I am not scary. I am strong. There's a difference. Disrupting misogynoir and transforming interpersonal conflict for Black women education leaders: A multiple-case study

While the body of literature examining the nuanced experiences of Black women in K-12 education leadership is expanding, it is limited. Research that examines how these leaders experience interpersonal conflict within interracial work settings is particularly sparse. To contribute to this research, this qualitative multiple-case study applied an intersectional lens of inquiry to examine the experiences of five previously unacquainted senior-level Black women education leaders and the interpersonal conflicts they encounter while managing interracial teams. The purpose of this study was to provide Black women education leaders with strategies and tools to disrupt misogynoir, which is defined as the racism and sexism that Black women experience as a result of their intersecting race and gender identities (Bailey & Trudy, 2018), and to transform interpersonal conflict into productive outcomes. Five leaders serving in senior-level roles in education participated in an affinity-based intensive professional development intervention that focused on co-constructing strategies for transforming workplace conflict into productive outcomes and disrupting misogynoir. Data were collected through researcher-generated surveys, semi-structured interviews, interactive reflection journals, participant-observations, and electronic documents. Within-case and cross-case analyses were conducted to understand how Black women experience interpersonal conflict and misogynoir and to assess the outcomes of the intervention. Findings revealed that participants progressed through an arc towards disruption of misogynoir; sister circles (Neal-Barnett et al., 2011) were critical and impactful to the learning; participants articulated shared experiences pertinent to conflict and misogynoir; and the intervention led to improved leadership actions as self-reported by the participants. Implications for Black women leaders, the education field, the primary researcher, and future research urge those in the field to prioritize the pressing needs of Black women leaders, disrupt cycles of oppression by addressing misogynoir at individual, institutional, and systems levels, and support educators of all backgrounds to transform conflict into productive outcomes.