Chapter 10: African American Female Superintendents Speaking the Language of Hope: Reconstructing the Multi-Dimensions of Passion

Where all is known and nothing understood.

—Toni Morrison, Love (p. 4)

Educational leaders and researchers who use passion (vocal or written narrative) to voice their hopes for transforming oppressive issues are often misunderstood, particularly when these leaders are racial minorities and/or females. Results from recorded narratives of four African American female superintendents of urban districts suggest the need for the leadership preparation and public school communities to better understand the gap between the narration and interpretation of passion in practice and theory. This study questions the polymorphous nature and structural ambivalence found when women or minority superintendents voice passion in their platforms, and when educational researchers use narratives to express passion in their research.