant today.”
● Mitchell, L. D. (2021). Bridges Over Troubled Water: Examining the Lived
Experiences of Black, Female School Principals in Predominantly White School
Districts (Doctoral dissertation, Purdue University Graduate School).
○ A case study that followed four Black female administrators and provided
insight into their experiences working in a predominantly white school
district.
○ The Black female principal participants share their experiences of not
feeling good enough and feeling isolated as they work as school leaders
among their White colleagues.
○ “On a daily basis there may be power struggles meant to remind black
women of their place. Due to fixed mindsets and the assumption that they
must be the exception, there is a pressure placed on Black women to
wear masks and to play the game.” pg. 85.
● Peters, A. L., & Miles Nash, A. (2021). I’m every woman: Advancing the
intersectional leadership of black women school leaders as anti-racist praxis.
Journal of School Leadership, 31(1-2), 7-28.
○ Black female leadership in schools as a form of anti-racism protest in
practice.
○ “Black women educators have long engaged in community engagement
and activism as an extension of their professional commitments. In this
way, Black women educators have used their positions as a means to
engage in professional praxis.” pg. 12-13
● Robinson, A. D. (2013). A phenomenological study of the lived experiences of
African American female school leaders in suburban school districts. The
University of Alabama at Birmingham.
○ A phenomenological study of African American administrators from the
sociocultural, personal, and professional levels.

29
○ Studies of this nature open the door for deeper dialogue around Black
female school leader experiences which could provide an avenue for
support.
○ “By exploring the lives of these school leaders, greater insights may be
gained to open the door to this underrepresented population.“
● Sanchez-Hucles, J. V., & Davis, D. D. (2010). Women and women of color in
leadership: Complexity, identity, and intersectionality. American Psychologist,
65(3), 171.
○ This study explores the complexities of women of color when they cross
the line into leadership in all sectors.
○ An exploration on how the intersection of gender adds an additional layer
of complexity to the discourse of race for Black female leaders.
○ “The situation facing women of color is more complex than that faced by
White women. Chief among the causes of additional complexity is the
manner in which sexism has been emphasized without consideration of
other forms of discrimination.”
● Steele, A. S. L. N. (2017). My social inclusion and exclusion as a black female
school administrator and factors affecting my retention: An autoethnographic
study (Doctoral dissertation), The University of North Carolina at Charlotte)
○ A study that expounds the complexity of double-consciousness that may
occur within Black female school leaders.
○ The researcher compiles data on the phenomena of inclusion and
exclusion in educational spaces based upon race.
○ Coined by DuBois (1903/1944), double consciousness is a phenomenon
that exists to show the debacle one experiences from being in two worlds
of how you view yourself and others view you, plainly explained.” pg. 95
● Wallis, T. V. (2016). 21 st Century Transformational Leadership: The
Neo-Stereotypical Phenomenon of a Black Female Principal. Louisiana State
University and Agricultural & Mechanical College.
○ A phenomenological study addressing how one Black female
administrator developed her leadership style based upon her experiences
with intersectionality.
○ “In the qualitative tradition, this autoethnographic study used narrative
inquiry to explore the phenomenon of my first year as a principal and
examine the intersections of my race and gender that affect my leadership
perceptions. (pg. X)

30
● Weiner, J. M., Cyr, D., & Burton, L. J. (2021). Microaggressions in administrator
preparation programs: How black female participants experienced discussions of
identity, discrimination, and leadership. Journal of research on leadership
education, 16(1), 3-29.
○ A study focusing on the experiences of 10 Black female administrative
preparation programs using a peer reviewed microaggression framework.
○ “While research on microaggressions often focuses on race and racism
(Lewis & Neville, 2015), the concept has broad applicability (Sue, 2010).
● Wilson, S. (2012). They forgot mammy had a brain. Presumed incompetent: The
intersections of race and class for women in academia, 65-77.
○ Black women have a constant feeling of confusion around their position in
society as they fight against stereotypes that often feed societal
perceptions of them.
○ “The double marginalization that African American women face can make
it difficult to determine whether the reactions and behaviors directed at
them are due to race, gender, or a combination of both (St. Jean and
Feagin 1998).” pg. 74
Black Female Leaders’ Positionality and Intersectionality
Black female leaders in all aspects of education have experiences that formed
their sensibilities and actions towards their pursuit of and goals of leadership.
Their stories illuminate their experiences with positionality and intersectionality
in their leadership roles.
Theoretical Discussions
● Aaron, T. S. (2020). Black women: Perceptions and enactments of leadership.
Journal of School Leadership, 30(2), 146-165.
○ In light of their intersectionalities, the perspective of four Black female
school administrators and how they enact their leadership.
○ Intersectionality can imbue Black female leaders' perceptions of
themselves as leaders.
○ Feminist discussion on Black women as leaders.
● Aguayo-Romero, R. A. (2021). (Re) centering Black feminism into
intersectionality research. American journal of public health, 111(1), 101-103.
○ Recognising the existence of Black feminism in the discourse of
intersectionality.

31
○ Analyzing the effects of intersecting experiences of discrimination in
feminist discourse.
○ “Another key aspect of intersectionality is that the analysis should be
centered on those with intersecting marginalized identities and not on
those belonging to only dominant groups.” pg. 102
● Bell, M. P., Berry, D., Leopold, J., & Nkomo, S. (2021). Making Black Lives Matter
in academia: A Black feminist calls for collective action against anti‐blackness in
the academy. Gender, Work & Organization, 28, 39-57.
○ A call to action for white-centered academic institutions to reevaluate
systemic racism in their practices in the wake of current racial issues such
as the death of George Floyd.
○ A discussion around Black women historically resisting racism in
education.
○ “Not surprisingly, as soon as Black women had access to higher education
in the late 19th century, they also began working from within educational
institutions.” pg. 40
● Douglas, T. R., & Nganga, C. (2015). WHAT'S RADICAL LOVE GOT TO DO
WITH IT: Navigating Identity, Pedagogy, and Positionality in Pre-Service
Education. International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 6(1).
○ Applying Paulo Friere’s concept of “radical love” to pedagogical
approaches in teacher preparation programs that help students develop
awareness of their positionalities.
● Guimaraes Correa, L. (2020). Intersectionality: A challenge for cultural studies in
the 2020s. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 23(6), 823-832.
○ Using feminism as a conceptual framework, making a case for the
importance of a focus on intersectionality in modern social justice
discourse.
○ “The scholarship of Black feminism stresses the importance of lived
experience as it brings layers of information, impressions, feelings that
should not be ignored in the construction of knowledge about the world.
○ “Personal experience and a more complex understanding of the gaze are
pivotal to finding new ways to study culture and systems of power in
societies.”
● Hughes, C. (2015). American Black women and interpersonal leadership styles
(Vol. 103). Springer.

32
○ Examples of Black female leadership styles and the experiences that
formed them within a case study of five Black women corporate America.
○ Case study exploring researched based components of Black female
leadership roles as social justice agency.
● Jordan, M. L. (2018). The me you do not see: The experiences of African
American administrators and double consciousness (Doctoral dissertation,
Concordia University (Oregon)).
○ A qualitative study that included five Black female educational
administrators and their perceptions of double-consciousness woven from
their experiences as Black individuals who matriculated in educational
systems that are informed by European-American sensibilities.
○ “Concentrating on the experiences of African American educational
administrators and their perceptions of the roles they play within the
educational arena facilitates the opportunity to hear the voices of
administrators who influence the lives of students, parents, and teachers
while standing in the midst of their realities. ” pg. 4
● Reynolds-Dobbs, W., Thomas, K. M., & Harrison, M. S. (2008). From mammy to
superwoman: Images that hinder Black women's career development. Journal of
Career Development, 35(2), 129-150.
○ Highlighting the workplace experiences of Black women in various work
environments.
○ “Although there are not many empirical studies of how stereotypes affect
Black women in the workplace specifically, research focusing on
stereotypes and gender roles creates a base for understanding how
stereotypes may affect some professional Black women’s opportunities for
advancement.” pg.132
● Wardell MJ. (2020). Twice As Good : Leadership and Power for Women of Color.
Morgan James Publishing.
○ An epistemological discussion of leadership development, action, and
experiences of women of color in leadership.
○ A testament on the power of storytelling.
○ “I share stories of childhood formation that inform and shape how I show
up as an executive woman of color and what that means or looks like on a
daily basis. And how my work as an executive leader and professor
focuses on the intersectionality of social identities and how gender and
race play roles today in shaping the American workplace.”
○ “Storytelling as leadership development.”

33
Oppression, Activism and Power
An exploration of black women in education rebelling against anti-Backness in
their education as youth to become teachers and ultimately administrators.
Themes and Approaches to anti-Blackness among Black female students,
teachers, and administrators
● Andreotti, V. (2016). The educational challenges of imagining the world
differently. Canadian Journal of Development Studies/Revue canadienne
d'études du développement, 37(1), 101-112.
○ A discourse on societal inequality’s effect on education from a global
perspective.
○ Using Global Citizen Education (GCE) work to address inequality in
education.
○ HEADS UP Checklist for hegemonic practices
○ “I played with the idea of communicating problematic ethical issues in “30
seconds”. The words formed the acronym HEADS UP CJDS / LA REVUE
107 (Andreotti 2012a), which lists the seven problematic historical
tendencies in international engagements and representations.” pg. 107
● Clark, C. P. (2021). An opportunity for change: Groundbreaking scholar Gloria
Ladson-Billings on culturally relevant pedagogy and why education as we know it
needs to be transformed. Literacy Today, 2411-7862.
○ An interview where Gladson-Billings offers an approach to classroom
instruction that can be applied to an approach to address inequality in
education in general, by all BIPOC stakeholders.
○ “Rather than trying to fit in an existing inequitable system, culturally
relevant teachers are concerned with preparing students to be citizens
who are change agents, active, engaged, and ready to participate in a
diverse, democratic society.”
● Cong-Lem, N. (2022). Unravelling Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT):
Leontiev’s and Engeström’s approaches to activity theory. Knowledge Cultures,
10(1), 84-103.
○ “As a psychologist, Leontiev attempts to understand human psychology in
L-CHAT, whereas as an adult education scholar, Engeström proposes
E-CHAT to study change and informal professional learning in
organizational settings (Eteläpelto et al., 2013; Kaptelinin, 2005).”
○

34
● Douglas, B., Lewis, C. W., Douglas, A., Scott, M. E., & Garrison-Wade, D. (2008).
The impact of white teachers on the academic achievement of black students: An
exploratory qualitative analysis. Educational Foundations, 22, 47-62.
○ Black students’ perceptions of white teachers and administrators, and
white teachers perceptions of Black students have a direct effect on Black
student achievement.
○ “Several key conclusions can be drawn from this research. First, there
was a powerful sense in each of the themes that originated from this
study. The Black students feel they are treated differently because of their
cultural background and their different beliefs and values that are not in
line with the majority population in their school setting.”
● Holsey, L. R. (2017). Why I Stayed: Career Experience of Homegrown African
American Female Administrators in an Under-resourced, Rural School District
(Doctoral dissertation, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University).
○ This study of a Black female school leader in a small rural town illustrates
how anti-Blackness in education has affected the incidence and retention
of Black female administrators.
○ Provides an epistemological reference for Black female administrative
advocacy for Black students in American history.
○ “To more clearly appreciate the development of the careers and pathways
of the body of African American females, and homegrown school
administrators in particular, focused research is needed.” pg. 46
○ “A variety of gender and racial factors impact African American female
administrators’ career decisions (Alexander-Lee, 2014; Davis &
Maldonado, 2015).” pg. 49
● Howard, T. C. (2021, July). Culturally relevant teaching: A pivot for pedagogical
transformation and racial reckoning. In The Educational Forum (Vol. 85, No. 4,
pp. 406-415). Routledge.
○ A way to atone racial injustice through instructional practices that highlight
cultural significance.
● Taylor, L. (2014). A multiple case study of two African American female
administrators in high achieving elementary schools (Doctoral dissertation,
University of North Texas).
○ Exploring transformational skills of African-American female principals
working in high performing urban schools.
○ “Educational researchers have become more dependent upon case study
research for qualitative studies. Case study is one method, which provides

35
a detailed account of situations in social science inquiry (Stake, 1994).”
pg. 32
Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed
● Irwin, J. (2018). Authority Through Freedom. On Freire’s Radicalisation of the
Authority-Freedom Problem in Education. Espacio, Tiempo y Educación, 5(1),
57-69.
○ The double-consciousness of authority and freedom should be explored to
create radical change in the education of the oppressed.
○ “Friere’s critique of authority and freedom is articulated from the
perspective of this highly engaged understanding of philosophy’s vocation
in the world; to seek to transform oppressive situations.” pg. 59
● McKenna, B. (2013). Paulo Friere’s blunt challenge to anthropology: Create a
pedagogy of the oppressed for your times. Critique of Anthropology, 33(4),
447-475.
○ An illustration on how to apply Pedagogy of the Oppressed to a modern
problem addressing social justice.
○ Freire’s
○ “Freire’s extensive oeuvre argues that educators must be intimately
attuned to the educational force of the entire culture and develop
educational tactics and strategies to defeat domination in all its guises.”
● Ramis Salas, M. D. M. (2018). Contributions of Friere's theory to dialogic
education. HSE-Social and Education History, 2018, vol. 7, num. 3, p. 277-299.
○ Exploring Freire’s Dialogical Action and Dialogic Education as agents of
discourse and ultimately change.
○ An application of Dialogic Action as a theory of resistance in education
research.
○ “The pedagogy of Freire seeks to understand the reality in which the
dialogue occurs where the actors jointly share a process of teaching and
learning about the world that allows for the overcoming of a particular
situation of inequality.”
● Santamaría, L. J. (2014). Critical change for the greater good: Multicultural
perceptions in educational leadership toward social justice and equity.
Educational Administration Quarterly, 50(3), 347-391.
○ A case for educational leadership as a tool of school reform towards
equity.
○ Highlighting educational leaders’ role in social justice.

36
○ “Findings from these and subsequent studies by scholars interested in the
leadership practices of Black principals indicate a number of what can be
considered culturally responsive leadership behaviors.”
● Underhill, H. (2021). Becoming an activist-scholar through Pedagogy of the
Oppressed: An autoethnographic account of engaging with Freire as a teacher
and researcher. Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 61(3), 398-420.
○ Examining the act of protest through one’s positionality and potentiality.
○ “Theories and studies of adult education can benefit from anthropological
engagements because they provide insight into how those who create,
enact and develop education think about their practice and the ideas that
shape what they do. Freire shows us that the educator’s understanding of
education and the position they take through their pedagogy is the
foundation for how education is experienced by both teacher and student.”
● Waldron-Asuncion, A. (2016). Successful African American women school
leaders in Florida. Capella University.
○ A qualitative study of the experiences of African-American female
administrators from a critical race theory and Black feminist standpoint
framework.
○ “Collins (2002) defined three key framework themes in Black feminist
thought. The first theme states the research framework will be shaped and
produced by the experiences African American women have encountered
throughout their lives.” pg.22
The Oppressed as Change Leader
Addressing the practical protest of the oppressed educational leader using Paulo
Friere’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed as a theoretical framework.
● Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogy of the oppressed, New rev. ed. Ed.
○ A dialogue that results in educational change should include the voices of
those who are oppressed in order for change to occur and last.
○ “Engaged in the process of liberation, he or she cannot remain passive in
the face of the oppressor's violence.” pg. 37
○ “This, then, is the great humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to
liberate themselves and their oppressors as well.” pg. 44
● Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy.
American educational research journal, 32(3), 465-491.
○ As an answer to the question that Freire called for educational reform.

