What brought you to your PhD and eventually a post-doctoral fellowship?
During my undergrad, I specialized in the study of organizational behaviour and received an opportunity to work with a commerce professor on a study examining leadership trends in higher education. I had an enriching experience which informed my decision to expand my skills and knowledge to the study of education leadership and administration. Before I graduated, I knew education was a field I wanted to further explore.
While completing my master’s degree, I realized there was a gap the literature which did not accurately account for the lived experiences of my classmates who were practicing school leaders. When asked to reflect on my own K-12 experience, I recognized how racialized students faced barriers to achieving academic success and how those barriers were systematically made to appear as normal features of schooling. Although I was convinced I would do a thesis on leadership in higher education, I continued to feel drawn to K-12 school leadership. Fully embracing the switch from higher education, I completed a thesis on K-12 leadership entitled, Student Equity and Inclusive Education Policy in Ontario: Perspectives of Three High School Principals. This study highlighted gaps in the literature in regard to policy analysis, intersectionality, and school leadership—gaps that I knew I needed to explore in a Ph.D.
My Ph.D. was guided by two key pillars that also fuelled my interest in pursuing a post-doctoral fellowship: mentorship and curiosity.
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Mentorship: Today, I stand a little taller and smile a little wider because of the guidance and unwavering support I received from Drs. Coral Mitchell, Denise Armstrong, Gus Riveros, and Alana Butler. While there are many who played a significant role in my academic and professional journeys, these four outstanding scholars molded me into the researcher, educator, and emerging scholar that I am today.
Having mentors who not only believed in my abilities but could demonstrate excellence within their disciplines, played a fundamental role in my understanding of the impact I want to have. My mentors encouraged me to unapologetically claim space for my research, teaching, and service to be acknowledged in my field.
Curiosity: To me, learning is a lifelong endeavour that should be nurtured by fostering a spirit of curiosity. My entrance into the field of education was underpinned by curiosity and this continues to mobilize my work to find novel strategies to address ongoing debates in my field, particularly on K-12 school leadership and governance; anti-oppressive and anti-racist education; workplace learning; culturally responsive schooling; and policy analysis. The curiosity to hear the narratives of school leaders that are inadequately studied in K-12 leadership led to my dissertation entitled, Embracing the Race: How Black Women Principals Construct their Professional Identities in Ontario Schools.
Statistically, there are not many Black women working in Ontario’s higher education sector. Let alone, in faculties of education. As a Black woman, the inclusion of my intersectional identity markers in the tenets that inform education theories and frameworks has historically been placed in the margins of mainstream K-12 research. The process of problematizing this reality and advocating for Black, Indigenous, and other racialized people’s inclusion is an endeavour that informs my post-doctoral experience at Queen’s. My purpose for developing research in educational leadership is centered on the emancipation of marginalized voices - honouring those who came before me and those who are yet to come. A network of strong mentorship and possessing a spirit of curiosity are crucial elements that supported my academic journey and career in academia.
What is your current research project?
My current research project examines how the Principal Qualification Program offered in Ontario universities and professional associations support the development of race-consciousness in educational leaders. Contemporary theories used in leadership preparation are largely dominated by neoliberal objectives that dilute leadership acumen to a set of leadership standards, which at times neglect the nuances of race as a necessary component for understanding how leaders lead schools. The absence of examining race-consciousness in leadership is problematic because it obscures critical questions related to school leaders’ sensemaking while leading racially diverse schools. By identifying race and racism as necessary components for understanding how leaders exercise their leadership, I hope that findings from this project will provide new insights and propose novel strategies for advancing leadership theorizing, the study of workplace learning, and leadership preparation within a Canadian context.
Can you tell us about your experience working with your post-doctoral supervisor?
For the past five months, I have been fortunate to work with Dr. Alana Butler, a tremendous mentor, support, and friend during my post-doctoral journey. An important decision I had to make when pursuing a post-doctoral fellowship, was not only where I wanted to conduct my research but with whom. Dr. Butler stood out as the perfect supervisor because of her expertise on K-12 equity, diversity, and inclusion policies and practices, multicultural education, race, and qualitative research methodology and its alignment with my research interests. Her invaluable insights and publications on anti-racism, gender, and Black school leaders in particular, have informed the lens I am using in my current research.
Dr. Butler exudes an infectious passion for the field and engages in conversations that challenge me to ensure that my research is meeting the needs of school leaders and the communities in which they are situated. In such a short period of time, I have been encouraged to apply for grants, publish my work, and pursue professional development opportunities. A key lesson, she has taught me is the importance of a building a sense of community and a network as an academic. Notably, Dr. Butler recognizes that my identity markers inform my research and teaching approach and encourages me to boldly acknowledge them as integral factors informing how I navigate my postdoc. I admire Dr. Butler’s ability to wear many hats while in her role and ensure that my needs as a post-doctoral fellow, emerging, scholar, racialized researcher and educator are met. There are not many Black nor racialized woman professors in the field of education and I am beyond proud to have Dr. Butler’s guidance during my time at Queen’s.
What research and projects are you excited about for the future?
The field of education is currently positioned at a time in history that is ripe for change—socially, politically, economically, and culturally. Having seen the shifts and pivots of Ontario’s education system over the past decade during my graduate studies and now as post-doctoral fellow, I am excited about the new possibilities and areas of inquiry that are emerging. The COVID-19 pandemic taught scholars and practitioners several key lessons about K-12 leadership and highlighted missed opportunities for addressing systemic inequities.
As I look forward to the future, I hope to make meaningful contributions through my teaching, research, and leadership and service.
Through my teaching, I hope:
• For more Black and woman students to see themselves represented within the classroom, academia, and the field of education through my role.
• For my teaching and learning activities to resonate with my students through culturally relevant-and-responsive pedagogy.
• To create new courses that challenge the existing boundaries of exclusion and identify avenues for co-creating knowledge. Specifically, I would like to develop a graduate-level course that examines recurring issues in social justice education and leadership.
Through my research, I hope:
• To expand by collaborating with interdisciplinary scholars.
• To obtain a better understanding of system leaders in Canada.
• To claim space for bringing the narratives of racialized educators to the fore of contemporary leadership literature while developing novel strategies for enhancing education research and practice.
Through my leadership and service, I hope:
• To strengthen relationships between local community groups and the Faculty of Education.
• To foster engagements with associations that mobilize community-based research and equity-focused initiatives.