Date of Award

4-11-2025

Access Restriction

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctorate in Education

Department

Education

School or College

School of Education

First Advisor

Dolores Delgado Bernal

Second Advisor

Linda Kaminski

Third Advisor

Sergio Chavez

Abstract

This study was a qualitative examination of social justice praxis and its intersections with race, gender, and other facets of the identities of eight Latina former superintendents, referred to as the mujeres. A trio of theoretical frameworks that included Chicana feminist epistemology (Delgado Bernal, 1998), Community cultural wealth, or CCW, (Yosso, 2005) and applied critical leadership, or ACL, (Santamaría & Santamaría, 2012; Santamaría, 2014) were used to analyze how personal identity informed their approaches to advance social justice in their school districts. I engaged the methodological approach of pláticas [meaningful conversations] (Fierros & Delgado Bernal, 2016) to elicit reflection on achieving presence, perseverance, and praxis in the rarified and contested space of the superintendency. The findings indicated that they drew from their core personal identities to inform various facets of their professional roles, enabling them to challenge status quo practices and policies. Using a CFE lens, five themes emerged, highlighting shared transcendent characteristics consistent with the major tenets of CCW and with ACL behaviors of social justice leaders. This study called for broadening the conversation on intersectional identity and leadership while directing discourse away from deficit orientations about historically marginalized communities. By inviting Latina voices to the fore, this study affirmed the value of Chicana/Latina feminist perspectives in the scholarly literature about social justice leadership in education. The study endeavored to inspire future Latinas in the superintendency to envision their work, not merely as an occupation, but as a true occupassion.

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