37
○ An examination of the ways in which teachers can use their past
experiences to be changemakers for racial equity in education.
○ “My own interest in these issues of teaching excellence for AfricanAmerican students came as a result of my desire to challenge deficit
paradigms (Bloom, Davis, & Hess, 1965) that prevailed in the literature on
African- American learners. Partly as a result of my own experiences as a
learner, a teacher, and a parent…”
Black Power and Gender Politics
Exploring how Black feminist perspective is embedded in Black female
administrators' resistance to white centeredness and colonialism in education.
● DuBois, W. E. (1999). The Souls of Black Folk, edited by HL Gates, Jr. and TH
Oliver.
○ The author provides a dialogic story about his experiences attending
school in the pre-Jim Crow era.
○ Provides details of what early education was like for Black students.
○ “First, there was a Teachers’ Institute at the county seat; and there
distinguished guests of the superintendent taught the teachers fractions
and spelling and other mysteries, — white teachers in the morning,
Negroes at night. A picnic now and then, and a supper, and the rough
world was softened by laughter and song. I remember how — But I
wander.” pg. 59
● Evans-Winters, V. E. (2019). Black feminism in qualitative inquiry: A mosaic for
writing our daughter’s body. Routledge.
○ Emerging focus on Black women in the political arena and on discourse
around feminism.
○ Black female perspective on social issues involving racial injustice and
gender politics.
○ “Finally, daughtering not only seeks to speak for communities that have
been marginalized but also recognizes the oppressive nature of research
and considers how it can be utilized as a pathway toward liberation.”
● hooks, bell. (2015). Ain’t I a woman : Black women and feminism. Routledge.
○ “In the eyes of the 19th century white public, the black female was
a creature unworthy of the title woman; she was mere chattel, a thing,
an animal.” pg. 159-60
○ “Sexism and racism have so informed the perspective of American
historiographers that they have tended to overlook and exclude the effort

38
of black women in discussions of the American women’s rights movement.
White female scholars who support feminist ideology have also
ignored the contribution of black women.” pg. 160
● Huckaby, M. F. (2013). Much more than power: The pedagogy of promiscuous
black feminism. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26(5),
567-579.
○ Centering the relationship between feminism and poststructuralism in
identity work and life experiences of Black women.
○ “The study of this grant proposal brings black feminism, poststructuralism,
feminism, and postmodernism into the study of discourse, education,
equity, advocacy, and activism: an area of study important for society as a
whole, not just women.” pg.569
● Mowatt, R. A., French, B. H., & Malebranche, D. A. (2013). Black/female/body
hypervisibility and invisibility: A Black feminist augmentation of feminist leisure
research. Journal of leisure research, 45(5), 644-660.
○ This paper takes an interdisciplinary approach to studying the dual
consciousness of hypervisibility and invisibility of Black women in all
aspects of their lived experiences from a feminist perspective.
○ “Invisibility is a fundamental aspect of being Black in a White-dominated
society.” pg. 645
○ “Black women’s realities are more than a problem of patriarchy, but
instead exist within intersecting oppressions of racism, sexism, and
classism (e.g., Collins, 2004; Crenshaw, 1995).” pg. 647
● Ohito, E. O., & Brown, K. D. (2021). Feeling safe from the storm of
anti-Blackness: Black affective networks and the im/possibility of safe classroom
spaces in Predominantly White Institutions. Curriculum Inquiry, 51(1), 135-160.
○ An exploration on how Black students in Predominantly White Institutions
(PWIs) find shelter in coteries of safety with one another.
○ “The term anti-Blackness is shorthand for epistemic, ideological, material,
and/or spiritual violence against Black people.” pg. 139
○ “The rules in white spaces are oriented around and regulated by the logics
of anti-Blackness undergirding the anti-Black violence continually
manifesting materially and metaphorically in US higher education (Rios,
2020).” pg. 139
○ “The insidiousness of metaphorical anti-Black violence often manifests as
erasure and absence, thereby appearing to be nothing.” pg. 139-40

39
● Ribeiro, D. (2016). Black feminism for a new civilizatory framework. SUR-Int'l J.
on Hum Rts., 13, 99.
○ Argues that Black feminism should be included in political dialogue in
contemporary social discourse.
○ “It is essential for the continuation of the feminist struggle that black
women recognize the special advantage our marginalized perspective
grants us and make use of it to criticize racist, classist domination and
sexist hegemony, as well as refute and create a counter-hegemony.”
Black Feminism as Protest in Educational Spaces
Building on Freire’s theory of pedagogical oppression, Black female feminist
theory lends an avenue of possibility for resistance and agency for Black female
public school administrators.
Educational Leadership as Activism
● Curtis, S. (2020, October). Threadbare BUT Bonded—Weaving Stories and
Experiences Into a Collective Quilt of Black Women’s Leadership. In Frontiers in
Education (Vol. 5, p. 117). Frontiers Media SA.
○ An exemplary qualitative case study, demonstrating the research concept
of “reflexivity,” from a Black feminist perspective as Black female leaders
share their stories.
○ “As the researcher listening to these stories, their words touched upon my
internal reflections while encouraging me to examine my own journey
through the process of analyzing the women’s stories.” pg. 4
● Horsford, S. D. (2012). This bridge called my leadership: An essay on Black
women as bridge leaders in education. International Journal of Qualitative
Studies in Education, 25(1), 11-22.
○ Placing bridge leadership involving Black women in the discourse around
equity in schools.
○ “Since the mid-1800s, even before the abolishment of slavery in the USA
in 1865, Black women have served as leaders for equality and social
justice through both racial uplift and the advancement of women’s rights.”
pg. 13
● Nash, J. C. (2018). Black feminism reimagined: After intersectionality. Duke
University Press.

40
○ An exploration of the impact of intersectionality on the marginalization of
Black feminism in discourse on the Academy.
○ “This book traces how defensiveness is largely articulated by rendering
intersectionality black feminist property” pg. 3
● Ricks, S. A. (2018). Normalized chaos: Black feminism, womanism, and the (re)
definition of trauma and healing. Meridians, 16(2), 343-350.
○ Examining the development of “normalized” chaos within the experiences
of Black women as a “defense mechanism” against the trauma they
experience in society.
○ “In an effort to make sense of their experiences, Black women normalize
them. The minimization of chaotic life experiences has led me to the
conceptual idea of "normalized chaos" as a psychological defense
mechanism for Black women's trauma.” pg. 344
● Stanley, D. A. (2022). Blood, sweat, and tears: black women teacher’s
organizational experiences in schools. International Journal of Qualitative Studies
in Education, 35(2), 194-209.
○ Highlighting Black female teachers' voices as they share their experiences
in schools from a Black male perspective.
○ “Given the unique socio-political realities of Black women teachers, it is
imperative that I center Black feminist lenses to analyze their stories.” pg.
197
○ “Scholars identify several themes that are central to Black feminism in
education including: social justice as a moral imperative, Black feminist
caring as a form of resistance, and the importance of bridge leadership to
improve the social and school experiences of Black students.” pg. 198
● Vickery, A. E. (2017). “You excluded us for so long and now you want us to be
patriotic?”: African American women teachers navigating the quandary of
citizenship. Theory & Research in Social Education, 45(3), 318-348.
○ Exposing a sense of belonging or not among Black female Social Studies
teachers in terms of patriotism.
○ “Black feminism is a framework that gives recognition to the vast
knowledge and experiences of Black women and how they use those
experiences to enact social change in both their classrooms and
communities” pg. 323
● Walls, Plachowski, T., Cornejo, M., Reid, E., & Park, S. (2018). Sowing Seeds of
Justice: Feminists’ Reflections on Teaching for Social Justice in the Southwest. In

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Equity, Equality, and Reform in Contemporary Public Education (pp. 174–196).
IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-4960-4.ch009
○ A dialogic study on the impact of disproportionate discipline on Black girls
in schools.
Summary
There has been focused research on the lived, shared, and ignored experiences
of Black women that illustrates how they benefit from telling their stories. In current
years, there is emphasis made on the value of shifting their focus away from appealing
to their oppressors for an audience, but some contemporary researchers would
encourage them to engage in open dialogue with them. Articles, books, and doctoral
dissertations have provided a space for Black women to share the rich narratives about
their positionalities and intersectionalities with one another. As such, Black women
continue to find innovative ways to fight oppression through connection and dialogue on
their own terms. Black female school leaders can use their voice to express their worth,
needs, and aspirations, and use dialogue to provide support to Black students.

42
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
Methodology
Black female administrators make up a small percentage of school administrators
in the United States. Their intersectionality in terms of race and gender makes them
unique because of the history of anti-Blackness, racism, and slavery in the United
States. These women have been educated in a school system that is White-centered
and paternalistic (Ladson-Billings, 1995). As such, the trauma that they may have
received while navigating through a society that runs on institutionalized racism may be
the catalyst to their aspirations to be change agents through school leadership.
Therefore, Black female administrators in K-12 schools have a story that should be
explored, as they have gained agency to make a change for student outcomes based
upon their own experiences with oppression (Freire, 1996).
Linda Smith (2012) discusses the potential harm that can be done by a biased
qualitative study. Smith states: “The processes, approaches and methodologies – while
dynamic and open to different influences and possibilities – are critical elements of a
strategic research agenda” (pg. 204).The salient point made by Smith (2012) is that
research can and has caused harm. Harm to marginalized communities and genders
(Evans-Winters, 2019). “Research ‘through imperial eyes’ describes an approach which
assumes that Western ideas about the most fundamental things are the only ideas
possible to hold, certainly the only rational ideas, and the only ideas which can make
sense of the world, of reality, of social life and of human beings” (Smith, 2012, pg 144).
This illustrates that a researcher’s problem of practice should be questioned along with
the motivation for conducting the study. Careful research design should promote

43
awareness of biases and research practices that include care and compassion for the
participant. Lastly, a good research study must align with a conceptual framework
(Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Ravitch & Carl (2016) share that “a conceptual framework
makes the case for why a study is significant and relevant and for how the study design
(including data collection and analysis methods) appropriately and rigorously answers
the research questions (pg. 34). As stated, qualitative and/or quantitative research is
predicated upon a theoretical concept that could be expanded by the research study.
Purpose of Study
This study seeks to understand the intersectional experiences of Black female
principals who were once teachers that ultimately decided to seek an administrative
position.This study will gather the perspectives of women leaders about system
approaches that help or hinder their access to leadership.
Research Questions
The following questions were used to guide this study:
1. To what extent do Black female administrators believe they were impacted by an
institutionalized White-centered culture, including perceptions of anti-Blackness, in the
K-12 public school system?
2. How have Black women risen above the indoctrination of a White-centered education
system, within which they were educated, to gain agency as school leaders?
3. How do Black female administrators experience anti-Blackness?
This study is a qualitative case study that explores the various experiences that
Black female administrators have had as students matriculating through K-12 schools,
as teachers working in K-12 schools, and as school leaders in K-12 schools. The study

44
will focus on five Black female administrators. The participants will be interviewed two
times in sessions that focus on two areas in their experiences in K-12 schools: 1) as a
K-12 student; 2) as a K-12 educational professional. The two research protocols seek to
illuminate Black female administrators' experiences with anti-Blackness and
microaggressions and demonstrate their practical protest in an effort to be an agent of
change for Black students. Ultimately, the study hopes to engage the participants in
Freirean dialogue, to engage their “voice,” and derive meaning from their experiences
as a Black women navigating through K-12 academia. The interview questions were
designed to identify implications and results that address the participants’ overall job
satisfaction, and expose the sustainability they either feel or do not feel in their
leadership positions as a Black female administrators (Steele, 2017). The participants
will be asked questions about their perceptions of themselves as students and their
perceptions of themselves as leaders at their site/office. The desired outcome is that the
administrators will find meaning in their experiences and will lend voice to speculation
and inferential debate around the scarcity and lack of longevity of Black female
administrators in public schools.
Selection of the Population
The researcher chose to conduct a case study on five Black female
administrators for this study. The choice to focus on five administrators is an attempt to
provide an in-depth study of their extensive experiences as a student, teacher, and
administrator. Hearing each of their authentic stories will provide a perspective that
could lend a fulcrum of knowledge to this study and a great degree of material to
address the research questions.

45
The case study participants will be Black female administrators in the 25 and
older age range who have at least three years experience teaching in K-12 public
schools in the U.S., and at least two years as an administrator. The researcher seeks to
generate a comfortability within the participants with the type of interview questions that
will be asked; and a dialogic atmosphere among themself and the participants as the
study progresses. The rapport that may occur during the interview process will illustrate
the concept of researcher reflexivity, which is also an important underlying purpose of
this study (Curtis, 2020). Throughout the study, the researcher hopes to have the ability
to reflect on their own experiences as a student and professional in the K-12 school
system.
The researcher will interview the participants on two different occasions to
provide focus and richness to each critical pathway period: experiences as a Black
student, experiences as a Black teacher, and experiences as a Black administrator. The
racial and gender specification of the participants is of great significance to the
researcher in regards to participant selection, whereas the research questions specify a
study of Black female administrators. Embedded in the research questions, the order in
which the questions are asked, is a quest to help the participants recall their perceptions
of themselves as a Black female K-12 student, teacher and school leader. The study will
include a discussion on the leadership styles that may have been engendered within
them as a defensive feminist response to anti-Blackness and micro aggressive
experiences (Nash, 2018).
Design Summary

46
Lochmiller & Lester (2017) gives guidelines on how to decide if a qualitative or
quantitative research approach would be best for specific types of research studies. It
follows that this researcher’s problem of practice would best be studied by using a
qualitative research design. The idea that a research study should follow a research
design that brings life to the researcher’s passion facilitated the formulation of the
dissertation topic. Statements like “qualitative problem statements tend to situate the
research problem within a particular societal, organizational, cultural, relational,
intellectual, or theoretical setting” resonated with the researcher’s intent for the study,
and consequently informed the research design, instrument, and protocol (Lochmiller,
2017, pg. 26). It also engendered the conclusion that a case study using data derived
from intimate interview questions would be the best approach to the study, as the main
desire in this study is to provide Black female agency and voice through a personal
narrative tool like dialogic action (Freire, 1995). Scholarship on best practices on
research methods encourage researchers to engage in effective inquiry about their
desired research questions, particularly about causal links, as afforded in the article by
McEwan & McEwan (2003). Research theorists explain that not all research will
produce groundbreaking findings. So, the researcher must be aware of the limitations of
their study and have a realistic approach to the reality of the results. Agee (2009)
stressed that “qualitative research is reflective” which lends support to the researcher’s
study approach as if the participants are telling their story. The study seeks to allow
them the space to reflect along with providing data to analyze in relation to the research
questions.

47
This study is a qualitative study using open-ended and demographic interview
questions. The research design is a case study in order to provide an insight into the
story of Black female administrators’ journey through an American K-12 school system,
with opportunity to collect intricate details which can support the problem of practice that
has sparked the study. It is important to the researcher to focus on a small group of
participants because of the scope of the unique aspects of their story. The study flows in
a linear fashion in order to explore the continuum of experiences and the catalysts to
the culminating act of protest. The study seeks to arrange the answers to the interview
questions in a way that creates a narrative response to the research questions. The
study design affords the researcher the chance to use the participants' story as a model
for the concepts that are discussed in the conceptual frameworks. Demographic criteria
such as location of residence in regards to the participants, will not be emphasized in
this study.
Methodology
The case study will utilize data from multiple qualitative open-ended interview
questions. The interviews will be administered to Black female administrators working in
a K-12 public school. The interview questions were developed in a style that promotes
story-telling and allows the researcher to report the data information in a chronological
order. The purpose is to demonstrate the development of the participants’ professional
status and have the basis to apply the answers in a narrative manner. Given the dialogic
emphasis of the study, the interview will allow for supplementary questions to be asked
based on the answers to the original interview questions. The purpose of the study
protocols is to promote deeper meaning and understanding based on the responses

48
that will inform research findings. Thus, the protocols will take on a dialogic
methodology which will hopefully facilitate the highest level of comfortability,
vulnerability, and rapport between the researcher and the participants. As such, the
researcher will also share their experiences when similarities between stories are
shared by the participants in an attempt to build connection.
Instrumentation and Protocols
Qualitative Instrument
The study will derive qualitative data collected from interviews with questions
aligned to the three research questions. The interviews will be framed by protocols that
consist of open-ended and two demographic interview questions. The interview
questions will be divided into two parts that center on different timeframes in the
participants' life experience from schooling to career. The purpose of utilizing primarily
open-ended questions is to have research data that can be applied to the research
questions through the lens of the study’s conceptual frameworks and a storytelling
research approach. The interviews will be conducted on Zoom in two sessions lasting
approximately 45 minutes each. After procuring the participants’ permission, the
interviews will be recorded and notes will be taken throughout the duration of the
interview. The participants will be provided with a transcript from each interview
approximately two weeks after each interview is completed and provided the opportunity
to provide clarification to any statement that has been made.
Data Collection
Data collection will occur based on best practices specified in research
scholarship. Participants that fit the scope of the study will be chosen through an

