Seeing the Visibly Invisible: An Intersectional Analysis of the Employee Experiences of Black Female Rural Educators

Abstract

Background/Context: Progressive human resources thinking has suggested the importance of employee experiences for workforce engagement, inclusion, and retention, but the intentional design of positive employee experiences requires a deep understanding of workers’ lived experiences in order to respond to their differentiated needs. Although the repeated marginalization of educators who are women, people of color, and from rural spaces have each received attention in their respective literature, little scholarship has intentionally studied the work lives of those who claim all three identities simultaneously. Purpose: Based on this omission, the present work employs an intersectionality analysis to seek understanding of the employee experiences of Black female rural educators across their career cycles, with the goal of helping employers better craft supportive work experiences for them. Research Design: Data are collected from semistructured phenomenological interviews with 10 rural Black principals across five school districts, who are asked to reflect on the experiences of their education career journey, from teaching to school leadership. Conclusion/Recommendations: Findings suggest that the participants’ racial, gender, role, and context identities uniquely impacted each phase of their employee life cycle and therefore require customized attention.

How Can School Leaders Retain Teachers? The Relative Importance of Different Administrative Supports for Teacher Retention in Different Types of Schools

“…Frequently, urban district officials delegate responsibilities, while rural districts’ superintendents are responsible for myriad demands on their own (Björk et al, 2018). Similarly, with few or no assistant principals in rural schools, rural school leaders often must direct all aspects of school-based decisions (Tran et al, 2023). They often help acclimate new teachers and connect them to tight knit communities to assuage isolation (Townsell, 2007), and are expected to be both school and community leaders (Harmon & Schaff, 2009; Masumoto & Brown-Welty, 2009; Pendola & Fuller, 2018).…”

Confronting Spatial Injustice: The Role of Leadership in Improving Equitable Rural Educator Recruitment and Retention

“…The metro-centric bias doubly marginalizes underrepresented students of color in rural schools (Cuervo, 2016). This neglect ignores the rural specific conditions that differentially impact teachers and education leaders in rural communities (Pendola & Fuller, 2018; Tran & Cunningham, 2023), necessitating more focus and attention to address their challenges.…”

“…First, Ingersoll and Tran provide a national portrayal of teacher turnover across contexts, focusing on the stark challenges faced by poor rural schools relative to schools in other contexts. Given the important role of school leaders and administrative support for teacher retention (Tran & Cunningham, 2023), this work highlights the problems that require rural school leadership response, especially because dissatisfaction (particularly with school administration) was identified as the leading reason for rural teacher departure. Ingersoll and Tran's study is complemented by Pendola and Fuller's examination of turnover patterns of rural school leaders in Texas.…”