A Qualitative Ethnographic Study of Barriers Experienced by African American Female Administrators in Higher Education

Bibliography: Alexander, Traci (2010). Roots of Leadership: Analysis of the Narratives from African American Women Leaders in Higher Education. The International Journal of Learning. 193-204. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Alexander includes an intriguing analysis of her personal accounts and experiences during her academic career. She also includes more pitfalls other African American women come across when they have internal false perspectives or false self-concepts. Alexander found six themes that emerged from the participants she interviewed. She closes with suggestions, and strategies to increase the numbers of African American women chief executives in higher education. I enjoyed reading Alexander’s work but she never specified the institutions from which past and presiding African American female presidents in higher education she interviewed. Glenn, Scott. (2010). A Qualitative Ethnographic Study of African American Leadership in Higher Education Administration (Doctoral dissertation). Available from ProQuest Dissertations and These database (UMI No. 3405504) ¬ Glenn’s qualitative study examines the barriers that hinder African Americans seeking administration positions in higher education. He includes relevant evidence by asking participants open-ended questions during their interviews. This gives a detailed analysis and recommendation for helping African Americans seeking administration positions in higher education. These two key points from Scott’s dissertation relates to my study because they incorporate female leadership into the study. I found the references to be useful for my study as well. Murtadha, Khaula & Watts, Daud. (2005). Linking the Struggle for Education and Social Justice: Historical Perspectives of African American Leadership in Schools. Educational Administration Quarterly 41, 591. Retrieved from SAGE Journals. The authors discuss the past and the future of African American leadership in education. The goal of this article is to show how African Americans can improve leadership in education. The article includes five African American women who serve as models for school leadership. I found this article helpful because the content is just what I need to include in my study. Singh, Kusum, Robinson, Adriane & Williams-Green, Joyce (1995). Differences in Perceptions of African American Women and Men Faculty and Administrators. The Journal of Negro Education, 64, 4,401. Retrieved from ProQuest. The authors present an in-depth look at how African American women and men experience some of the same challenges of racism and sexism in higher education. Their data divides the African American women and men into two groups to address the gender-based differences as well. The authors gave the respondents questionnaires to gather different perceptions of academic professional life, professional characteristics, and their institution, recruitment, and retention policies, and promotion, and tenure process. The authors conclude with a need for ongoing monitoring of African American gender differences in academic institutions. The authors analyzed the topic well and gave sufficient supporting evidence.