For us: towards an intersectional leadership conceptualization by Black women for Black girls

ABSTRACT

This article is based on a STEM education case study that illumines the work that three Black women school leaders do specifically on behalf of Black girls, and in examining their asset-based approaches, conceptualises their work by articulating an intersectional leadership framework. By historicising and explicating the rich legacy of Black women school leaders, and specifically including the theoretical dispositions in which their pedagogy is rooted, we shine a light on the lacuna that exists in educational leadership that specifically articulates their praxes when working on behalf of students with whom they identify – that is, Black girls. Black women have modelled what Black girls need because they empathise with their intersectional identities in unique ways. Based on their effective practices, we offer the following definition of intersectional leadership: the operationalisation of visionary strategies that privilege the experiences of followers who live the realities of more than one historically oppressive identifier.

KEYWORDS:

• Black girls
• Black women leaders
• intersectionality
• intersectional leadership
• STEM education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Angel Miles Nash, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Leadership Development at Chapman University in the Donna Ford Attallah College of Educational Studies. Her research endeavors center the emboldening of Black girls and women in K-20 education, the professional intersectional realities of Black women, and the ways that educational leaders support underserved students in STEM education.

April L. Peters, Ph.D., is Associate Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Houston. Her research interests include women in school leadership; mentoring and support for early career administrators; urban schooling; and leadership and small school reform. She is a former president of the University Council for Educational Administration.