2012 UCEA Convention

Cultivating Supportive, Professional Relationships Among Black Women in Educational Leadership: Shattering the Mirror of Self-destruction. Dildra Martin-Ogburn, Florida Atlantic University
This paper session will share and discuss the findings of a phenomenology, which explored the definitions and conceptual uses of horizontal and/or vertical violence by Black female educational leaders. It outlines the methods used to investigate the phenomenon and explores the implications of sabotage or violence coming from members of the same minority group. Seated Black female educational leaders from a large, highly diverse urban school district, served as the primary participants of the study.

Teacher Leadership: Women (of African descent) Enacting Social Justice. Zorka Karanxha, University of South Florida; Vonzell Agosto, University of South Florida
This paper explores how educational leadership preparation for social justice informs teacher leadership praxis among Black women. The narratives of five participants reveal the impact of the educational leadership preparation program on their engagement in social justice leadership. Understanding the impact of the program on their practice and how they translate their understandings of social justice into their work can help to improve educational leadership programs and broaden current conceptions of teacher leadership.

Using Critical Spirituality to Sustain African American Educational Leaders: Looking Back to the Future. Terri Nicol Watson, The City College of New York / City University of New York
The historical narratives examined in this study detail Black America’s inextricable link to public education while connecting this focal relationship to critical spirituality. To do so, a call-and-response pattern was utilized: core segments of text are followed by a related biblical verse. Within these pairings, concrete, instructive ideas and examples of how educational leaders may find faith in the darkest of times are illuminated, providing spiritual sustenance.