49
advertisement on the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) interface.
The researcher will appeal for participants with backgrounds that fit the specific
research criteria: Black female administrators. Five participants will be selected by a
randomized lottery from a pool of identified potential participants.
Ten data collection steps will be taken when the research study is approved: 1)
Advertisement for participants will be published and participants will be chosen; 2)
Interview dates will be set; 3) Interviews will be conducted; 4) Notes will be taken on the
interview answers; researcher will ask clarifying questions and provide collaborative
responses when relatable answers are given; 5) The interview will be recorded; 6) The
interview will be concluded; 7) The interview will be transcribed, adding written notes
where appropriate; 8) The interview transcription will be shared with participants, inviting
them to make corrections if necessary; 9) The transcription will be finalized; 10) The
data will be securely stored for coding.
Consent will be provided to the researcher from each participant before the
research interviews are conducted. The participants will be told that they can end/leave
an interview at any time or decline to answer a question whenever necessary. The
participants will also be assured of the utmost confidentiality and that their names and
district information will not be exposed in the study - a pseudonym will be used . Lastly,
it will be clarified to each participant that each interview will be transcribed and sent to
them within two weeks of the completion for corrections, if needed, or further
clarifications.
Data Analysis

50
The research methodology for this study is a case study involving five
participants. The research design includes two separate interviews, with protocols that
utilize primarily open ended questions. Each interview question was specifically
designed to address the theoretical frameworks and the three research questions of the
study. The data collected from the interview protocols will be analyzed through the best
practice methods delineated by research-based qualitative guidelines.
The data derived from the interviews will be arranged to inform the researcher on
how to share each participant's story. The stories will then be analyzed for themes that
emerge, common and unique. The thematic areas that are noted will be listed and
organized by the conceptual and theoretical frameworks, research questions, and
literature review resources to which they apply. The answers to the interview questions
will be organized in a manner that facilitates the process of coding and analysis. The
researcher will create a table with concepts that will arise from the participants answers
that address the research question and also open new areas of consideration for further
research. The purpose of the case study is to provide insight into the subject matter of
the research questions and to expand the literature that has already addressed it. Thus,
the collected data will be analyzed in a manner that may expose new ideas as well as
provide an innovative application of the theoretical frameworks supporting the study.
The theoretical frameworks providing the foundational support for the study are dialogic
action from Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1996) and Black Feminism. However,
the conceptual frameworks supporting the projected assumptions held by the
researcher of this study seek to reveal the effects of anti-Blackness and micro

51
aggression on Black female administrators. What will their stories reveal about their
desires to become school leaders?
Validity and Reliability
Trustworthiness and credibility are vitally important in a quantitative study,
therefore, the researcher will keep these concepts in mind while collecting and
analyzing the data. However, and more importantly, reliability and validity are extremely
important and will be addressed as well. As such, the researcher took great care to test
the potentiality of the data’s validity and reliability by checking their biases, seeking
feedback from seasoned researchers, analyzing the research protocols objectively, and
using theoretical best practices when designing the research questions. The researcher
has piloted the interview questions with three comparable test interviewees, and asked
them for feedback to test any possible instances of explicit bias, coercion, and
embedded assumptions present in the questions. The researcher made several
changes to the research protocols as a result.
Summary
This research study utilizes a case study research instrument with demographic
and open-ended interview questions for the research protocols. The study seeks to
provide voice to Black female participants and provide an opportunity for storytelling
using dialogic action and Black feminism as a theoretical framework. The participants
will be chosen based on fitting the population sample criteria: Black female
administrator in a K-12 school district. The research interviews will be given
systematically and thematically, with a conversational delivery method on Zoom. The
researcher will compile data from the interviews and apply them to sources from the

52
Review of the Literature and the conceptual and theoretical frameworks that form the
basis for this study. The findings from this analysis will be shared in Chapter Four in the
form of five authentic narratives and cross narrative thematic analysis, and the
discussion of the findings (including implications for further research) and praxis
implications for the researcher will be shared in Chapter Five.

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CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS
Purpose of the Study
This case study seeks to understand the intersectional experiences of Black
female administrators early in the development of their leadership careers. This study
will gather the perspectives of Black female administrators on experiences that they
perceived to help or hinder their access to leadership within the sociopolitical context of
a racialized education system. The research delves into the potential effects of two
concepts: anti-Blackness and microaggressions. By design, it also gives insight into the
participants' experiences with racial and implicit bias. The study has a reflexive,
narrative design and seeks to explore whether anti-Blackness and microaggressions
experiences catalyze Black female educators to pursue leadership in the K-12 setting.
The research questions explore the experiences that Black female administrators had
as students, teachers, and as administrators which may have engendered a desire to
become a school leader. The premise is that experiences with anti-Blackness and
microaggressions sparked a silent protest to become school administrators.
Participants
The participants in this study were suitable because they fit the research criteria
as Black female administrators in the K-12 school setting with three or more years as
administrators. The participants consisted of five Black female administrators in a K-12
setting. All participants were teachers before becoming administrators and sought
school leadership after maintaining teaching careers for two years and beyond. The age
of the participants ranged from 28 to 64 years of age, representing the Millennial,
Generation X, and Baby Boomer generations. Their geographical location is noted, but

54
was not of significance to this study. Participants were recruited through educational
affiliations and professional learning organizations. The five participants participated in
this study by completing interviews on Zoom. One administrator started her teaching
career in Dallas, Texas, where they were born and raised, and is currently in Brooklyn,
New York. The second administrator was born and raised in Los Angeles, California and
started her teaching career in Paramount, California. She has only worked for one
district. The last participant was born in West Virginia, migrated to Philadelphia where
she started her teaching career, and finally made her way to California where she taught
for 12 years before serving as an administrator in Bellflower for the past three years.
Table 1
Study Participants
Participant Pseudonym Administrative Position
1. Jessica Administrative Assistant, DO
2. Leslie Assistant Principal, K-8
3. Yvonne Assistant Principal, HS
4. Debra Principal, ES
5. Andrea Vice Principal, MS
Results
Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Paulo Freire’s (1996) manifesto on marginalized
groups adopting an intellectual resistance as they navigate through an oppressive
existence is the theoretical basis for this study. Freire champions the voice of the
oppressed as a liberative agent in what he calls “dialogic action.” He posits that as the

55
oppressed populations tell their stories they become empowered and empowering. As
such, this study gives space to a narrative method in the exploration and discussion of
the research findings. In order to provide the narrative space that is necessary, some
pertinent interview questions that were asked of each participant will be displayed along
with their answers.
Chapter design. The results of this research study will be presented in three
sections related to the three research questions. The findings will be guided by the
research and determined by the participant's answers from their interviews. Themes
that emerged from the findings will be addressed within the three research question
sections and derived from the answers to the interview questions. Furthermore,
connections will be made in each section to the resources from the literature review,
and each research question section will include one or more of the five themes listed in
the Literature Review with some of the interview questions and participant answers
included. Finally, the chapter will conclude with a discussion of the findings.
Research Questions
The research questions for this study are as follows:
1. To what extent do Black female administrators believe they were impacted by an
institutionalized White-centered culture, including perceptions of anti-Blackness, in the
K-12 public school system?
2. How have Black women risen above the indoctrination of a White-centered education
system, within which they were educated, to gain agency as school leaders?
3. How do Black female administrators experience anti-Blackness?

56
The following sections will address the study results by exploring each of the
research questions through an examination of the participant’s answers to the interview
questions. As such, the sections will consist of direct quotes from the participant’s
answers to the interview questions. As stated, the goal of the study is to provide a
narrative space for the Black female administrators who agreed to participate in the
study, by sharing each participant’s “story” through their interview answers. This method
is supported by a theoretical framework that is based on the concept of “dialogical
action” as introduced in Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1996). In order to
capture their authentic voice, their answers will be shared verbatim and not
compromised by paraphrase.
Results: Research Question 1
To what extent do Black female administrators believe they were impacted by an
institutionalized White-centered culture, including perceptions of anti–Blackness, in the
K-12 public school system? Current research has addressed the topic of anti-Blackness
in the following ways. Clark (2021) channels Gloria Ladson-Billings in delving into the
institutional trauma that Black students experience in the K-12 public school system,
and how reform in schools is crucial for change to occur. Douglas et al. (2008) reveals
the impact that is made on Black students by having white teachers. Freire (1996)
demonstrates the devastation that oppressed people feel as a result of institutionalized
racism. DuBois (1999) lends historical context to the discourse on institutionalized
racism in society leaking into the education system as systemic racism. Mowatt (2013)
illuminates the effects of being invisible in a White-centered society. Ohito (2021)
highlights the struggles that Black students have matriculating in predominantly white

57
institutions (PWI). Peters (2021) posits the Black female administrator as an
intersectional leader that must lead from a context of lived experiences that either
consciously or subconsciously governs their leadership style.. All of these researchers
and writers explain the foundational substance of the Black female administrator, and
thereby support a significant part of the findings derived from the participant interviews.
Each participant had their own, unique experiences in the K-12 school system, but each
of them are a product of a White-centered system of education, even if they attended
schools that were predominantly Black. Each participant matriculated through a
westernized system of higher education, even if they attended an HBCU. Lastly, each
participant is a Black woman who was once a teacher who had to navigate through a
system with covert or overt anti-Blackness, even if they worked with mainly Black
colleagues. Ladson-Billings (2006) describes how the education system in America was
formed from a racially biased lens, and that Black people were never meant to thrive in
it even though many have done so. It can also be stated that this same educational
system was definitely not forged with the possibility of Black people holding positions of
leadership in schools. An analysis of the findings support Ladson-Billings claim.
The following section will delve into the data analysis that supports the study
findings by examining the themes from the review of the literature which were
highlighted in Chapter Two.
Literature Review Theme 1. Black Female Leaders’ Positionality and
Intersectionality
As the research shows, Black students can and often do experience
anti-Blackness in a White-centered public school environment. The same can be true

58
for Black teachers and school administrators. The participant interview responses
showed that as Black students, teachers, and administrators, a great portion of their
identities as Black and as female (positionality and intersectionality) were realized
through direct experiences with or knowledge of racial trauma in the K-12 and/or higher
education settings. The participant stories and responses shed light on how
experiences with racial trauma informed their view of themselves as school leaders. In
the following section, the researcher will allow the participants' voices to provide in vivo
data, which will then be applied to the contextual meaning of the study.
Yvonne’s Story. Yvonne is in her 8th year as an Assistant Principal at the High
School level. Yvonne spoke of her experiences from the perspective of a student from a
low socioeconomic household for her entire time as a K-12 student. She lived with her
mother and stepfather in the urban part of town in an apartment and recalled not having
enough money for books or school supplies at times. As such, her answers to the
interview questions conveyed a sentiment that was surprising in light of her
circumstances, because she did not appear to have experiences that are usually
attributed to Black youth living in low socioeconomic circumstances (Ladson-Billings,
1995; Ladson-Billings, 2006; Love, 2019). When asked: How would you define the
concept of anti-blackness in your own words? She answered: “Anti-blackness is
anything that harms people, black people, you know, and that is systemic racism,
prejudice, redlining, you know, health care. And unfortunately, it's very subtle now in
2023. I mean, it's in your face in certain areas of the country, you know, I feel very
fortunate to be in a pocket of comfort here in Southern California, Los Angeles, and
Long Beach But, as you know what happened yesterday in Jacksonville (referencing a

59
mass shooting that targeted Black people in Jacksonville, Florida on August 26, 2023),
it's just people against black people, and like having more hatred for Black people just
because of our existence which is crazy. It's the ultimate gaslighting. We cause our own
problems, our demise, because we're Black. Yes, that's it.” When asked: Can you tell
me about your most memorable experience as a Black student in your formative years?:
“I had an amazing experience in private school when I was in kindergarten…I mean just
they doted on me you know it was I had a black teacher, I had a black female teacher,
and it was amazing, and it made me feel special from when I was in kindergarten.” She
goes on to say: “So I think, I didn't think it was unique until I got into education, but now I
realize how unique it was that I had that support since I was a little girl, and I felt like it.”
When asked: When thinking of your experiences as a Black student, tell me about a
time when someone made you feel inadequate or not good enough because you were
Black, if at all? Yvonne stated: “You know, this question is pretty interesting because I
don't remember experiencing, you know, a lot of racism, discrimination when I was a
child.” When asked, Thinking of the terms “intersectionality” and “positionality,” and
looking back on your formative years, how would you describe yourself as a young
student? this was her answer: “I was very fortunate to be you know that Black girl who
really you know liked school and did well in school. My friends were smart and so we
went to tutoring and we loved our teachers and, you know, I had that group of friends.
Until I didn't.”
Yvonne’s answers suggest that she was sheltered from anti-Blackness, despite
the fact that she was a poor Black child attending school in an urban environment. Yet,

60
there is also an underpinning of awareness that Black students were perceived
differently than the rest (Jordan, 2018).
Leslie’s Story. Leslie is a 4th year Assistant Principal at a Charter School. Leslie’s
perspective on her experiences come from a lens of someone who has risen to her
leadership position early in her career in education. As the youngest participant in study,
she brings an insight to her story that combines an old soul approach with a Generation
Z resilience and optimism. She is the product of a single parent home, where her
mother was the caretaker and her grandfather helped as a former educator. She is the
youngest of three children and the only girl, with a large age difference between her
older brothers, which gave her a sense of being an only child while growing up. When
asked: How would you define the concept of anti-blackness in your own words? She
answered: “Actions, thoughts, policies, organizations that are against black people and
the betterment of black people.” When asked Can you tell me about your most
memorable experience as a Black student in your formative years? She answered: “I
was a pretty good student. I was like K through 8. I was all A's in honors classes. And
then in high school I was in honors and AP classes…Growing up, my mom was just
really big on making sure that I had all A's. And so, like, she didn't really tell me a
reason until later. So it was more of like do better, do better, do better. So I always had a
sense that I needed to do better. And so that was my guiding goal. It was just like my
mom said, I had to do better because where I lived there weren't many Black people or
educators.” She continues, “I had given this example recently, so it was after my US
history AP exam. And so there's this thing in Virginia, it's like this really big thing called
Girls State. And so essentially what it is is different girls throughout the state, they go to

61
this area for a week in the state and they learn about politics, the history, like community
organization, all the things. And so in order to go, you had to get recommended by a
teacher, do an interview process, like by the auxiliary group. And so, um, after the AP
exam, I think it was like maybe like directly after school had ended. So after the AP
exam, me and like a few friends went to go get lunch and we went off campus. And I
guess the teacher was like, y'all can't go off campus, but we came back. And so I was
with the principal's daughter. And so we were back on time. We had done all the things
that were appropriate to do. And then we come back and we go to his class, he yells at
us, ‘You guys don't deserve to go to Girl State.’ But then he let the principal’s daughter
go. Then he threatened to revoke my Girl State bid away. He said he was gonna contact
the people in charge, and he even called my mom while I was there. And I guess he
was trying to get me in trouble with her, but my mom had already known that I was
leaving and she knew when I came back. And so, it was like at that moment, I was like,
oh, certain things that I just can't do. No matter who I’m with.” When asked When
thinking of your experiences as a Black student, tell me about a time when someone
made you feel inadequate or not good enough because you were Black, if at all? She
answered: “I know one time when I was in sixth grade, I think this is like the early part of
sixth grade, so it was like September and my great-granddad had just passed away and
so we had to go to North Carolina. And so I was out of school for a little bit. It was not
anything more than like three days, if that. I don't think it was long, but I had missed a
project or whatever. And so my mom had talked to the school, sent a note, right. I
turned in my science project when I returned, thinking like all my other classes, it would
be fine. After I turned in my science project he finally gave us our grades back. And I

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asked him, ‘why did I get this grade? I did the project. Why?’ I'll never forget because he
had a son that was also my age. I asked, ‘can you explain to me, why did I get this
grade? I turned it in and I did everything I was supposed to do.’ I don't know what
happened to him, but he started yelling at me. He was like, ‘It was late! You didn't come
to school so you didn't do it, you're never going to be a good student.’ It was bad. My
mom picked me up, and so I'm trying not to cry, because again, I had never had this
issue before at all. All my other teachers were super understanding because I was in
sixth grade. Then I thought, ‘What am I gonna lie about?’ So my mom was like, okay,
cool and she went to that school, and we didn't have any more issues. She follows up
saying, “And that’s another reason for me realizing, I'm Black and I can't do certain
things. This was a lot, especially in the K-8 setting.” She finishes with, “I am thinking
about a time when I had friends and I wanted to hang out with them on my own to do kid
things. But then they'd be like, ‘Oh, my parents don't really like you. I can't be friends
with you.’ Or, you know how, they have a birthday party and everyone gets invitations
and then they say, ‘Oh, I don't have an invitation for you.’ It was stuff like that, like small
stuff, and I didn't realize what it was until I had gotten older.” When asked, "Thinking of
the terms “intersectionality” and “positionality,” and looking back on your formative
years, how would you describe yourself as a young student? She replied: “I did what
I'm supposed to do. It was really just, again, might have just been, from me being
scared of my mom and not doing what I needed to do when I was at school. But I knew I
always loved to go to school. I always wanted to go to school. I'd rather go to school
than be home. So I wanted to make sure that I could learn everything that I could learn.”

