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Women in this study also easily talked about what centers them. All six made a connection from their personal and professional history to how they proceeded with their work toward social justice. These women connected their vision for change with their personal stories and school district context. The districts varied by size, student population, and geographical area. Yet, all of the women used those various contexts to develop specific goals related to their vision for social justice.

Several women talked about the benefits as a participant in this type of research. It allowed them to reflect on issues of social justice in their districts and what they had accomplished in dealing with these issues as leaders. Fay said that through her participation, the research had value for her as well as others. . . . “at least not only for myself but those who participate . . . you will cause us, you have me, anyway, to be reflective, to sit down and think about what we are doing and why.” Both Carmen and Fay saw their participation as a reason to question themselves and learn wanted to know the results of the study to learn from other women in similar positions. Fay said: “I think your questions are causing me to be reflective and making me think, am I doing enough? I would be really interested in hearing what these women are saying.”

Feminist standpoint theory used as an overarching framework for this study provided a lens to look for how women superintendents acknowledged issues of social justice practices that were unjust in their districts and communities. It also provided a framework to understand how women who have been marginalized in the superintendent’s position, could “see” from their vantage point, what voices were excluded in the decision-making process and what these women did to provide opportunities for all voices to be heard.

Not only can we learn in general how women are progressing in the superintendency from this type of research, but specifically, we learn that this study’s participants have enjoyed the opportunity to reflect on the concepts of social justice for students, staff, and families in their schools. Several women talked about how their participation in the study has helped them reflect and question themselves about the issues. And in drawing form this particular finding, we learn that it is good and absolutely necessary to create spaces to talk about social justice in schools. Conversations of this sort need to occur among school communities so that everyone can be actively engaged in creating an ethic of community.

References

Anderson, E. Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2007 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (Ed.). Retrieved on March 25, 2007, from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2007/entries/feminism-epistemology/.

Anderson, E. How not to criticize feminist epistemology: a review of S crutinizing Feminist Epistemology . Retrieved on March 25, 2007, from http://www-personal.umich.edu/~eandersn/hownotreview.html#SFE

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Source:  OpenStax, Education leadership review, volume 11, number 1; march 2010. OpenStax CNX. Feb 02, 2010 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11179/1.3
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