Chapter 16 --  The Jossey-Bass Reader on Educational Leadership
Gender and Race as Factors in Educational Leadership and Administration

Definitions

Most definitions share two assumptions.  Leadership is a group phenomenon and leaders exercise intentional influence over followers.

leadership-  "The initiation and maintenance of structure in expectation and interaction".

Current State of Leadership

The field is in a state of ferment and confusion that centers on three issues:

• lack of agreement in the field about leadership as a concept
• lack of agreement in the field as to the ability of a leader to exercise substantial influence on performance in an organization
• conceptual weakness of current theories of leadership and their lack of clear empirical support.

Major Research Approaches

Research on leadership can generally be classified into four approaches:

• Power-influence approach
• Trait approach
• Behavioral approach
• Situational approach

Social and Role Theory

Role theory is based on the idea that a role defines how individuals are expected to behave.

Women and people of color both experience prejudice and discrimination.

Schools reflect the race and gender stratification that exists in the wider society.

Sex Roles-  Roles that are assigned to men because they are men and women because they are women.

Role stress is a construct that describes a feeling of conflict that results from the inconsistent demands of a role.

Historically, women and people of color have had limited career options.

for many years education was one of the few careers open to them.

School boards reflect the values of their communities and play an important role in the selection of administrators.

In general, studies that compare male and female leaders do not demonstrate a clear pattern of difference in leadership style between the sexes.

Research on minorities in school administration is almost exclusively on African Americans.

Data suggest that access to high-level administrative positions is limited to individuals who have followed specific career patterns.

The high number of female teachers and the low number of female administrators is an example of stratification by gender.

The Future Study of Educational Leadership

Studies of educational leaders tend to focus on educational leaders in a region or state and on one key variable such as gender, ethnicity, leadership style, or career patterns.

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Jossey-Bass Publishers.  The Jossey-Bass Reader on Education Leadership.