Resilience and the African American Superintendent

Authors

Bernadeia Johnson, Minnesota State University, MankatoFollow
Lakisha Witter, Minnesota State University, Mankato
Jason A. Kaufman, Minnesota State University, MankatoFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Winter 2020

Keywords

stress, coping, resilience, African American, superintendent, leadership

Abstract

We sought to explore the extent to which race might influence how African American superintendents cope with the stressors of their leadership roles and the presence of support while in such positions. In order to test this question, we recruited African American superintendents across the United States. We specifically measured their ability to cope with stressors and maintain resilience in leadership. African American superintendents indicated that they primarily utilized problem-based coping to navigate role stress and that they perceived themselves as successfully bouncing back from that stress. We offer a brief set of recommendations based upon these results to foster further coping and resilience among this remarkable group of leaders.

Department

Educational Leadership

Print ISSN

1931-6569

Publication Title

AASA Journal of Scholarship & Practice

Recommended Citation

Johnson, B., Witter, L., & Kaufman, J. A. (2020). Resilience and the African American superintendent. AASA Journal of Scholarship & Practice, 16(4), 57-69. https://www.aasa.org/uploadedFiles/Publications/JSPWinter2020.FINAL.v1.pdf

Publisher's Copyright and Source

Article originally published in the AASA Journal of Scholarship & Practice, volume 16, issue 4, Winter 2020, pages 57-69. https://www.aasa.org/uploadedFiles/Publications/JSPWinter2020.FINAL.v1.pdf

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.