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Resilience And The African American Superintendent, Bernadeia Johnson, Lakisha Witter, Jason A. Kaufman

Educational Leadership Department Publications

We sought to explore the extent to which race might influence how African American superintendents cope with the stressors of their leadership roles and the presence of support while in such positions. In order to test this question, we recruited African American superintendents across the United States. We specifically measured their ability to cope with stressors and maintain resilience in leadership. African American superintendents indicated that they primarily utilized problem-based coping to navigate role stress and that they perceived themselves as successfully bouncing back from that stress. We offer a brief set of recommendations based upon these results to foster …