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LEARNING OUR PLACE: A FEMINIST ANALYSIS OF PRACTITIONER TEXTS WRITTEN FOR WOMEN SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS

Han, Andrea N.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1259961405

Abstract Details

2009, Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, Educational Leadership.
This dissertation uncovers the messages implicit in practitioner texts written for women school administrators by utilizing four analytical frames (silence, ambition, leadership and power) and corresponding normalizations of femininity identified by Sklra (2003b). While the goal of these texts is to prepare and empower women to assume school leadership roles, these texts are formidable means of maintaining the male-defined structure of school administration. I therefore offer the following hypothesis: Practitioner texts written for women school administrators encourage women to conform to and reproduce the historically male power structure of schools rather than to confront or subvert this paradigm. Practitioner texts do so by promoting normalizations of femininity and constructing the concept of “woman school administrator” in ways that limits women’s choices by encouraging them to conform to a male-defined norm of what it means to be a woman. This construction employs themes to “teach” women “acceptable” forms of nonconformity that placate the need for difference without threatening the existing power structure. Furthermore, this construction encourages women to confront only superficial issues while ignoring the institutionalized nature of male authority in schools. While these texts appear at first glance to encourage women to proceed beyond socially constructed norms, the messages they deliver serve to warn women of the failure they will experience if they do so. Qualitative methods, including critical discourse analysis and feminist theory, are used to examine three popular, practitioner texts written to provide guidance and insight to women school administrators.
Dr. Kate Rousmaniere (Advisor)
Dr. Nelda Cambron-McCabe (Committee Member)
Dr. Richard A. Quantz (Committee Member)
Dr. Jennie P. Dautermann (Committee Member)
119 p.
Education; School Administration; Womens Studies
practitioner texts; school administration; women school administrators; normalizations of femininity

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Han, A. N. (2009). LEARNING OUR PLACE: A FEMINIST ANALYSIS OF PRACTITIONER TEXTS WRITTEN FOR WOMEN SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS [Doctoral dissertation, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1259961405

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Han, Andrea. LEARNING OUR PLACE: A FEMINIST ANALYSIS OF PRACTITIONER TEXTS WRITTEN FOR WOMEN SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS. 2009. Miami University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1259961405.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Han, Andrea. "LEARNING OUR PLACE: A FEMINIST ANALYSIS OF PRACTITIONER TEXTS WRITTEN FOR WOMEN SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS." Doctoral dissertation, Miami University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1259961405

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

miami1259961405
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© 2009, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.