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Leslie’s story illustrates the idea of Black female administrators operating under
the pressure of having to be better in their skills, achievement, knowledge,
qualifications, appearance, and professionalism in order to acquire leadership positions
in the K-12 school system (Wardell, 2020). This is important to the data analysis
because it speaks to the work conditions that Black female administrators often have to
work under and contributes to Black Feminist thought which states that Black women
are conditioned to perform well under extreme scrutiny and feelings of inadequacy
(Huckaby, 2013; Ricks, 2018). It also addresses the negative effects of anti-Blackness
on Black students that can follow them into their professional lives (Douglas et al., 2008;
Halsey, 2017).
Jessica’s Story. Jessica described herself as a Baby Boomer “through and
through.” She is a third year Administrative Assistant working for a special department
that centers Black students in the district office. She has experience living in many
different cities in the United States, and went into administration late in her career, after
being in the classroom for 18 years and in Teacher Leader roles for 10 years. She was
raised by a widowed mother with five other siblings as the youngest child. She
experienced a certain degree of socioeconomic privilege throughout her childhood
because her mother was a nurse. When asked How would you define the concept of
anti-blackness in your own words? She stated: “Anti-blackness, in my own words, is
such a large term to even deal with and think about or handle. These engagements that
work against liberatory experiences for black people, that work against opportunities for
black people, that work against equity for black people, which is objective anyway.
Anything that works to perpetuate racist practices and demonic practices, anything that

64
works against freedom of expression, freedom of joy, freedom of happiness, freedom of
all the rights that everyone else has access to in this country for Black people. Now
that's not specific to an educational environment, but anti-Blackness is just behavior,
actions, words, policies, procedures, and harming Black folks.” She continues on saying,
“I'm probably giving more scholarly definitions, but just in my mind, in my own words,
that’s what comes up.” When asked Can you tell me about your most memorable
experience as a Black student in your formative years? She answered: “So, I kind of
negate, not really negate (pause). But, like I said, I didn't really have a lot of racial
experiences besides segregation. But of course, I did have them, right? But again, the
buffer of the black church, the buffer of a beautiful, strong black mom, the buffer of a
community protected me. But I'll never forget, in fifth grade, I wanted to be student
council president. And I can't remember his name, but he was a P.E teacher. He was a
Black man. And he was like, ‘no way, you'll never win.’ You know, he said whatever he
said. And Mrs. Wimbley, my fifth grade teacher, who was, I know, an alcoholic because
she's always been known as an alcoholic, said ‘I'm going to help you. You can do it.’ So,
when Ms. Wimbley said that, I was like, okay, I got somebody on the inside. And she
helped me. I won. I know, I won. She was Black. Ms. Wimbley was Black.” When asked,
When thinking of your experiences as a Black student, tell me about a time when
someone made you feel inadequate or not good enough because you were Black, if at
all? she stated: “There was a lot of discrimination happening to Black kids during that
time, right? A lot. I mean, I lived in the Black community and the things, the opportunities
that I had, you know, others might not have had. My mother was fierce. My mother was
a single mom of six kids, a widow, right? And she wasn't playing with her baby girl. So I

65
was protected, you know. I had Girl Scouts experiences. I had Christian clubs, church.
We traveled. So we, there were probably lots of things she protected me from because
she was at my school all the time. I don't know what she's talking about, but she made
shit right. I'll just say that. So probably there was a lot of racism and anti-Black stuff
going on and my mom protected me from it. So I just had peace.” When asked, Thinking
of the terms “intersectionality” and “positionality,” and looking back on your formative
years, how would you describe yourself as a young student? She replied: “Well, it's
really interesting because, you know, I learned about them this year. So those terms are
new terms for me in the last few years. I mean, I wasn't thinking about myself that way
before now. I would say my positionality as a child in a middle-class home with
opportunities, with a very strong community circle, you know, community of support, a
church family, a literal community, I think that I was positioned as privileged in a way.
But outside of that protection It could have gone one way or the other. It could have
gone left, meaning you succumb to the challenges, the oppression, when this or that is
in front of you. Hopefully, you have people in your life with power that kind of help push
you through that. And I do feel like I benefited from the right people at the right time, the
love. Our church home, our church family, was huge back then. And I think that we
would have suffered had it not been for them. I think most people in my age group back
then would say that. Like your church community was like the bedrock of everything in
the Black community. So when stuff would happen, we had that support that kind of,
again, neutralized some of the other impacts or other challenges that we were facing.
So positioned in that way, also growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, we had the huge
city, but we benefited from being on the outskirts of the huge city. We were in a college

66
town, so living in an educational community, I guess you could say. Intersectionality is, I
guess, if I'm thinking about it correctly, being a black person, being a Christian person,
being the youngest of six kids, all the aspects of my humanity at that time. Also, being
female, absolutely. But for the most part, back then, it kind of lined up in a beneficial
way. She continues, “Yet there is the social emotional aspect of it, the loss of a parent,
siblings, the grief. And, there was some, unfortunately, some harm that I experienced at
the hands of a family member that also contributed to emotional upset, right? Is that
part of your positionality or your intersectionality? Probably part of my emotional
intersectionality, if there's such a thing, absolutely. I mean, it impacted me then, all my
years as a young adult, and absolutely to this day.”
Jessica’s story highlights the protective aspects of Black folks having a strong
family, church, community, and educational support system. These supportive entities
often exist in Black middle class communities and can serve as a fortifying force against
anti-Blackness in a White-centered society (Gutierrez et al., 2012). Interestingly, Jessica
also shared how harm can occur within that same community that can have lasting
effects. She had one Black male teacher try to minimize her ability to succeed based on
her positionality, and a Black female teacher who elevated her desire to pursue her
goals. She experienced harm at the hands of family members who violated her based
on her female positionality, and experienced the toll on her mental well being from the
loss of loved ones. Her story addresses the other aspects of life that often play a crucial
role in the internal motivations that push Black female educators into the pursuit of
leadership.

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The interview responses that created Jessica and Yvonne’s stories also bear a
similarity by introducing the concept of double consciousness (Jordan, 2018). They
both shared that as high achieving students, they did not recall experiencing
anti-Blackness (du Bois, 1999)
Debra’s Story. Debra has many years experience as a school administrator, and
has had the role of elementary school principal at three different sites so far in her
career. She was raised in a two-parent household for most of her childhood, but then her
parents divorced. She describes her economic situation as lower middle class, even
while being raised with just her mother. When asked How would you define the concept
of anti-blackness in your own words? She answered: “I would say that it's a known and
sometimes, I mean, a conscious and sometimes unconscious hatred or dislike towards
black people specifically.” When asked Can you tell me about your most memorable
experience as a Black student in your formative years? She stated: “I would say, I guess
maybe when I went to high school because my high school was multicultural and then I
was in competition with all types of people in different cultures and races. And I would
say, when I would audition for different things at the school, like whether it was the band
or the cheerleading squad or whatever I was interested in, those were formative years
where I saw that being Black meant that I had something about me that was different, or
I didn't have what was considered important. And so that's where I think culture started
to really mean something, you know, to me in those situations. But, something just
came to mind right now when I was younger. I've had more experiences, interestingly
enough, with black women. Because, you know, as black women, we can be very

68
competitive, which is okay. But sometimes we're so competitive against one another
because there's this feeling of not having enough or not enough positions for us all, you
know.” When asked When thinking of your experiences as a Black student, tell me about
a time when someone made you feel inadequate or not good enough because you were
Black, if at all? She stated: “I’ve had several experiences in my formative years where
women, Black women, have made me feel less than. And I don't know if it's because, you
know, they wanted me to be better, or if they were jealous. You know, to this day, I don't
know what that was, but that has informed how I am today in the educational setting
towards Black females.” When asked, Thinking of the terms “intersectionality” and
“positionality,” and looking back on your formative years, how would you describe
yourself as a young student? She replied: “I would say I was average to above average,
quiet, and very creative, and I often solve problems differently than my peers. I've always
identified as Black, but when I really realized that Black people were marginalized was
when I went to college. My roommates in college were all from wealthy families. And I'm
like, whoa, wow. And, you know, before then, I hadn't realized that we weren't poor, but
we weren't rich. I didn't realize that there were such, you know, distinct differences in the
way people were raised, the way they grew up. And so that's when I realized there's a big
difference between being Black, even though I was proud to be Black and I was happy.
I'd never had exposure to some of the things or had the support that I saw my
roommates receiving, you know. Just from what they shared with me and also what I
saw at the university where we attended, it was vastly different. And so that's when I
realized for sure that I'm Black, and saw why I was raised to know that we have to work
harder. I knew that we had to work three times as hard, especially if you're a woman.

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Even though I knew you have to do all these different things because you're Black, when
I actually saw it manifested was when I went to the university.”
Debra’s coming of age displays an awakening of the true nature of anti-Blackness
in a White-centered society. It is not uncharacteristic that her realization occurred in an
educational setting. Her interview response shows the one dimensional aspect of what
it meant to be black from the eyes of a child, yet like Yvonne, she simultaneously knew
that Blackness afforded her with a certain complexity and public scrutiny. The lightbulb
truly came on when she entered higher education. This points to the concept of
culturally relevant pedagogy, which seeks to impart Black students with full context of
their positionality as Black (Ladson-Billings, 1995). The purpose of culturally relevant
pedagogy is to provide Black students with the historical and social background of their
positions as Black people, equipping them with tools to build a holistic perception of
themselves as individuals.
Andrea’s Story. Andrea shared that she was raised with both parents in the home
which allowed her to experience growing up in an affluent area. She shared that she
spent a moderate amount of time teaching at the elementary school level before
embarking on the administrative part of her career in education. She spent the
remainder of her career serving as a Vice Principal at the middle school level before
transitioning into a position as a community college counselor who supports students
of color. When asked How would you define the concept of anti-blackness in your own
words? I would say that it is an inability to recognize a black person; with the threat of
sometimes violence.” Can you tell me about your most memorable experience as a

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Black student in your formative years? I grew up in a predominantly Caucasian school
district and schools. So, growing up through the K-12 system, I cannot remember having
– I did not have a black teacher. I did have in high school a black counselor, but
throughout K-12, I did not have anyone that I could identify with. And I was not, I don't
feel that I had the support from school staff. I had the support at home, but I didn't feel
like I fit in. I always felt like an outsider growing up and never was taught about, you
know, my true history. So, no, I don't feel like I had the support within the school system.
But, I will point out there was an incident when I was in elementary school, I was in
fourth grade, and being the only black person, there was a Caucasian boy and he started
chasing me with a bat for no reason. And I remember this very clearly. And I was, I
couldn't understand and he threw the bat at me and the bat hit me and I got injured. And
I would say that would probably be the first time I realized that there was a difference
between me being black.” When asked, Thinking of the terms “intersectionality” and
“positionality,” and looking back on your formative years, how would you describe
yourself as a young student? She answered: “As a K-12 student, I would say I was
above, well, I was an average to above average student, but I was also a quiet student. I
grew up in a home with a mother and a father and the expectation was that I was gonna
go to school and then I was gonna go to college and graduate from college without any
exception. So there was an expectation that I was going to complete school and
college. I grew up fine. I started off with a mom and a dad in the home, who instilled the
love of learning in me. I never even thought I would not go to college. I always knew I
would.”

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Like Jessica and Debra, Andrea’s formative years were fortified by class and
socioeconomic status that afforded her with privilege. However, Andrea’s description of
her upbringing and early education do not connote a sense of double consciousness in
her positionality. Despite living in an all White neighborhood and attending all White
schools, Andrea was mentally aware of her status as a Black youth early on. As her
interview response shows, she had the most stark, and disturbing experience with
anti-Blackness within a White-centered environment in her early formative years than
any of the other participants. Andrea experienced physical violence at the hands of a
White individual when she was a child, and did not benefit from the protection from a
Black communal foundation like Jessica did. It can be inferred that Andrea endured her
childhood as the only Black child in her neighborhood and environment by normalizing
her experiences (Ricks, 2018).
Results: Research Question 2
How have Black women risen above the indoctrination of a White-centered
education system, within which they were educated, to gain agency as school leaders?
Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1996) provides the theoretical framework
for Black female administrators to share their lived experiences as protest to
anti-Blackness and racial oppression in educational spaces. Irwin (2018) shares Freire's
concept of “authority and freedom” as a convergence for radical change. The findings
related to this research question highlight the participants' personal action of resistance.
It relays their vision of leadership and purpose, and exposes the feelings they have
towards advocacy and support for Black students (Huckaby, 2013). Ramis Salas (2018)
provides a framework for the data analysis with his modern explorations of Freire’s

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ideas of “dialogical action” and "dialogical education” as a conduit to a theory of
resistance. Prior research has been done on Black women as change leaders in
education which serves as a model for an effective application of data for this study. In
fact, Robinson (2013) addresses the Black female administrators path to resistance with
a phenomenological study of the lived experiences of Black female principals and their
vision for change. This section gives Black female principals navigating through a
predominantly White institutional space a voice with which to tell their stories of
resistance and their actions of protest (Mitchell, 2021; Lightsey, 2020).
Literature Review Theme 2: Oppression, Activism and Power.
When asked How did you experience anti-Blackness as a teacher, if at all?
Andrea answered: “So, when I was first hired as a teacher, I would say I had a positive
experience. When I had finished the credentialing program, and this was in the early 90s,
I had gone to a job fair, and there was a black principal there. She interviewed me, and
she hired me on the spot. So, it was a positive experience because I was able to be
around supportive people. One, the staff was supportive, and two, I was able to be
around students that looked like me to where I felt like I could have some sort of impact
or be a representative for them. So my experience teaching, I would say, was positive.”
Here, Andrea makes a connection with her introduction to her professional career as an
educator to her personal sense of connection to the Black community. Based on her
description of her upbringing as surrounded by White people, it follows that it was
primarily positive because it was new, and potentially filled a void that she had in her
formative years (Massey et al., 2014).

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Debra answered: “Maybe, you know, maybe from parents of students who weren't
Black, possibly, but there's nothing that stands out to me as a teacher.” Debra’s response
to this interview question raises a question about her possibly repressing feelings
around her experiences with anti-Blackness. It appears to lack true reflection. Viewing
her response from a Black Feminist perspective, Debra could have easily normalized her
experience in order to function in her role and serve students in her best capacity (Ricks,
2018). Or perhaps, acts of anti-Blackness were so ingrained in her experiences that they
went unnoticed (Carroll Massey et al., 1975). Current research shows that other Black
female administrators have described their experiences with resiliency and explained
their motivation to repress the pain of anti-Blackness in the same manner (Burton et al.,
2020). Debra seemed to have an understanding and acknowledgement that she
experienced anti-Blackness, but she described it in an non-impactful way.
Jessica answered: “So growing up, I didn't, you know, I didn't go to Michigan or
California, obviously. I was fortunate to always have Black folks around me, very much
unlike my experience now. Like, even if I would teach at a school where there were a lot
of black people, there was a whole group of black educators at my church or
somewhere where I could connect. Because it just wasn't as painful as it is now. It is
painful now. It wasn't as painful as it was now, back then. Because you got people to
talk to, people to vent with, people to support you. But yeah, I mean, probably more so
after I left Chicago as a teacher or the Chicago area, when I came to California probably,
is when I experienced more anti-Blackness. One of the ways I experienced
anti-Blackness was being a TOSA (teacher on special assignment) for 10 years and

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knowing that I was capable and competent, and probably, well, let's say deserving, of
being promoted, but not being promoted and never being told why.”
The expression of loneliness and isolation in Jessica’s response to this interview
question is jarring (Steele, 2017). Ohito & Brown (2021) describe this manner of trauma
that Black teachers experience while working in predominantly white school
environments as “erasure” and “absence.” Analyzing this portion of Jessica’s interview
exposed a complete contrast to the experiences she described in her formative years,
where she felt a sense of safety because she was surrounded by supportive people
within the Black community. Notwithstanding the trauma she described at the hands of
Black people in her formative years, Jessica emotes a different response to
anti-Blackness experienced in the Black community than she did within a White
educational institution. In the all White environment she seems to cease to exist
(Mowatt et al., 2013).
Leslie answered: “For me, I was able to turn it around, especially after my second
semester of teaching. I had some Black students. Actually, one of the classes I taught
was African American Studies. And I was able to kind of just do whatever I wanted to
do.”
Leslie’s response speaks to a symbolic break from her earlier experiences with
anti-Blackness, and in direct contrast with Jessica’s experiences. Jessica’s experiences
growing up with a strong connection to the Black community afforded her protection,
agency, and confidence. However, Leslie grew up immersed in a White-centered setting
where she normalized her feelings of isolation and achieved academic success

