In this review of research, we explore intersectionality in the literature on K-12 educational leadership. We seek to understand how researchers have used intersectionality and what their findings or arguments reveal about the work of leading to reduce inequities in education. We ask, What traditions and trends associated with intersectionality have been brought into educational leadership research to inform the development of transformative leadership? The sample includes 15 articles published in peer-reviewed journals between 2005 and 2017. We identify the themes individualism and knowledge relations, which leads us to three interrelated findings concerning conceptions of leadership and intersectionality. We find that intersectionality primarily (1) is used to support microlevel analysis rather than both micro-level and macro-level analysis of the inequities being confronted by leadership practice, (2) is used to focus on individuals' experiences as "leaders" and "leadership" capacity rather than "leading" practices, and (3) serves as an emergent knowledge project in its support of agendas related to transformative educational leadership. We discuss how the use of intersectionality, conceptions of leadership, and leadership and research practices coincide, pointing to the implications for the continued use of intersectionality in educational leadership, and provide recommendations to support the use of intersectionality in future research. I n educational leadership research, various approaches to scholarship are being advanced to help expose and explain the complexity of social injustice and transform education accordingly (

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There has been an increasing emphasis on equity, social justice, and diversity (ESD) curriculum in higher education graduate programs. Nevertheless, Black women in doctoral programs at historically white institutions (HWIs) often experience various challenges in classroom environments and with various curriculum and instruction approaches that distort their intelligence and preserve the myth of racial and gender inferiority. Intersectionality as a theoretical framework and methodology was employed to understand Black women’s experiences as students in Higher Education Administration doctoral courses with espoused ESD learning outcomes and objectives. Findings for this study suggest that Black women doctoral students served as both learners and educators in these classroom spaces; they had to navigate surveillance and stereotypes from both peers and professors; and (non)critical classroom communities created challenges and opportunities for deepening their learning on ESD. Implications for doctoral courses with espoused ESD learning outcomes and objectives are to center subjugated knowledge that honors different ways of knowing and being by creating genuinely inclusive learning experiences to foster all students’ development of critical consciousness.