Barriers surround top-tier leadership in K-12 education. The superintendent position continues to be occupied by male leaders despite the overwhelming number of female educators. This qualitative study explored the disparity between male and female leaders through the perspectives of female superintendents in a southern state. This study relied on…

The purpose of this Delphi study was to explore the potential for district leaders to leverage Liberatory Design to interrupt systemic inequities and redress bias in K-12 school systems. A purposeful, heterogeneous sampling of twelve experts, who were identified as effective practitioners of transformative leadership or as academic scholars…

Multiple learning theories encourage the use of role models within K-12 settings and have guided research on role model representation to diversify the pursuit of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Research has been clear on benefits of using role models, primarily focused on promoting gender and racial/ethnic…

Gender disparity at the leadership level of large (defined by the National Association of Independent Schools [NAIS] as > 700 students) K-12 independent schools is a critical and persistent issue in the ongoing effort to foster equity and justice in historically white and male-led independent schools in the United States. The number of women…

The problem addressed in the study was the challenges that made it difficult for African American female administrators to move into educational leadership positions. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive case study was to explore how African American female school administrators described the challenges they faced in their journey to…

Given that a national superintendent dataset has never existed, claims about superintendent turnover and gender gaps have traditionally been based on conjecture or data from a single year and small sample of superintendents. Utilizing a new dataset of all K-12 public school district superintendents in the United States across four school years,…

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological dissertation was to understand the perceived lived challenges Latina leaders faced when serving in the position of school district superintendent. The review of the literature affirmed the oppressive forces that Latina leaders encounter, as well as the lack of mentorship programs available for them;…

This study sought to examine the underlying issues and perceptions of sitting male and female superintendents in order to add to the current literature on feminism in the K-12 school setting. Specifically, this study sought to examine the perceptions of currently employed superintendents about how they experienced the intersection of gender and…

The purpose of this systematic review is to further our understanding of women and educational leadership knowledge production from three Chinese societies and to contribute to the development of a more diverse global knowledge base in gender and educational leadership and management. A total of 341 articles were identified from 4 electronic…

We use publicly available, longitudinal data from Washington state to study the extent to which three interrelated processes--teacher attrition from the state teaching workforce, teacher mobility between teaching positions, and teacher hiring for open positions--contribute to "teacher quality gaps" (TQGs) between students of color and…

This study was designed to examine the problem of microaggressions that Black women face within their roles in educational leadership across the following educational settings: (a) school and district administration in K-12, (b) higher education leadership, and (c) non-profit leadership roles. Data was collected from 33 participants across each…

This study uses a new, contemporary dataset of nearly 13,000 traditional public K-12 school district superintendent names to examine superintendent gender gaps. Superintendent gender gaps are described at the national and state level, and in conjunction with district demographic data. I find significant superintendent gender gaps across the…

Leadership training and administrative experience are key components of sponsored mobility as the candidate's participation in district- or school-sponsored training for aspiring school principals combined with the opportunity to avail of administrative experiences effectively constitute a pipeline to the principalship. The literature reveals that…

Through the research conducted, the experiences of African American female principals in their efforts to become principals of K-12 schools in rural Southwest Georgia were revealed. The researcher sought to understand African American female principals' life experiences, perceived barriers, and strategies used on their journey to become…

With a General Election just weeks away -- what are the British public's views on equality of opportunity and social mobility? Do today's voters want to see greater action to level the playing field, and should we be investing to equalise opportunities? To answer those questions, the Sutton Trust has commissioned More in Common to conduct…