75
seemingly in the shadows, and struggled with feeling invisible. Jessica’s experience
with anti-Blackness in her formative years provided her with the desire to “turn it around”
(Lightsey, 2020) and seek opportunities to connect with her Black culture as a critical
aspect of her teaching practice (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Ladson-Billings, 2009; Love,
2019; Matias, 2013). Jessica applied a Freirean principle that modern research posits as
a necessary approach to modern day education reform (McKenna, 2013; Matias, 2013).
Yvonne answered: “As a teacher, it was very subtle, you know, very subtle. And it's
really when I was a new teacher. I think once I became a veteran teacher, you know, I just
really knew how to insulate myself. And, you know, the thing about it is it can be
isolating, but in a good way, right? So I didn't have to interact with anybody except for at
certain meetings. As a teacher, literally, I could show up for work, be with my students
all day, on my break, get my mail when everybody else is in the classroom, and say ‘Hi
and Bye.’ Anytime I was feeling anti-Blackness it had to do with white teachers that are
thinking that I'm getting something that they're not getting. And so, it stopped once they
realized that I wasn’t going to get it, and I'm part of the team. That takes about three or
four years. You have to go through that for about three or four years. I knew it when I
was going through it. But the good thing is that I had some allies that would speak up
for me. I realized that because in the long run, no matter what those White teachers
were saying, my allies said ‘it's not what Yvonne is getting as a teacher, it's what her
students are getting.’ That wasn't about me, you know, it was about there's a need right
now for the students to get this. But in high school, you know, more prestigious courses
like honors and AP and stuff go to more veteran teachers. So when I was a new teacher,

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I was teaching remedial courses, and so, veteran teachers didn’t care as long as they
didn't have to teach that. And as an educator, instead of being like, ‘Oh, I don't want to
teach that either,’ I said, these students need me, and I'm going to do the best for them.”
In contrast to Jessica, Yvonne describes her isolation based on anti-Blackness as
an asset. Yet, in alignment with Debra, she seems to minimize it in the process.
Although she adds a layer of positivity, Yvonne’s response to this interview question
speaks to the previously discussed concept of trauma normalization (Ricks, 2018).
In summary, Andrea and Leslie’s experiences growing up and attending schools
in an all White environment resulted in them seeking to work within the Black
community in their professional careers. It also equipped them to navigate a system of
anti-Blackness with a sense of resistance (Mckenna, 2013; Mitchell, 2021).
Literature Review Theme 3: The Oppressed as Change Leader
What the study is ultimately trying to determine is if there is a connection with
Black female administrators' desire to be school administrators and early experiences
with anti-Blackness as students and teachers. This section will catalog the answers to
the interview questions that address the participants’ personal feelings around their
agency as school leaders. Three interview questions will be highlighted in three sections
that will end with a comparison and contrast of the participants' answers.
This interview question asked: What experiences as a student and/or teacher, if
any, sparked your interest in becoming a school administrator?
Andrea answered: “So I think it was just the trajectory for me because I started
as a teacher and I was a high school counselor. And then I transitioned into
administration. So I think it was just the core trajectory. I wanted to have more impact

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outside of the classroom, outside of counseling, to be able to engage families and to at
least be a part of the decision-making and, you know, having more impact with more
students. So that's what led me into administration.” Here, Andrea describes her
aspiration for leadership as a tool of empowerment, albeit her own and those that she
sought to lead as an administrator. Andrea understood her agency as “decision-making”
power that can make an “impact” on the parents and students under her care. In light of
her prior narrative regarding her desire to help Black students have the type of support
that she didn’t have, it is not surprising that she would decide to be a student leader
when given the opportunity to be an administrator.
Debra answered: “I wanted to, and I still do, want to change the experience of
children of color and specifically Black students. But any group that's marginalized or
any people that are made to feel less than, I always root for the underdog, I want to help.
And so I figured if I became a principal, then I would be able to do more with more
families and students than I could as a classroom teacher. And, that was why I originally
wanted to become a principal.” Debra’s desire to become a leader mirrors Andrea’s with
striking similarity. She clearly knows that becoming an administrator would give her the
opportunity to build capacity within Black students and parents.
Leslie answered: “I haven't had the best experiences at my school with the people
that I work with for many reasons, especially my principal. And so I was looking at the
qualifications of, you know, just what it is to be a school administrator.”
Yvonne answered: “I had never imagined myself in the role of administrator as a
student. I remember very few of my administrators. But as a teacher, I felt the same,

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especially as a newer teacher. I did get a kind of push where it was like, wow, you know,
you could really be an administrator. But you know, I was a teacher for 14 years and
unfortunately, I realized that there is a contentious relationship between some teachers
and some administrators. But, I wasn't that way as a teacher and I'm not that way as an
administrator because we're all working for the same goal. My interest in becoming an
administrator was out of curiosity, right? I really, really felt like I knew how to be a
student and a teacher, but I didn't know what it meant to be an administrator. And it's
been a long journey. I was pretty surprised that I was chosen to be an administrator. And
stepping into my role has been challenging, and it has not always been comfortable.”
Jessica answered: “To be honest, I don't feel like I love leading other adults. I
don't love being in charge of or being a supervisor and so forth. So I really never saw
myself as a principal, definitely not a superintendent. And at some point in your career,
you say you don’t want me to be stagnant, I want to keep going. So, you know, I moved
into some TOSA roles, as you know, being a student coordinator, special department
head, et cetera, et cetera. And, you know, I got my master's somewhere during that point,
and got my master's in leadership. And so it was like a natural progression. And then
when I was a TOSA for so long, I was like, I really like to experience upward mobility
before I call it a day. And so for me, it wasn't necessarily, oh, yeah, I definitely want to be
an administrator, and I definitely want to do this, and I definitely want to do that. It was
more like, OK, I've been a teacher all these years, okay, I got my master's, okay, let's see
what's next. And for me, fortunately, the next thing was in a space that I could have only
dreamt of, you know, working with black families and black parents and kids.”

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Comparing and contrasting the interview answers to this question is pertinent to
the research study’s scope of inquiry. The primary purpose of this study is to explore
and expose the psychology behind Black female leaders' desire to pursue a path to
school leadership, albeit, whether or not it is a protest of the oppressed (Freire, 1995;
Ladson-Billings, 2009). The responses to this interview question exposed two primary
themes that address this inquiry: some Black female administrators pursued school
leadership in order to spare other students of color from having negative experiences in
a White-centered school environment (Irwin, 2013; Huckaby, 2013; Horsford, 2012); and,
some pursued school leadership as a natural career progression to offset teacher
complacency (Bridges, 2010). The former theme was established by the answers given
by Andrea, Debra, and Leslie. All three mentioned a desire to help students of color, with
Leslie explicitly mentioning her own negative experiences as a catalyst as well. The
second theme was derived as Yvonne and Jessica’s answers basically echoed each
other and can be inferred as a natural case of ambition. Interestingly, both Yvonne and
Jessica added a qualifier to their personal view of school leadership and shared their
perceived limitations of performing well on the job. Perhaps this speaks to their initial
reason for pursuing leadership devoid of the passion for supporting Black youth.
The next interview question analysis in this section will explore the participants'
answers around their professional practice and motivation to persevere in their roles. A
comparison and contrast will be made regarding the answers at the close of the section.
When asked How do you recognize your work as a school administrator? In what
ways is it a response to experiences you may have had as a Black student and/or
teacher, if at all? Yvonne answered: “ I recognize my work now because I think that I

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understand it, even though I don't think that I have perfected it. And perfect is a bad
word, so I don't think that I am strong in all of the aspects of being an administrator.
Same as a teacher, I was always growing. But I think that just, first of all, noticing the
black teachers on campus and the Black staff members on campus. That's a big part of
my practice as an administrator. So who are the people that look like the majority of our
students? At the school that I'm at now, it has the highest number of African-American
students out of the large high schools. So that was important. So always talking of
course to the Black students, you know, just kind of letting them come to me, you know,
because, it's really special that they're drawn towards Black people. And it's because
that's how we are as humans. white teachers or non-Black teachers not being able to
teach certain students because of course, like, you have to have that warmth. But, you
know, when I was a younger teacher, it was about who is this teacher that we have? And
now it's like, oh, there's my auntie or my big mama at school. And I kind of really like
playing that role because these are Black children that enjoy having someone to care for
them. That's really the bottom line, like they will do what they need to do if they know
that you care for them. And so now it's my role as an administrator.”
Leslie answered: “So for me my two focal points, and this year I made it clear for
myself and the people that I am working with, are student culture and staff culture. And
so everything that I do, I want to make sure that it’s what's best for kids, the best interest
for kids. How to give students like that extra support that they need. The other part of
that is making sure that my teachers have the support that they need because I know
when it comes to teaching, I didn't stay in there too long. We never had check-ins. There

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was no type of instructional support. So I make sure that teachers have a voice, that
they have the support. And that's coming from you remembering you didn't have the
support and so you want to make sure you provide it. I remember teachers had a lot of
implicit bias and didn't know how to build relationships with students of color, or didn’t
attempt to. So I think the experiences I had growing up or the lack of representation,
especially the lack of representation, that's why I'm here today. It’s to make sure that I
can give the student that relationship that I didn't have or give them that representation
that I didn't have.”
Andrea answered: “I do feel like my role as a principal has been positive for black
teachers and especially the students, the black female students, because they see the
challenges that I endure. And they're watching, you know, our kids are always watching
us and they see how I handle things and they see how I'm treated and they see what I
do. And then they feel empowered. And then I can talk to them about, you know, if
there's something you really wanna do, you can do it. It's just not, it may not be easy, but
you can do it. So I definitely feel like I model perseverance and, you know, just the drive
to, and the will to get the things that you want. And then I also model how to be a good
person and rise above just stupidity and pettiness or whatever's going on as a Black
woman, because we're held to a higher standard even though we don't have the same
agency.”
Debra answered: I more so feel responsible for that and just how I behave and
respond to barriers towards academic outcome, sense of belonging and well-being.
Because I've been an administrator for some time now, but I was in a school once where

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I felt like I was being discriminated against and the students were being discriminated
against. It was just a really interesting dynamic. We all were. And so I had to show them
how to handle that, you know, not that I was teaching them, but if I'm modeling their
learning, how to deal with the challenges that we were all facing and how I dealt with the
district and how I dealt with the parents and the people that were, you know, the ones
that were discriminating against us. It was, you know, so definitely I feel responsible for
my behavior in those situations for those students that were watching me at that time.
And I want them to feel like they belong and have a sense of well-being and know that
they're safe and can learn and that we believe in them. So I definitely feel like it starts
from the top. And if I'm black, you know, I have to make sure that I communicate that
with them and how important it is not only to me, but how important it is for them.”
Jessica answered: “I can speak to my role and a few of my passions. My desire
to be excellent in this role is based on the experiences that I did or did not have as a
Black child, the experiences I'm seeing that Black children and families are still having
today. And the desire to want to change, you know, to transform some of their
engagement, their experiences with education. And in the engagement way, you know, I
mean the identity belonging aspect of their education. It's more wanting to support a
transformational experience for Black students and Black families that drives and fuels
what I do every single day now.”
The analysis of these interview responses are clear. Whether or not the
participants were inspired to pursue school leadership because of a desire to help Black
students, they feel great responsibility as current administrators for their well being,

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advocacy, and protection (Cook, 2019). Moreover, the answers show that they feel
responsibility for Black teachers as well. This supports current research that advances
the notion that Black female leaders usually have authentic leadership styles (Hughes,
2015; Cook, 2019) and that their ambitions to lead includes a desire to model success
for Black people in their purview, either in their pursuit of or after they achieved their
leadership positions (Cox, 2012; Curtis, 2020; . The data analysis supports the idea that
Black female school administrators' approach to leadership seems to derive
foundational roots from their positionality and intersectionality as someone who is
Black and as a woman (Collins, 2019; Peters & Miles-Nash, 2021; Sanchez-Hucles &
Davis, 2010).
Literature Theme 4: Black Feminism as Protest in Educational Spaces
As this study is a narrative case study, it is important to capture the participant’s
authentic voice, and provide a space for them to tell their own stories. Prior research
addresses this idea as an essential aspect of offsetting the oppressive experiences that
Black people face while navigating through a White-centered society (Huckaby, 2013;
Freire, 1996; Curtis, 2020). This section reveals the foundation of their identities as
Black women and provides the space for them to reflect on their personal ideology and
praxis for leadership.
The participants were asked the following question: In what ways have your
experiences as a young student informed your self-perception now as a Black woman?
Debra answered: “I've always been like a highly sensitive person and now I see that as a
strength because I'm able to interpret nuances that people don't see and I can help. And
I love serving and giving. And at a very young age, I wanted to always help people and I

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would really be hurt or concerned about things and people would blow it off like, you're
being too emotional, you're being too sensitive. And so that has informed me. You know,
I see my journey as being very difficult because, you know, I'm trying to be who I am, and
then when things are coming against you all the time, it's like you start questioning. So
not having that social-emotional support, it didn't really exist. There were counselors,
but it's nothing like the students have today, where their thoughts are valued, they have
agency, they can talk, they can express themselves as human beings, even though they
haven't been on the earth as long as we have. But back then, it was sort of like just, you
know, put your big girl panties on and be quiet, you know, type of culture. And, you're
tripping or you're being emotional or not being emotional, whatever it is. So now as a
woman, I protect students like that. I see young girls and boys who are struggling for the
words to describe their experience. And, I help them with that because I was them. So I
definitely see myself as helping those students that I come in contact with, but definitely
those students who've had similar experiences that I can see that may have mimicked
mine. And so that's how I believe it's informed me right now.”
An analysis of this interview response shows that Debra’s past experiences with
anti-Blackness engendered the drive that keeps her committed to her administrative
role. As such, it appears to serve as her silent protest to the oppression she experienced
in her formative years, even as she struggled to recall them in the previous interview
questions.
Andrea’s answer shows the same sentiment as Debra’s answer. When asked the
aforementioned research question Andrea answered: “When I look back on my K-12

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experience, even through college, now as an older adult, having been in the K-12 system
as an educator, the academic support, the social-emotional support, a lot of the support
that we provide students now, it was missing. And I can see that as an adult now, but I
couldn't, you know, as a young student. I couldn't articulate that. I didn't know what it
was. I always knew that I could do it and I was smart, but I feel like if I had someone
that invested in me and really saw who I was, I think I would have done better. I was
timid growing up. And so now as an adult, I've grown in confidence and I've grown in
knowing who I am. But growing up, I felt that that was lacking in me.” Here we have the
same desire to relive and redo the educational trauma over and over again with students
under her leadership. With this type of replay, Andrea seems to want to retell her story
with the new stories she creates with the Black students at her site. A story where they
are soothed and protected from the effects of anti-Blackness in a White-centered school
environment.
Jessica answered: “You really can never disconnect yourself as a Black woman
from your femaleness, even as a child. Like, you know, I'm a woman, but I'm a Black
woman. So, was I experiencing bad things because I was a Black girl or was it because I
was a girl? So I don't know how I felt about it. I will share one more thing. And this is not
necessarily related to my young experiences in education as it is more so to an
experience of being a Black female in an educational environment. So, when I was a
young teacher I used to work at a school for kids who were a ward to the state. It was
run by the public school system, but it was kind of like a boy's town, if you will. I'm never
going to forget it. And there was one of the administrators, a Black man, the only Black

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male administrator. It still sounds so freaking bizarre, but he groped me in my class. He
groped my butt and then he put a banana in my mailbox and he put a note on it ‘for
those nights when you're lonely.’ And I mean, it wasn't taken with the seriousness that I
think it should have been taken at that time. It was almost like, oh, you know, men are
men, no big deal. And I think if I had been a White woman, it would have been like a
major oh my God, this is horrible. I think about White women fragility and me, this big,
tall Black woman. It's just no big deal. It's a Black guy, so it's no big deal, right? And it
was horrible. It was very traumatic. And it was offensive. It was disgusting. I ended up
leaving. When I think about those kinds of experiences a black female, not so much as a
student, it makes me feel fragile.”
An analysis of Jessica’s interview question answer shows that her insulated
childhood experiences in the Black community were overshadowed by the later
experiences in her young adulthood as a teacher. Her femaleness was recognized when
she was in a position of safety as a young Black girl, but the meaning behind that
positionality was realized when she stepped out of that safety as an adult woman. Thus,
Jessica developed a complex reversal of vulnerability which created a sense of fragility.
This fragility is addressed in Black feminist thought and research on Black female
leadership (Nash, 2018; Robeiro, 2016), and in the data analysis for this study, it follows
that Andrea’s fragility is derived from her experience with oppression.
Yvonne answered: “When I was in high school, you know, it was a time when I
was not focused on academics. But then I realized how important it was for a woman to
graduate from high school on time, and get a job and stuff like that. I was feeling more

