This article reports the results for the first cycle of an action research study about a district-university partnership. Two district facilitators and two university facilitators co-constructed a principal preparation program for an innercity school district to help prepare the next generation of building leaders. Twenty-two students participated in the 15-month nontraditional program. The study found that in preparing first-time school leaders, the most helpful experiences were those that developed self-understanding and readiness for the role change. New instructional techniques and the full-time residency facilitated this learning. It also found that the partnership, though providing new and exciting opportunities to deviate from the traditional preparation model, needed further development. In the United States, formal degree programs in school leadership have been offered since the start of the 20th century. Although the programs have not all been the same, many included professors and adjunct professors' delivering research-based knowledge of educational administration,
This article is written from the experiential and theoretical perspectives that I encountered as a Black femalepublic school educator who, after twenty-plus years of public school teaching and administrativeexperiences, became an assistant professor at a predominately White research university. Being a student ofcritical race theory, I write this experience narrative from the perspective of life notes in order to help"demystify[ing] African American feminist ways of knowing, in moments of reflection, relation, andresistance" (Dillard, 2003, p. 135). Moreover, this article represents an " endarkened feminist epistemology"(Dillard, 2003) in order to shed light on how incidents and events with race, class, and gender translate intomeaning for both of my professional careers and my life in general. A chronologic comparison of myexperiences in both careers reveals the debilitating affects of race and gender. By sharing this experience, Ihope that all who are involved in the recruitment, retention, and promotion of women and minorities inthese professions (public school administration and the academy) will better understand how acts of racismand sexism create distractions that hinder their success in these careers.
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