This paper uses the seven principles of "stalking," the cultural wisdom for training Yaqui Indian warriors as described by Carlos Castenada, as a framework for organizing insights shared by successful women superintendents. "Stalking" is a metaphor for the process through which women seek success as superintendents. The research used a modified…

Research has shown that women are underrepresented in positions of educational authority. This paper presents findings of a study that asked the following question: What is it about the regularities in discourse and practice in relationship to power in a particular community that would allow a woman to be selected for the superintendency, when…

This paper presents findings of a critical ethnography that examined the relationship between gender and the definition of power, and its use in the politicized role of the superintendent. Based on Stewart Clegg's (1988) conceptualization of power relationships as "circuits of power," the ethnography was conducted in a larger metropolitan area…

In a four-year study, an assistant professor of educational administration asked superintendents and their staffs to characterize superintendents' leadership styles. Definitions generally fell into the category "power over" rather than "power with/to." Superintendents must learn to speak about power as a collaborative concept,…

This paper asks: Which of the alternative views that women bring to the position of superintendent have the potential to change the nature of the position itself? The paper examines the classical "feminine" definition of power in light of its potential to support an ethical practice not often attributed to superintendents of schools, namely, an…

Various opinions surround the usefulness of research on women superintendents. An analysis of the benefits and the drawbacks of such research is presented here. The text opens with 10 reasons why such research is of use to women and men. The reasons include: women make up over 70 percent of the teaching ranks but only 7 percent of them occupy…

While numerous feminist scholars have written about "silence," few have focused on the silence of women in powerful masculinized positions such as the superintendency. The purpose of the paper is to expose the silencing, the disallowing of voice in actual practice, or the "unnatural silence" (Olsen 1978) of women superintendents through a…

Although empirical research in the area of educational administration is plentiful, often it seems to be of little practical use. This paper presents findings of a study that examined the usefulness of a framework of collective solutions, or strategies for success, for women superintendents. A single-case qualitative study of one female…

Using Swindler's settled discourse theory, examined 12 women superintendents' discourse to determine whether patterns in their talk about work experiences contain events or episodes of inequality. Five topics emerged: power, silence, style, responsibility, and people. Each was analyzed to discover how women treated such experiences in their…

Though less reliant on military images, women administrators have also used, and been required to use, battle models of leadership. Those who operate under different leadership assumptions have only recently received professional acceptance. The work of Carlos Castenada reveals how the Yaqui Indians trained their spiritual leaders (their…