Minority Woman as School Principals What Works and Why Leadership Challenges Faced by Minority Principals

Minority Woman as School Principals and Leadership Challenges Faced by Minority Principals

When compared with corporate America, both the public and private American school systems may have more blatant glass ceiling settings because there are very obvious resistance movements towards gender and minority integration into administrative roles such as principals especially for positions in better schools or systems. The numbers do not lie -- consider the fact that women have traditionally comprised the majority of both the public and private school teaching forces yet, the majority of school administrators for these systems continue to be white males. This report therefore aims to discuss the roles of minority women as school principals, the inherent leadership and administrative challenges they may face as minority principals and what may or may not work for them and why.

Although this report happened to use some examples from the California school system to demonstrate some of the many problems that minority principals face in their day-to-day administrative situations, the truth of the matter is that these same problems could be considered to be fairly universal throughout the nation. This is because minority principals, irregardless of residing state, are far more likely to be in charge of the schools that are located in economically and socially poor and depressed urban settings. Their schools are less likely to receive adequate state or district financial support and therefore this entails that they have greater physical school structural concerns, teacher, text book and computer shortages and a plethora of other associated concerns. As urban sprawl continues to ravage urban areas of sound tax bases and family-based community support, minority principals face high percentages of illiteracy and other adverse educational scenarios throughout all grade levels because of the before mentioned problems.

Literature-based discussion - The Big Picture

It is common knowledge that school administrators such as principals often are teachers who have been promoted through the ranks. Thus, this offers a unique insight into the traditional role of women and minorities in the teaching profession. For instance, white males usually were the teachers until the late eighteenth century and women did not really enter the workforce per se until much later. However, by the turn of the nineteenth century, women far outnumbered males in the profession. "This was due in part to the high demand for males in the private sector and the rapid growth of the elementary school." (Shakeshaft, 1989)

Modern times show that although many women now teach, the majority of those teachers are white females. This implies that since the late eighties, only about eight percent of the teachers hired in this country were minority women, " ... since 1985, 78% of new teachers hired were women, and 92% were white; only 5% of teachers hired since 1985 were African-American; 2% were Hispanic and 1% were Asian. The number of Native American teachers hired since 1985 is negligible." (Feistritzer, 1990)

It is not just the teaching profession discriminating against or systematically reducing the number of minority candidates. The smarter or simply better educated minorities whether they are men or women also have other options as opposed to opportunities in teaching. For example, salary opportunism because of the needs of corporate America draw the brightest minority candidates. These options therefore also influence minority men and women away from the teaching profession and this then leaves less capable minorities within the ranks of the teaching profession. This is not to say that minority men or women are bad teachers, it is merely pointing out that a teaching salary and a corporate executive salary will more than likely lead minorities out of teaching.

So, if administrators come from the ranks of the teacher's pools, there will already be fewer minority women to choose from based on the approximate example of eight percent and of those that are available, they may or may not be the very best minority women statistically. In other words, there will obviously be fewer capable minority women teachers who are eligible to become administrators. Thus, an air of natural discrimination from a white majority and the valid opportunities in other spectrums for the best and the brightest technically reduce the number of capable female administrators available.

When a Minority woman does move through the ranks to eventually reach an administrative position such as that of the principal, they are then far too often assigned to resurrect impossible case scenarios such as those in poor urban area schools where illiteracy and other social problems may already be rampant. For example, in a recent San Diego Business Journal quote from a San Diego Council on Literacy member pointed out, '20% of the United States population is functionally illiterate and 26% in the San Diego County.' Principals in these areas have a responsibility to hire the best teachers available to solve underlying problems. There is already a shortage of teachers throughout the entire educational system and the demands for more teachers often create situations where many unqualified individuals are hired. "In terms of sheer statistics, the state is a national leader. State enrollment is adding about 100,000 students each year, meaning that California will be home to one-fifth of all U.S. students in a few decades. As a result of this growth, an estimated 300,000 teachers will be needed here during the next decade - even as the nation is in the middle of a teacher shortage." (Unknown, "As California overhauls schools, America watches for lessons") This holds even more true in areas most likely being administered to by minority woman. "You could almost assess these kids adequately just by using their ZIP Codes - those from poorer districts will be behind, and those from richer districts will stay ahead." (Unknown, "As California overhauls schools, America watches for lessons")

Implications