87
mature, it was really nice. I'll never forget this counselor that I went to, Mrs. Goldberg, I'll
never forget her. She had a little mustache, a little goatee. That kind of stuff tickled me,
that women could have facial hair. I remember being 16 and noticing those things.
Anyway, I realized that as a woman, I needed to graduate, I needed to go to college.”
Yvonne’s response to the interview question does not appear to directly answer the
interview question, and thereby, is not easy to analyze. Yet it still has value in the
findings of this study. For the purpose of this study, Yvonne’s seeming difficulty in
specifically answering the research question brings up an interesting question based on
her earlier answers to questions about her formative years: if her formative years as a
student had no effect on her identity as a woman, what did? Based on her profile as a
Black student living in a low socio-economic home, one can infer that her focus on
attending college and getting a job in her answer to the interview question makes
sense. Analyzing her answer through the lens of the research questions of this study,
Yvonne’s experiences with poverty could have been the largest contributing factor to her
experiences with oppression in her formative years. It can be argued that her identity as
a Black student and a student living in poverty went hand in hand, whether or not that
was clear to Yvonne.
Leslie answered: “Again, from my memories as a young student, I just really
learned how to focus on how you carry yourself as a Black woman, like learning how to
navigate certain things. And you can't always satisfy people. So especially now, in my
role, I know that I can't always satisfy people, but I know what I know. And so being able
to stand on that, with that information. Again, as a Black woman, I've noticed that you

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have to be better than everyone and still not good enough. And that's what it feels like.
You're struggling, trying to get better, and the people around you don't really care.”
Results: Research Question 3
How do Black female administrators experience anti-Blackness? This study
analyzes Black female school administrators responses to oppressive experiences in
the K-12 setting as students, teachers, and administrators. Prior research, like Bridges
(2010), demonstrates the struggles that Black women face when they are in school
leadership positions and have to navigate through a racialized system not created to
support their success. Dowdy (2011) continues addressing this issue with her own
narrative story that shares her experiences as a Black female administrator who
persevered through the negativity that often accompanies it. Burton et al. (2020)
addresses an idea that women of color rise above their experiences with anti-Blackness
at a price to their mental and physical well-being. The data analysis has clarified each
participant’s views of themselves as Black students and teachers within a K-12 setting.
The following data analysis illuminates their recognition of themselves as a racialized
person and how that realization affected their internal drive to lead.
Literature Review Theme 5: Gender and Racial Identity in Leadership
A Black person’s awakening to reality that they belong to a marginalized group
can be a traumatic experience (Collins, 2019; Ladson-Billings, 2009; Love, 2019;
Mattias, 2013). As such, it is important to the study to explore the experiences of the
participants with their Black awareness.
When asked Tell me about when you realized you were Black? Leslie answered:
“I think another thing that was really impactful was my grandparents. We lived with my

89
grandparents and both of them are from North Carolina, but different parts. So my
grandma grew up where the KKK was founded in North Carolina. So she had a lot of
stories. Her mom, actually like my grandma, in earlier years she essentially was a
sharecropper. Her mom was too. Her mom was, I hate to use the term, but she was a
house slave until maybe like two years before she died. Then my granddad also had
something similar to that, well not something similar it's like different but another
spectrum. So they lived in different parts of North Carolina before they met. He lived in
the segregated part of the town. He was where Black folks had to go to a black college
because they weren't integrated yet or even high school. So just seeing the difference
and hearing the stories and the experiences was something that I was like, okay, I know
I'm black. And then also just it being affirmed to where I lived, I was like, oh, there's no
way that I'm not not black. So being able to see their experiences, like listening to those
and then even like my great-granddad so my granddad's brother my granddad's dad he
was part of like one of like the first like routines that fought in World War two so that's
also like cool like I learned a lot about that as well. So within your own family yeah those
impactful experiences that create what you are as a woman now.”
As the youngest participant, it was surprising to hear that her awakening was
grounded in an historical context of Blackness in America. As such, Leslie’s identity as a
Black person is funneled through an historical lens. Thus, her experiences with
anti-Blackness will derive meaning from that perspective, as her previous answers to the
interview questions show.
Yvonne answered: “I realized my dad was pretty militant, and you know Black
Pride, you know the mid-70s. He was young. My parents were very young and so he

90
told me that I was Black and he told me what it meant to be black. And he told me that it
was very special, you know, and just gave me a lot of pride in being Black. And then
actually, I lived in Canada for one year, and I took my very first Black history class. And,
you know, I learned about Blackness, you know, in an elementary way. So, that's how I
learned, through my family, and then I did take a course in another country to learn
about Black history.”
Jessica answered: “That's a really, really good question because I do have an
answer. So Evanston is where Northwestern University is. So you're in a college town,
typically more liberal. We were about 50% black, 50% white with a few others, right? And
black folks were, you know, we were middle class, people were educated, and had
decent jobs. And so because I went to church in the Black community and because I did
pretty much everything in the Black community, I was just who I was. I mean, it was just
like, you know, white folks, and then Black folks did things together. Let me digress. So
Dr. King came to Chicago, I think the year before he was assassinated. I might have my
dates wrong a little bit. And coming from an AME church, we used to do civil rights
marches. And I knew I was black when I was young, and I don't think I really knew what
that meant, I just knew that Dr. King and Rosa Parks, we're marching for civil rights,
we're marching for freedom, this, that, and the third. But when I really, really knew I was
Black, or when I really felt proud to be a Black, was when I went to an HBCU.
Unequivocally, without any hesitation, that was a transformational point in my life when I
said, wow, I'm Black. Wow, I'm beautiful. Wow, I'm smart. Wow, look at all these brilliant
black people around me. Every corner, every turn. Country black folks, East Coast black
folks, whatever, whatever. Just brilliance. And for me, that was a pivotal time because I

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don't know if I really embraced the blackness or felt good about the blackness until I
went to the institution. So that was for me the one time when I could say, yep, that was
it.”
Andrea answered: “I had an experience in middle school. When I moved to the
city that I live in now, and I started third grade, the district that I attended was
predominantly White. So when I reached middle school, they had started busting. So
they had bused students from Puerto Rico to the west side. So African-American
students were now being bused into the district or the area that I lived in. And that was
in middle school. That is when I realized that there were other students that I could
identify with. I recognize that I was black then.”
Debra answered: “I believe, I've always known I was black. And I still consider
myself Black. Like, you know, people say African American. And, you know, I've always
identified as Black, but when I really realized that Black people were marginalized was
when I went to college. And my roommates in college, they were all from wealthy
families. And I'm like, whoa, wow. And, you know, because I didn't realize that we weren't
poor, but we weren't rich. But I didn't realize that there were such, you know, distinct
differences in the way people were raised, the way they grew up. And so that's when I
realized there's a big difference between being Black, even though I was proud to be
Black and I was happy, I'm like, I've never had exposure to some of the things and had
the support that I saw my roommates receiving, you know, just from what they shared
with me and also what I saw at the university where we attended. And so that's when I
realized for sure that I'm Black. I was raised to know that we have to work harder. We

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have to work three times as hard, especially if you're a woman. You have to do all these
different things because you're Black.”
When asked Do you recall having any experiences at school that impacted your
knowledge and perception of what it meant to be female? Yvonne answered: “Yeah, I'm
of that generation where they let boys be boys, and I was attacked a few times when I
was pretty young, you know, because of how I looked. And, you know, and when it was
reported, I was like, oh, you know, that's how they are. You know, I didn't feel like it was
anything. With what happened to me, I don't feel like there was a big deal made out of it.
You know, that, you know, boys in third grade were trying to look under the girl's skirt
and, you know, and talking about our bodies and you know trying to touch us and things
like that and then I think that that kind of set me up for you know what my my life was
going to be like as being a female. I was going to be judged on my appearance, you
know, and so that's something that I've struggled with, being a light skinned,
African-American woman, and there is an expectation. And it's not about intelligence,
it's really about your beauty and about your physical features. So I've struggled with
that, because I wanna teach my daughters to be very proud of how they look, but it's not
the only thing. Judge Judy says, beauty fades, dumb is forever ... .sometimes when I
open my mouth and people are like, oh, you're so smart. I've gotten a lot of that.”
Jessica answered: “Yeah, I do. I was tall. I was a big girl. I mean, I guess I was cute. I
don't know what you'd say I was, but I wasn't very feminine. I wasn't, you know, cutie,
cutie, girly, girly, whatever. And boys would, you know, tease and make comments, you
know, like I was bigger than most of the boys actually up until high school. And I
remember one time this guy, Brad Lieberman, this asshole, he, I'm sorry. This is her

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close friend. He pulled a chair from behind me when I sat down and fell on the ground.
And ironically, this is terrible, like about 10 years ago, he was arrested. He was found to
be the plumber rapist in Chicago. He raped like 20 women…And so I just remembered
the cutesy girly girls got treated better, I can't remember her name, we did a play
Cinderella and I wanted to try out for Cinderella and it was like, no way. It was like, are
you crazy? Like, you may be able to be in the play, but you will not be Cinderella. And it
could have been because I was black. It could have been because I was a big girl. So,
you know, again, not really knowing, not being able to differentiate, you know, back then.”
Debra answered: “I can't remember anything clearly, but I just know my mom never said
to me this is what girls do and this is what boys should do. She sort of let me figure out
what I like to do. And so, for example, I like to fix things around the house and empty the
trash and, you know, do things like mow the lawn, you know, I guess things that would
be considered things that boys might want to do. I didn't want to cook or look at drapes
or do any of that kind of stuff. So when I would be in school, I just, I knew I was female,
but nothing in my formative years that really, that stands out to me right now, I would
say just as an adult more so now. There seemed to be, there seemed to be roles. Like
now we're in an era where it's like you can be whatever you want. But when I was
growing up, it didn't, there were clearly defined roles that people were supposed to have.
And because, you know, I didn't fit into those roles necessarily. It's always been
challenging, but I just accept that that's just how it is. Andrea answered: “Well, I was,
when I, growing up, I was an athlete. And I would say, when I was in elementary school I
was a pretty good athlete because I played on the boys' teams. So as far as athletics

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and being able to play on the boys' teams, I mean, I knew there was a difference.” Leslie
answered: “I think I've just had these little moments all throughout school where I'm
having strange interactions. Because again, like where I lived, or my mom still lives,
there's a lot of white people there. And so when it came to liking boys or like talking to
boys I was a tomboy. I just wanted to do things that boys normally like to do, like
running, climbing. I wanted to be friends with them, but then they would think that I like
them.”
Themes
Figure 2
Three themes emerged from results of the case study interviews that relate
directly to the research questions, conceptual framework, and theoretical framework of
this study: 1. Black female administrators have adverse experiences as students in their
formative years 2. Those adverse experiences are related to anti-Blackness, 3. Black
female administrators feel responsible to support Black students. These three themes
were woven throughout most of the answers from the participants. For instance, three

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of the participants mentioned that they had adverse experiences in the K-12 public
school system. Four of the participants made direct correlations to their anti-Blackness
experiences with lack of support in school from any adults specifically pointing out that
they did not have enough Black teachers. All of the case study participants expressed a
responsibility to protect and improve outcomes for Black students under their authority
(as teachers and administrators).
Three additional themes, not directly related to the study but related to social
issues, also emerged from the analysis of the case study interviews: 1) physical
appearance bias, 2) sexual assault, and 3) anti-Blackness within the Black community.
Two participants mentioned an awareness that their physical appearance (height, facial
structure, hair texture) had an effect on how they were treated during their formative
years as K-12 students. These two participants also mentioned this beauty bias having
an impact on how they perceive themselves as women. Three participants mentioned
that they had experienced sexual assault in a school setting as students and a teacher.
And, four participants mentioned experiencing anti-Blackness within the Black
community during their formative years.
Discussion
The focus of this study was to explore the experiences of Black female
administrators in an effort to expose a purpose for their pursuit of school leadership.
The premise delved into their pursuit of school leadership as a method of serving and
saving Black students from experiencing anti-Blackness as they matriculated through
K-12 public school. Prior research has shown that Black female administrators

96
experience anti-Blackness and microaggression as students, teachers, and
administrators. Black female administrators have stories that can be told in a form of
narrative protest. The dialogical method used to capture the participants' story in this
study was derived by the theory of protest named dialogical action advanced by Paulo
Freire (1996).

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CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION
This study was a reflexive, qualitative case study with a narrative design as the
method of sharing the findings (Friere, 1996; Dowdy & Hamilton, 2011; Mitchell, 2021).
The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the findings of the study and to apply what was
learned from the study in the form of recommendations for future research. The
implications of the study will include how the researcher found herself embedded in the
stories that emerged from interviews with the participants. The researcher will share her
interpretation of the research findings in relation to current research, future research,
and implications for practice.
The focus of this study was on Black female K-12 school administrators and their
experiences as students, teachers, and administrators (Mitchell, 2021). The study
focused on these women’s perceptions of anti-Blackness and microaggression (Bell et
al., 2021; Ohito & Brown, 2021). Black female administrators have experiences that can
be shared and analyzed (Freire, 1966; Curtis, 2020). Past and current research have
shed light on the negative effects of racism on Black female leaders (Holsey, 2017;
Mitchell, 2021; Burton et al., 2022, Wardell, 2020; Bridges, 2010). There is also
scholarship produced by Black female administrators on their experiences in the field
(Bridges, 2010). This study expands on that scholarship by exploring the genesis of
Black female administrators’ aspirations to go into school leadership. There is research
that suggests that Black female school leaders have experiences on their road to
leadership that have informed their practices in their roles (Dowdy & Hamilton, 2011;
Aaron, 2020). The study sought to explore this type of leadership journey from an etic

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perspective, providing a space for Paulo Freire’s (1996) idea of “dialogic action” in the
process.
These three research questions framed this study:
1. To what extent do Black female administrators believe they were impacted by an
institutionalized White-centered culture, including perceptions of anti-Blackness, in the
K-12 public school system?
2. How have Black women risen above the indoctrination of a White-centered education
system, within which they were educated, to gain agency as school leaders?
3. How do Black female administrators experience anti-Blackness?
This qualitative case study utilized participant interviews as the research
protocol. The data was analyzed using in vivo coding, and themes were extracted from
the participant interviews. The researcher sought to interview Black female
administrators and explore their experiences with anti-Blackness and microaggression
during their years in a K-12 educational setting. Five participants were chosen from a
search conducted on leadership organization websites based upon meeting the criteria
for participation in the study. The participants were chosen based on their gender
classification as “female” and their professional designation as K-12 school
administrators. The participants consisted of one elementary school principal, one
middle school vice principal, one high school assistant principal, one middle school
assistant principal and one administrative assistant. Each administrator participated in
two 45 minute interviews on Zoom that had them answer questions regarding their
formative years as students in K-12, college students in teacher preparation programs,
professional years as teachers, and professional years as administrators. The study

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was designed as a reflexive study, as the researcher sought to make connections with
the participants as they answered their questions and told their stories.
Findings
Based upon the findings, Black women have stories, or narratives, that they are
willing to share if they are given the opportunity to share them. The study findings also
suggest that Black female administrators in the K-12 setting have experiences from their
formative years that have engendered a desire to be school leaders in order to give
Black students the care that they did not receive in the K-12 setting. The data supports
the notion that most Black female administrators experience anti-Blackness in a
White-centered environment (Mitchell, 2021). However, this study analysis showed that
they can also experience it in the Black community. There were six themes that
emerged from the data analysis that lends a viable perspective on what Black female
administrators think about their agency, how they feel about themselves, their
positionality, intersectionality, and gender as they navigate not only through the halls of
academia, but through life. The following sections will discuss those themes and
encapsulate them into a theoretical and conceptual framework.
Research Question One
Chapter One asks, To what extent do Black female administrators believe they
were impacted by an institutionalized White-centered culture, including perceptions of
anti-Blackness, in the K-12 public school system? The purpose of this question was to
establish whether or not Black female administrators have an awareness of how
anti-Blackness has impacted them in their lives and professional careers. It was
important to the study focus to bring this knowledge to light to set the stage for a

