Portraits of experiences : an in-depth interview study of American-women in secondary school administration

This is a qualitative study on the career path experiences of five African- American female secondary school administrators. A review of literature on the history of education in America revealed that history has been unkind to African-American women by omitting them from the existing literature on women in school administration. The purpose of this study is to begin to fill that void. Five African-American female secondary public school administrators were asked to share their career path stories of experiences. The interview was selected as the data gathering instrument.

The text of the stories were analyzed for common threads which were transformed into common themes. The stories are presented in the participants' own words so as to capture the essence of the narratives and to add continuity and cohesiveness to the retelling of the experiences. The stories are first told as holistic, verbatim entities. Next, they are presented in an African-American oral tradition of 'breaking the text' down as a re-telling. The re-telling is from the perspective of the researcher. Closure is brought to each theme as the researcher presents her reflections on the theme by combining her perspectives with those found in the literature.

Through data analysis, four central themes emerged: (1) Family History of Education/ Mentors; (2) Discrimination; (3) Leadership and Leadership Styles; and (4) I'm in Charge-Establishing Credibility. No attempts were made to augment or embellish the stories. This study was limited to participants from East Tennessee who are currently serving or who have served as secondary public school administrators within the past two years.