Women are the majority population in Texas that participate in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and public housing assistance programs. TANF focuses on mandatory work requirements with a time-limit on assistance and lack of education opportunities. This dissertation documents post-secondary education opportunities for Texas women…

Despite being academically unqualified for admission to the University of Texas at Austin, Abigail Fisher, a White female, argued that she was not admitted due to the university's diversity policy. In addition to framing postsecondary admissions as a zero-sum phenomenon, Ms. Fisher intentionally frames students of color who are admitted to the…

While COVID-19 is capable of infecting anyone, the level of risk is far from equal. Data show that Black and Latino communities, already suffering from deep-rooted economic and health inequalities, have borne the brunt of the pandemic. Latinas, in particular, have suffered some of the most egregious economic and health disparities over the past…

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of women high school principals to uncover challenges contributing to the underrepresentation of women in secondary school leadership. Moreover, this work is situated within the larger movement of educational leadership for social justice, with a focused application of a…

Since the 1970s, there has been keen interest in examining gender representation in leadership positions across various areas of employment, including K-12 education. Indeed, there have been long-standing concerns about the percentage of women principals. Few studies, however, have examined the percentages of women principals at different…

Despite being academically unqualified for admission to the University of Texas at Austin, Abigail Fisher, a White female, argued that she was not admitted due to the university's diversity policy. In addition to framing post-secondary admissions as a zero-sum phenomenon, Ms. Fisher intentionally framed students of color who are admitted to the…

Stella M. Flores writes about how she learned to participate in the American political process through lessons from her immigrant family. As a quantitative scholar, she documents the commitment to rigorous, evidence-based research on equity noting that not all datasets are without politics or bias. From this perspective, the story of the Latino in…

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of three female superintendents in Texas in regard to their leadership qualities and to provide women information to assist in conceptualizing female leadership qualities that are needed to lead a school. Through a postmodern feminist lens, the study explored the history of women and their…

The purpose of the research was to inform professional practice pertaining to the preparation of female administrators as future school superintendents. Twenty female superintendents in Texas were interviewed using a qualitative research approach. Strategies, career experiences and perception of barriers were identified using open-ended questions.…

The purpose of this research is to examine the motivations of females aspiring to school superintendency positions in Texas. We report on a reanalysis of data from two previous studies and how the findings build an understanding of previously documented obstacles and barriers female candidates encounter in their journey toward the superintendency.…

Women who move into and work within administration in higher education face many struggles. Both the traits that are specific to most females and their leadership style can impede their rise into and within administrative ranks. In addition, higher education has traditionally been a hierarchical and patriarchal system that makes it more difficult…

The study examined the influence of culture on the desire of a group of six aspirantes (Spanish/English bilingual education teacher candidates) from Texas to become bilingual education teachers of Latin@ bilingual learners. Chicana/Latina feminist thought is utilized as a lens to understand the role teacher education programs can play in helping…

The superintendent is the highest ranking administrator in a school district (Katz, 2005). Despite increasing trends of women advancing in the fields of business and government, the superintendent position in school districts still has relatively few women (Brunner & Grogan, 2007; Dana & Bourisaw, 2006; Glass, 2000; Grogan & Brunner,…

This paper explores the issues of what would constitute a positive organizational climate for women and minorities within the community college setting and ways in which such a climate might be achieved. It first describes some traditional or standard measures of a positive organizational climate for women and minorities and then evaluates how…

The history of normal school education remains an area of study that has attracted relatively little attention from educational historians in recent years, although a growing body of literature is emerging. Nonetheless, early normal schools in New England and the Midwest have received greater attention than those established in the Southwest.…