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Understandings of Principals in Segregated, White-staffed Urban Elementary Schools: Leadership in Our Peculiar Institutions

Milligan, Tonya M.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1386266651

Abstract Details

2013, Doctor of Education (EdD), Ohio University, Educational Administration (Education).
This study is a narrative inquiry that explores the understandings of elementary principals in schools where the racial and cultural makeup of the student body differs markedly from the racial and cultural makeup of the teaching staff. I purposefully selected principals who work in majority-Black schools staffed with majority-White teachers. I conducted in-depth interviews with ten Midwest elementary principals, five White and five Black, in three different urban areas. I transcribed these interviews and used the resulting transcript data as well as my field notes as the primary data sources from which to draw conclusions. My data analysis surfaced three themes that describe how principals collectively understand such schools and their leadership in them. First, the principals' own biography seemingly influenced how they understood, experienced, and engaged race and racism in their schools. Second, principals envisioned their leadership role as moral agents and used their moral power to assuage the perceived social injustices experienced by students. Third, principals understood that they functioned in a culture of fear where teachers were afraid of Black students, their parents, and the Black community surrounding the schools.
Craig Howley (Committee Chair)
323 p.
Educational Leadership; School Administration
urban education; school administration; color-conscious leadership; narrative inquiry; proactive moral agency; leading in a context of fear, cultural mismatch, White teachers and Black students; critical race theory; racial identity theory

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Milligan, T. M. (2013). Understandings of Principals in Segregated, White-staffed Urban Elementary Schools: Leadership in Our Peculiar Institutions [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1386266651

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Milligan, Tonya. Understandings of Principals in Segregated, White-staffed Urban Elementary Schools: Leadership in Our Peculiar Institutions. 2013. Ohio University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1386266651.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Milligan, Tonya. "Understandings of Principals in Segregated, White-staffed Urban Elementary Schools: Leadership in Our Peculiar Institutions." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1386266651

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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© 2013, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.