100
perspective of the oppressed (Freire, 1996). The question was important to ask in order
to respond to current research that illuminates many Black female leader’s sentiments
on microaggressions in the workplace. This question seeks to go deeper into the
background of where those sentiments may have begun: in the formative years.
The participants' answers to the interview questions shed some light on the
impetus of Black female leaders' recognition of microaggression in the workplace
(Burton, et al., 2022; Wardell, 2020). Previous researchers like Guimaraes (2020) and
Gutiérrez y Muhs (2012) explore the lived experiences of Black women in academia and
lend insight into how they informed many aspects of their lives, including their
professional practice. The findings on the interview data centers on the lived
experiences of Black female K-12 administrators from their earliest to their current years
(Curtis, 2020). It also mirrors current research on the topic of Black female leaders'
resilience as well, and “African American female suburban school leaders must utilize
their voices to share their lived experiences (Robinson, 2013).
The findings show that Black women experience anti-Blackness as they
matriculate through the K-12 setting in various ways. In one way, Black women
experience it in their neighborhoods and it affects their experience at school, for
instance, they are raised in all White areas and are bused outside of their district due to
redistricting (Wardell, 2020; DuBois, 1999; Ohito & Brown, 2021; Douglas et al., 2008).
As participant Andrea shared, they may also experience stark anti-Blackness by being
excluded from their peer groups, such as not being invited to parties or being told that
they cannot be friends with their White classmates because they are Black, or that they
are different from other Black girls so they are worthy of dating. Jessica and Debra

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shared that anti-Blackness also shows up in Black female leaders' earlier lives at the
hands of the adults that they should have been able to trust. This has shown up as
neglect (not having any support from adults on their campuses), having adults
discourage them from participating in extracurricular activities like the school play or
student government because they are Black in an all White school setting, not having
any Black teachers or administrators, and experiencing colorism within the community
of Black students in their schools (Clark, 2021). In short, the study data reveals that
anti-Blackness seems to be so pervasive in society that it seeps into many areas of
Black women’s lives in areas that can mainly be recognized as they participate in
dialogic action (Freire, 1996) and reflexive narrative (Agee, 2009).
Aguayo-Romero (2021) points out that “another key aspect of intersectionality is
that the analysis should be centered on those with intersecting marginalized identities
and not on those belonging to only dominant groups.” Many of the participants shared
that their realization of themselves as women in their formative years was coupled with
a realization that they were Black (Aguayo-Romero, 2021). They shared that they still
struggle bifurcating the two when they think of their experiences as Black women. “The
double marginalization that African American women face can make it difficult to
determine whether the reactions and behaviors directed at them are due to race,
gender, or a combination of both” (Wilson, 2012). Furthermore, “[b]eing a black woman
in academe is not an easy thing. We are double minorities but frequently find ourselves
being expected to ignore one of our identities, either our gender or our race. If we
involve ourselves in “women’s issues,” there is rarely any discussion in the room of race
and racism; if we involve ourselves in antiracist work, there is rarely any discussion of

102
sexism. In many ways the question asked by Sojourner Truth so many years ago, “Ain’t
I a woman?” (Martin, 2011) is still very relevant today.” Thus, one finding is that
anti-Blackness has affected their ability to see their positionality and intersectionality
outside of their identities as Black. Identity is such a pertinent part of what it means to
be a woman, but the findings show that Black women struggle with a static view of
themselves (Guimaraes, 2020), and that they often feel as if the definition of what it
means to be a woman in society does not entirely apply to them. Expanding on current
research around feminism and self perception among Black women (Huckaby, 2013;
Ricks, 2018), the study data supports a new idea of female identity when applying it to
Black women, since they seem to continually have to defend their womanhood. The
findings expose an idea of the “postmodern Black woman” through an analysis of the
interview questions.
Research Question Two
Question Two inquired, How have Black women risen above the indoctrination of
a White-centered education system, within which they were educated, to gain agency
as school leaders? This question really explores how Black female administrators feel
about themselves, and their place in a White-centered society; in a place where
systemic racism is upheld and geared towards keeping them in their oppressed place
as a Black person. It examines the psyche of how they were able to protest their
experiences as victims of an oppressive educational system, and fight against their
possible feelings of inadequacy to move down their path of leadership to a positive end.
The analysis found that Black women remember very little about receiving
support from any adult at their site, and generally, had minimal access to Black

103
teachers, staff, or administrators throughout the course of their K-12 schooling. The
research data found that the participants had memories from their formative years that
remind them of negative experiences with the few Black adults on their school
campuses, and this phenomenon of anti-Blackness in the Black community should be
explored.
Based on the data, Black women have had to develop a high level of resilience in
order to navigate through the K-12 system and find their way into higher education, into
a career as a teacher, and then into school leadership. One theme that emerged from
the data was the concept of “working harder” or “being better than everyone else.” In
fact, every participant mentioned that they had to overachieve in order to have the same
kind of access to opportunities as their White classmates or coworkers. The majority of
the participants mentioned that they realized this method of advancement through trial
and error, with one explicitly stating that she was taught to do it by her mother (Wardell,
2020). There was a consistent theme of having to work hard and rise above the
standard as student, teacher, and administrator in order to be considered on par with
the basic standard of what is usually acceptable. Wardell (2020) states: “I share stories
of childhood formation that inform and shape how I show up as an executive woman of
color and what that means or looks like on a daily basis. And how my work as an
executive leader and professor focuses on the intersectionality of social identities and
how gender and race play roles today in shaping the American workplace.” She goes on
to state that “storytelling as leadership development.” As such, the reflexive process of
this study allowed the participants to reveal their experiences with anti-Blackness and
overachievement as a further development of their leadership.

104
Another critical theme that emerged as a result of the second research question
is the sense of responsibility that Black female administrators feel to save Black
students, even one participant who did not feel as if she experienced much
anti-Blackness as a student. This seems to suggest that Black female administrators
have empathy for Black students in the K-12 school system because they experienced
anti-Blackness as adults. This is a crucial finding because it shows how Black female
administrators discover their agency when they see Black students experience racial
trauma, and they realize their purpose without having to have adverse experiences in
their formative years. The purpose that they discover is that they are not only in their
positions to lead schools where Black children experience racial trauma, but to protect
them from their racial trauma. “Black women educators have long engaged in
community engagement and activism as an extension of their professional
commitments. In this way, Black women educators have used their positions as a
means to engage in professional praxis” (Peters & Miles Nash, 2021). The research
question sought to uncover adverse experiences that Black female administrators may
have experienced at K-12 schools, but it revealed that Black female administrators do
not have to experience racial trauma as students in order to feel passionate about
protecting young, Black students from institutionalized harm. This supports the notion
that “Freire’s extensive oeuvre argues that educators must be intimately attuned to the
educational force of the entire culture and develop educational tactics and strategies to
defeat domination in all its guises” (McKenna, 2013). Moreover, “Findings from these
and subsequent studies by scholars interested in the leadership practices of Black
principals indicate a number of what can be considered culturally responsive leadership

105
behaviors” (Santamaria, 2014). The overall aim is liberation for those who promote a
White-centered paradigm in schools, for “[t]his, then, is the great humanistic and
historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves and their oppressors as well”
(Freire, 1996).
The data collected for this question could also suggest that Black female
administrators, like Andrea, who stated “I didn't feel like I fit in. I always felt like an
outsider growing up,” experienced racial trauma in White-centered educational
institutions, but the knowledge of those experiences are repressed and enlivened when
they encounter Black students in K-12 schools. A deeper dive exposes a reality that
Black women gain resilience and agency through experiences of racial trauma, whether
known or unknown. This finding leads to a further discussion of racial trauma in
Question Three.
Research Question Three
Question Three asks, How do Black female administrators experience
anti-Blackness? This question brought the data analysis to the central purpose of the
study. Black female administrators have expressed that they often feel isolated, and
lonely in their leadership positions, going even farther to say that they have no one on
their sites that they can trust. Jessica shared her experience of moving from Chicago,
where there was a supportive Black community, to California where this was not the
case: “It is painful now. It wasn't as painful as it was now, back then. Because you got
people to talk to, people to vent with, people to support you.” Yvonne stated, “you know,
the thing about it is it can be isolating…Anytime I was feeling anti-Blackness it had to do
with white teachers that are thinking that I'm getting something that they're not getting.”

106
This may suggest that Black female leaders have resilience from their own experiences
with anti-Blackness and agency when it comes to helping Black students, but they have
no safe space, no voice, to express it.
It was important to the study to make sure that the participants understood the
concept of anti-Blackness by providing their own definitions of the term.
Table 2
Participant Definition of Anti-Blackness
Yvonne Anti-blackness is anything that harms people, black
people, you know, and that is systemic racism, prejudice,
redlining, you know, health care. And unfortunately, it's
very subtle now in 2023…it's just people against black
people, and like having more hatred for Black people just
because of our existence which is crazy. It's the ultimate
gaslighting. We cause our own problems, our demise,
because we're Black. Yes, that's it.
Leslie Actions, thoughts, policies, organizations that are against
black people and the betterment of black people.
Jessica Anti-blackness, in my own words, is such a large term to
even deal with and think about or handle. These
engagements that work against liberatory experiences for
black people, that work against opportunities for black
people, that work against equity for black people, which is
objective anyway. Anything that works to perpetuate racist
practices and demonic practices, anything that works
against freedom of expression, freedom of joy, freedom of
happiness, freedom of all the rights that everyone else has
access to in this country for Black people. Now that's not
specific to an educational environment, but anti-Blackness
is just behavior, actions, words, policies, procedures, and
harming Black folks.
Debra I would say that it's a known and sometimes, I mean, a
conscious and sometimes unconscious hatred or dislike
towards black people specifically.
Andrea I would say that it is an inability to recognize a black
person; with the threat of sometimes violence.

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All participants described it in terms that included behavior directed specifically
towards Black people. In fact two participants included an allusion to physical violence
being directed towards Black people in their definitions. The others made reference to
actions of anti-Blackness that spoke to a disdain which is typically manifested in overt or
micro aggressive behaviors. The latter type materialized in the analysis of the data.
The participants' answers to the definition of anti-Blackness led them to share
experiences they either had as students or professionals, and with White folk and/or
Black folk. One of the participants shared an experience with anti-Blackness in Black
community that was harrowing. She shared that she had been severely bullied by Black
students in middle school because she was taller than her peers and fair skinned. She
told of an incident where students were sitting on a ledge for their physical education
class and she joined them. She stated that soon after some of the Black students who
were bullying her pushed off the ledge and her arm was broken as a result. This speaks
to violence that can often accompany anti-Blackness. It illustrates how internalized
racism can filter through an oppressed community and take on an identity of its own. In
this case, it was anti-Blackness in the form of Colorism. It can be inferred that if
anti-Blackness infiltrates the Black community, Black female administrators are not safe
from experiencing racial trauma in any community. This can even include sexual safety,
whereas two participants mentioned that they were sexually assaulted by Black boys
and men while at school. Clearly, the findings in relation to the portion of the research
that focused on Black female administrators experiences with anti-Blackness are
multifaceted and complex, which leaves space for them to lead Black female students to

108
a place of healing in educational spaces. It also provides context for a Freirean
approach to antiracist praxis in schools, where the oppressed does not become the
oppressor (Freire, 1996).
Limitations
The limitations of the findings of this study are Black female administrative
scarcity in the K-12 school setting, Black folk acquiring associative privilege due to
tokenism, and the interpretive nature of qualitative research in the form of a case study.
These limitations could be seen as significant on the face of it, because each of them
have value in the scope of the research topic. Each of these limitations are exemplified
in the findings as a result of the data analysis.
For instance, three of the participants either directly or indirectly stated that they
did not have experiences with anti-Blackness in their formative years. Two of them
attributed it to growing up in an affluent, all White neighborhood. One of them attributed
it to attending a multi-racial school. However, all three had contact with anti-Blackness
in their years in higher education and in their professional lives. The research has also
shown that the percentage of Black administrators in K-12 schools is small nationwide.
Thus, it was not easy to find a good sample of Black female administrators to choose
participants from. Lastly, case studies are limited in their scope and application.
Implications For Practice
This study is important to practice because the findings suggest that Black
female administrators are particularly essential to school sites where Black students are
in attendance. Their stories help illuminate their ability to relate to and show special
attention to Black students in need. Even when some of the participants intimated that

109
they did not remember experiencing anti-Blackness in their formative years, they were
able to make quick connections with racial trauma, and its effects on Black students,
based upon their experiences as adults in a K-12 environment. In this light, it also
serves a cathartic purpose, as each time they help a Black student it soothes some of
the pain they felt from their own experiences of anti-Blackness. The implication for
practice is the validity of hiring more Black female administrators to serve on school
sites where Black students are present, as the rate of trauma can be reduced by
incorporating affinity programs, transformative justice, special interventions. This
research can impact future practice in school districts recruiting more Black teachers to
pursue administrative service, creating an affinity group for Black educators in their
district to prevent the attrition and career change that often occur when Black teachers
experience anti-Blackness, and supporting Black administrators when they are in that
role on school sites or the district office.
Future Research
Future research could explore the impact that Black female administrators have
on Black children on school campuses and solidify their importance there. Research
could explore the ways in which they have an impact on Black students, mentally,
physically, emotionally, academically. This new research could deconstruct the
metacognitive aspects of the support that Black female administrators can give, such as
identifying the mental steps that they take to create an intervention design in
preparation to help Black students. What role does the practice of “sankofa” play in their
methodology of support? New research could compare and contrast the possible
differences in the impact made by them as opposed to administrators from different

110
cultures. This research is important to conduct because Black students have more
contact with White or White presenting school leaders, thus it’s important to evaluate
the ways that they impact these students in comparison to Black leaders. Lastly,
attention should be paid on the impact made on Black parent engagement when Black
female administrators serve school sites as leaders. Black female administrators can be
co-conspirators with families and their communities in reducing incidents of racialized
trauma by organizing awareness opportunities, maintaining relationships with families,
and carrying themselves as authentically as possible as agents of antiracism.
The study findings expose the ways in which Black female administrators support
Black students primarily on the social emotional end. For example, Yvonne stated that
students on her high school site had to check in with her first before they had
conferences with police officers, if necessary; that if the students were afraid, or felt
uncomfortable, they were not required to speak to the officer without her presence. She
explained further: “At the school that I'm at now, it has the highest number of
African-American students out of the large high schools. So that was important. So
always talking of course to the Black students, you know, just kind of letting them come
to me, you know, because, it's really special that they're drawn towards Black people.”
Andrea explained: “I do feel like my role as a principal has been positive for black
teachers and especially the students, the black female students, because they see the
challenges that I endure. And they're watching, you know, our kids are always watching
us and they see how I handle things and they see how I'm treated and they see what I
do. And then they feel empowered.” There was mention of creating a program that
specifically targets Black students and parents, and making a bold statement to the

111
administrative team members that a focus will be made on creating a safe space and
inclusive environment for the Black students on campus. These examples illustrate the
depths that Black female administrators will go to support Black students, and the cost
they are willing to pay if it calls for it.
The findings do not suggest that Black students cannot experience viable support
from White allies and other administrators of color. In fact, Black administrators often
work in predominantly White districts and school sites and rely on White leadership in
order to do the work that they desire to do to support Black students. Based on the data
analysis, Black female administrators often have school trauma as a result of
matriculating or teaching in a White-centered school system. Yet, they also experience
surviving and thriving in that same system. These women have learned how to work
with White authority and get what they need, so they can use those skills to help Black
children. It’s this type of collaboration that makes good use of allyship and Black female
leadership agency. The question is how can school systems put in place more
intentional designs to mitigate or avoid trauma in the first place by validating the Black
experience and voices as central to school design and system of engagement.
Future research can also explore the adverse experiences that Black female
administrators have had as a result of their positionality as women, specifically with the
hyper-sexualization of black girls during their formative years that may continue during
their professional careers in the K-12 school setting. This study did not explore this topic
in particular. Yet the researchpoints to an area of feminist thought that directly
addresses Black women and their experiences with misogynist actions including sexual
violence. Feminist research has produced scholarship around the Black female body in

112
abundance, and this study can add an additional angle to the subject (Evans-Winters,
2019).
Implications For Practice
As stated earlier, the research found a viable case for a concept pertaining to
Black female administrators as “postmodern Black woman.” This theme emerged as the
participants explained their experiences in a way that almost made them seem
uneventful and commonplace. This type of seeming resilient response to anti-Blackness
relates to the concept of “normalized chaos" (Ricks, 2018). Thus, the study suggests
that the postmodern Black woman has come to experience racial trauma,
anti-Blackness, and microaggression in the workplace as a normal occurrence, and
have thereby learned to acclimate to it or adjust their practice around the knowledge
that it will occur. For instance, Andrea mentioned that when given a suggestion by a
White colleague to try an approach to intervention that called for her to question her
supervisor's judgment, she stated “I can’t do that, I’m not you.” Furthermore, another
participant mentioned that she regularly makes decisions around funding for Black
student programs at her site that have resulted in her receiving multiple reprimands a
year from the cabinet in her school district. She stated that she has grown accustomed
to them, and knows when it is time to leave a district and start the process all over again
in a new one. Yet, Debra, like other postmodern Black women, uses leadership as an
act of activism, interpreting her experiences with anti-Blackness as an empowering
force for action: “[N]ow I see that as a strength because I'm able to interpret nuances
that people don't see and I can help. And I love serving and giving.”

