This dissertation explores the issue of minority underrepresentation in K-12 educational leadership roles, examining its perceived causes and implications within academic settings. The research utilized a qualitative approach involving detailed surveys and interviews with school administrators from K-12 schools in Western North Carolina, Upstate…

The purpose of this sequential mixed-methods study was to explore the feelings, thoughts, critical incidents, and coping mechanisms of female high school principals and their experiences with the impostor phenomenon. A hierarchical multiple regression revealed that none of the demographic factors such as number of years as a head high school…

In an era of accountability and high standards for public schools, some African American principals decided to work in predominantly white schools. Their experiences were challenging because they were racial newcomers in schools with students different from their own race. In this case study, 12 African-American principals and assistant principals…

Fifty-two years after "Brown v. Board of Education" and 42 years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, there remains a declining presence of Black teachers and administrators in the United States. As powerful role models for all students, especially Black students, Black educators are crucial to the increasing minority student population…

This qualitative study examines the concept of teacher leadership from the perspective of those who practice it. Viewed through the lens of identity theory, analysis yielded five categories that define and describe a teacher leader--namely, as a decision maker, an educational role model, a positional designee, a supra-practitioner, and a…