C. Cryss Brunner

Unsettled Moments in Settled Discourse: Women Superintendents’ Experiences of Inequality

In this article, the discourse of 12 women superintendents is examined with the expressed aim of determining if patterns in their talk about their superintendency experiences contain events or episodes of inequality. The study’s examination is guided by an adaptation of Swindler’s theory of “settled” and “unsettled” social periods. Qualitative inquiry and analysis methods are used to identify emerging themes or topics of talk. Five topics of talk emerge from the narrative data: power, silence, style, responsibility, and people. Each of these topics is examined for settled and unsettled properties and further analyzed using the lenses of Chase and Bell’s identified strategies to discover how the women treat their experiences of inequality in their discourse.

Women superintendents: strategies for success

Despite widespread concern about the need to ensure that women succeed in superintendency positions, there is woefully little relevant literature. This paper presents the results of a qualitative study of female superintendents focused on identifying their strategies for success. In broad strokes, the study draws on the insights of 12 women superintendents and 24 people who knew them. Interpretations are presented as they find expression in seven “strategies for success”.

A Proposition for the Reconception of the Superintendency: Reconsidering Traditional and Nontraditional Discourse.

In this article, small samples of the traditional discourse on communication found in superintendency texts and nontraditional narratives from women superintendents were examined through a feminist postmodern lens to determine whether a reconsideration of superintendency discourse could provide ideas that support a reconception of the superintendency. This analysis revealed new discourse about superintendency communication that contrasts with traditional superintendency discourse and that makes convincing contributions to the reconception of the superintendency as advanced by several researchers. The conclusion makes this contrast clear by summarizing the article’s (a) ideas that inhibit the reconception of the superintendency and (b) ideas that advance the reconception of the superintendency.

A proposition for the reconception of the superintendency

In this article, small samples of the traditional discourse on communication found in superintendency texts and nontraditional narratives from women superintendents were examined through a feminist postmodern lens to determine whether a reconsideration of superintendency discourse could provide ideas that support a reconception of the superintendency. This analysis revealed new discourse about superintendency communication that contrasts with traditional superintendency discourse and that makes convincing contributions to the reconception of the superintendency as advanced by several researchers. The conclusion makes this contrast clear by summarizing the articles (a) ideas that inhibit the reconception of the superintendency and (b) ideas that advance the reconception of the superintendency.