113
The study exposes the reality that Black women need protection in the K-12
setting so that they can help all students, and shield Black students from experiencing
anti-Blackness in K-12 schools. Black feminist theorists have discussed the need for
more support for Black women, and protection from the negative effects of racial trauma
on their bodies (Evans-Winters, 2018), and the researcher shares this concern. Black
women can attain high levels of success in the halls of academia, but at what price
(Holsey, 2017)? Black female school leaders and Black women at large should not have
to normalize chaos in their lives in order to function and/or do their jobs. This study
contends that future practice could include systems, programs, professional
development, and funding allocation to the preservation of mental and physical
wellbeing of Black female school leaders in educational spaces.

114
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Appendix A
Interview Protocol 1 - Administrator
I. Introduction
I want to thank you for your willingness to be interviewed today. I also thank you for
committing to the time to participate in this study. I assure you that I will accommodate
any needs that may arise throughout the interview and conduct it in a timely manner. As
stated in our previous conversations, the interview will take approximately 45 minutes.
Please let me know if this timeframe still works for you.
Prior to starting the interview, I would like to give some background on the focus of the
study and introduce myself to you in more depth. I am a doctoral student in the
University of Southern California Rossier School of Education. The focus of the study is
to provide more insight and expand on current research around Black female
administrators in public schools and their leadership development and experiences as
leaders in the midst of navigating anti-Blackness. I am particularly interested in their
development from students to teachers, and whether or not their desires to be
administrators were the results of experiencing anti-Blackness as Black women in
educational spaces. I also want to explore Black female empowerment and agency
through school leadership as a practical protest to white supremacist inculturation in
educational spaces. I ultimately want to explore whether or not Black female
administrators believe they can soothe the harm that may have been done to them in
their formative years as students and teachers, and prevent the negative effects of
anti-Blackness for current Black students by attaining a position of power in educational
spaces.
I want to clarify that I am an objective researcher in this study, with no preconceived
notions of any right or wrong answers. I am not trying to guide your answers to any
definite conclusion that proves my position. My goal is to hear your journey and
perspective on your role as an administrator. This interview is designed to capture your
story.
At any time if you need to pause or stop the interview feel free to share that with me.
Lastly, I want to reiterate the statement from the information sheet on the interview
guidelines that I previously provided for you and assure you that this interview is
confidential. I will use a pseudonym in place of your name and will not share any of your
personal information with anyone, including the name of your school or district. Although
I will use your answers and possibly direct quotes in my ultimate research findings, I will
make sure not to report them in a way that exposes your identity in any way. I will also
supply a copy of my final paper to you if you choose to have one.

123
All information provided based on your answers in this interview will be kept on a
password protected device and will be destroyed within three years.
Do you have any questions for me at this point?
We are almost ready to begin the interview, but I must share that I would like to ensure
the utmost accuracy in capturing your story, so I would like your permission to record our
interview session. The recording will be done during this Zoom call and will not be
shared with anyone outside of the research team. Do I have your permission to record?
II. Formative years as a young Black student.
I would like to begin the interview by learning about your formative years as a
young Black student. It is important to understand the foundation of your personal
perspective of education from your earliest memories of experiences as a Black
student. These experiences may have a direct correlation to your decision to
pursue teaching and administration, so we want to explore that.
In this part of the interview, I will be using some terms that might be new to you called
“anti-Blackness, positionality, and intersectionality.” Please do not hesitate to ask for
clarification on those terms if it becomes necessary. Are you ready to begin?
1. Do you identify as a Black female?
● Do you have any other ethnic or cultural background that also describes
your personal identity?
2. How would you define the concept of anti-Blackness, in your own words?
3. What type of schooling did you have as a child? For instance, public school, private
school, homeschool, or something else.
4. How would you describe yourself as a student?
● Name some things that gave you a sense of accomplishment, if any.
5. Were there any special circumstances in your home life that impacted your performance
and/or self perception when you were a student?
● If yes, can you elaborate on how those circumstances impacted your
performance as a student?
● Do you believe that you received adequate support in your school setting
based upon your home circumstances’ impact on your performance as a
student and/or your self perception?
6. Tell me about when you realized that you were Black? How?
● Give an example of an experience where you understood that you were a
Black student and different, if any.
7. Do you recall having any experiences at school that impacted your knowledge and
perception of what it meant to be female?

124
8. Can you tell me about your most memorable experience as a Black student in your
formative years?
● Describe the moment that you realized that being Black could make you
experience discrimination in school, if any.
9. How did being a Black female student impact your academic performance, if at all?
10. What experiences did you have that gave you a sense of value in your school setting, if
any?
11. When thinking of your experiences as a Black student, tell me about a time when
someone made you feel inadequate or not good enough because you were Black, if at
all?
12. Can you describe your earliest memory of anti-Blackness as a student, if any?
● Describe a moment in your life where you felt the most empowered as a
Black student.
13. Thinking of the terms “intersectionality” and “positionality,” and looking back on your
formative years, how would you describe yourself as a young student?
14. Are there any early memories that you have that can be described as impactful to you
now as a Black woman?
15. In what ways have your experiences as a young student informed your self perception
now, as a Black woman?
IV. Closing Questions:
This concludes our interview.
16. Do you have any other insights to share with me regarding your experiences with
anti-Blackness in your formative years in educational spaces?
I will now stop the recording.
V. Closing
Thank you for participating in this interview. I appreciate your candor and vulnerability. As I
stated earlier, this interview was recorded, but will only be shared with the research team. None
of your personal information will be noted in the findings of this study. May I contact you if I have
any follow up questions or clarifications? Your participation in this interview will be useful in
helping me develop the findings of the study.

125
Appendix B
Interview Protocol 2 - Administrator
I. Introduction
I want to thank you for your willingness to be interviewed today. I also thank you for
committing to the time to participate in this study. I assure you that I will accommodate
any needs that may arise throughout the interview and conduct it in a timely manner. As
stated in our previous conversations, the interview will take approximately 45 minutes.
Please let me know if this timeframe still works for you.
In our previous interview, we explored your experiences as a Black female student in
your formative years. The interview today will take us to experiences in your professional
years in education.
As a reminder, The focus of the study is to provide more insight and expand on current
research around Black female administrators in public schools and their leadership
development and experiences as leaders in the midst of navigating anti-Blackness. I am
particularly interested in their development from students to teachers, and whether or not
their desires to be administrators were the results of experiencing anti-Blackness as
Black women in educational spaces. I also want to explore Black female empowerment
and agency through school leadership as a practical protest to white supremacist
inculturation in educational spaces. I ultimately want to explore whether or not Black
female administrators believe they can soothe the harm that may have been done to
them in their formative years as students and teachers, and prevent the negative effects
of anti-Blackness for current Black students by attaining a position of power in
educational spaces.
I want to clarify that I am an objective researcher in this study, with no preconceived
notions of any right or wrong answers. I am not trying to guide your answers to any
definite conclusion that proves my position. My goal is to hear your journey and
perspective on your role as an administrator. This interview is designed to capture your
story.
At any time if you need to pause or stop the interview feel free to share that with me.
Lastly, I want to reiterate the statement from the information sheet on the interview
guidelines that I previously provided for you and assure you that this interview is
confidential. I will use a pseudonym in place of your name and will not share any of your
personal information with anyone, including the name of your school or district. Although
I will use your answers and possibly direct quotes in my ultimate research findings, I will
make sure not to report them in a way that exposes your identity in any way. I will also
supply a copy of my final paper to you if you choose to have one.

126
All information provided based on your answers in this interview will be kept on a
password protected device and will be destroyed within three years.
Do you have any questions for me at this point?
We are almost ready to begin the interview, but I must share that I would like to ensure
the utmost accuracy in capturing your story, so I would like your permission to record our
interview session. The recording will be done during this Zoom call and will not be
shared with anyone outside of the research team. Do I have your permission to record?
II. Exploring your formative years as a teacher.
Now let’s explore your formative years as a Black teacher. It is important to explore
whether your experiences as a student correlate to your decision to become a teacher.
1. Which experiences as a student would you describe as the most impactful in developing your
perception of teaching?
● Describe the process around your decision to pursue a career as a school
teacher.
2. Explain how you felt about your teachers as a student. In which grade levels did you feel a
connection with your teachers, if at all?
● Tell me about the teacher that made the biggest impact on you as a student, if
any.
● Describe the moment you knew that you wanted to be a school teacher.
● Describe the impact that a Black teacher made on your decision to become a
teacher.
3. How did you experience anti-Blackness as a teacher, if at all?
4. If it applies, do you feel like you have overcome your experiences with anti-Blackness as a
student and/or teacher?
5. Did you feel as if you were able to help Black students overcome experiences of
anti-Blackness when you were a teacher?
● Describe a moment when you felt the most empowered as a Black teacher.
III. Exploring your leadership develop
Now, I would like to explore your leadership development. I am specifically interested in
hearing about the experiences that were a catalyst to you embarking on your leadership
journey.
6. How many years experience do you have as an administrator in a K-12 school?
7. What is your administrative role?
8. What experiences as a student and teacher, if any, sparked your interest in becoming a
school administrator?

127
9. What memories do you have of encounters with school administrators as a student?
10. What memories do you have of encounters with school administrators as a teacher?
11. We discussed your experiences with discovering your Blackness, being a Black student, and
being a Black teacher, in what ways has this intersectionality influenced your desire to become
a school administrator?
12. How do you recognize your work as a school administrator? In what ways is it a response to
experiences you may have had as a Black student and/or Black teacher, if at all?
13. Explain your feelings around Black female administrative agency. Can Black female
administrators have a positive role in improving school experiences for Black students and
teachers?
14. As a Black female administrator, do you feel a responsibility to improve academic outcomes,
sense of belonging, and sense of well-being among Black students at your school?
15. Describe a moment in your life where you felt the most empowered as a Black administrator.
IV. Closing Questions:
This concludes our interview.
16. Do you have any other insights to share with me regarding your experiences with
anti-Blackness in your leadership development and professional years in educational spaces?
I will now stop the recording.
V. Closing
Thank you for participating in this interview. I appreciate your candor and vulnerability. As I
stated earlier, this interview was recorded, but will only be shared with the research team. None
of your personal information will be noted in the findings of this study. May I contact you if I have
any follow up questions or clarifications? Your participation in this interview will be useful in
helping me develop the findings of the study.

128
Appendix C
Interview Cover Sheet: Black Female K-12 Administrator
Name of Researcher:
Date of Interview:
Name of Interviewee:
City:
Authorizer’s Phone Number:
Authorizar’s Email Address:
Interview start time:
Interview End time:
Introduction
My name is Lori Andrews and I am a researcher at the University of Southern
California’s Rossier School of Education Ed.D Program. I am conducting a study on
Black female K-12 administrators that explores their aspirations to become school
administrators. I posit the possibility that their aspirations were formed as a practical
protest against their experiences of anti-Blackness as students, teachers, and in their
current position as administrators in the K-12 school system. I seek to expand on the
theory of Dialogic Action and Black Feminism as derived from Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy
of the Oppressed, in order to provide insight into Black female administrators'
intersectionality and positionality in a society that the research state does not fully
understand. This study will provide insight for those who are committed to the work of

129
school change by providing an inside look at the ways that Black female administrators
experience their own education and support students with their responsive styles of
leadership.
I hope that during the interviews I will provide you with a platform to share your story,
while also validating your experiences, allowing for researcher and participant
connection. I am particularly interested in hearing the experiences that formed your
sensibilities and resilience that culminated in you holding a K-12 leadership position.
Your words are vitally important to the scholarly dialogue around support for Black
students, whereas they will add to the story of the oppressed at all levels.
The ultimate goal of an analysis of the information gathered from your interviews is the
ability of other senior leaders to apply them when mentoring other Black female
educators on their path to leadership.
Be assured that your answers to the interview questions will be completely confidential.
You will not be identifiable in any way, word, or deed by participating in this interview.
Furthermore, there will be no mention of your organization or affiliations. In order to
make sure that your words are captured with the highest fidelity, I would like to record
the interview portion of our time together. Is this alright with you?
The interviews should last no more than 45 minutes each.

1
3
0
Thank you for your participation.

131
Appendix D
Informed Consent/Information Sheet
University of Southern California
Rossier School of Education
3470 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles, CA 90089
INFORMATION/FACTS SHEET FOR EXEMPT NON-MEDICAL RESEARCH
Protest of the Oppressed: A Case Study on a Black Female Administrator’s
Experiences in K-12 Education From Student to Leadership
You have been asked to be a participant in a research study. Research studies invite
voluntary participants to engage in a study. Use this document as a guide to clarify the
subject of this study and please ask questions regarding anything that is unclear to you.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
This study seeks to address the need for voice and agency for Black female K-12
administrators and to explore one way in which they use their position of power to
protest anti-Blackness and micro aggressive acts in the school system. This study
hopes to expand on current research that studies and discusses responses to
oppression among marginalized groups. The study uses a case study model to engage
the participant in storytelling as a dialogic action towards chronicling previous
experiences with anti-Blackness as a student, a teacher, and in their current position as
administrator. The ultimate goal of this study is to expose ways to engage in protest in a
practical way that provides social capital, empowerment, and inspiration for future
avenues of change.
PARTICIPANT INVOLVEMENT
By agreeing to participate in this study you will be expected to engage in two
one-on-one semi-structured 45 minute interviews on Zoom. The questions will be
open-ended and you will not have to answer any questions that make you feel too
uncomfortable to answer. If you agree, your responses in the interview will be recorded
on Zoom in order to provide accuracy of your interview answers. At any time if you feel
uncomfortable with moving forward with the interview, the researcher will immediately
respond and stop the recording and no further questions will be asked. Should this
occur, you are free to leave if you so desire or stay to resume the interview when you
are ready. You will be provided the questions in advance and with a Zoom transcript of
the questions no later than two weeks afterwards. You can make corrections to the
transcripts as needed. All pre-interview, interview, and post interview conversations will
be confidential, as well as any of your demographic information.
ALTERNATIVES TO PARTICIPATION

132
You may choose to not participate in the study. Be assured, that either way, no
information will be shared with your employer regardless of your participation status.
CONFIDENTIALITY
Lori Andrews will be the Principal Investigator of this study. All identifiable information
shared within this study will be confidential and not shared with any outside entity.
Anonymity will be maintained during the analyses of data by the use of pseudonyms
during coding. You will be provided with the recordings, notes, and interview transcripts
for review and editing purposes. Transcripts will be prepared on a password protected
device that is solely accessible by the Investigator, and will be immediately destroyed
once the transcripts are completed.
The data may only be accessed by members of the research team and the University of
Southern California’s Human Subject Protection Program (HSPP). Research
participants' rights and welfare are protected by reviews and monitoring of case studies
by the HSPP.
INVESTIGATOR CONTACT INFORMATION
Please direct all questions and concerns regarding the study to the following individuals:
Lori Andrews
Principal Investigator
loriandr@usc.edu
Dr. Christina Kishimoto
Faculty Advisor
CKishimo@usc.edu
IRB CONTACT INFORMATION
University Park Institutional Review Board (UPIRB). 3720 South Flower Street # 301,
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0702, (213) 821-5272 or upirb@usc.edu

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Asset Metadata

Creator Andrews, Lori Enilda (author)

Core Title Protest of the oppressed: a case study on Black female administrators’ experiences in K-12 education from student to leadership

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Educational Leadership (On Line)

Degree Conferral Date 2024-05

Publication Date 03/07/2024

Defense Date 01/29/2024

Publisher Los Angeles, California (original), University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag activism,administrators,anti-Blackness,black,Female,Feminism,leaders,leadership,micro-aggression,OAI-PMH Harvest,oppressed,Paulo Freire,postmodern,protest,racial,school,student,trauma,Woman

Format theses (aat)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Kishimoto, Christina (committee chair), Franklin, Gregory (committee member), Green, Alan (committee member)

Creator Email lorienildaandrews@yahoo.com,redbayce@yahoo.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC113848786

Unique identifier UC113848786

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Legacy Identifier etd-AndrewsLor-12682

Document Type Dissertation

Format theses (aat)

Rights Andrews, Lori Enilda

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