Dominique Jones – Final Defense

Strong, Mighty, and Authentically Me: Black Female Administrators and the Pursuit of Excellence

When:

Mar 18, 2019

8:15 AM

Where:

LSC 700

Abstract:

Black female administrators in K-12 settings face structural, positional, educational, and psychosocial stressors connected to the intersections of her identity as both woman and a woman of color (Cho et al., 2013; Collins, 2015; Crenshaw, 1991), which are generated by the nature and structure of K-12 educational environments. While acknowledging the power structures of patriarchy and white supremacist ideology at play, women of color can benefit from drawing on their resilience, the power of their voice, and the strength in the collective remembrance of Black female identity (Baszile, Edwards, & Guillory, 2016). Without mechanisms of resilience and organizations combating these power structures, Black women run the risk of losing themselves to the white serving institutions of public education (Rodriguez, 2017). Illuminating strength and embracing the resilience of Black women can be a contribution to their practice of maintaining authentic identities.