Overview of the Study
The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences and understandings of
urban principals working in American schools where the racial and cultural make-up of
the student population is markedly different from that of the teaching staff. The two
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research questions were: (1) how do school principals understand urban elementary
schools where the majority of the teachers are White and the majority of students are
Black, and (2) how do these understandings influence their leadership behaviors? I
studied these schools because the nature of the problem would seemingly require greater
involvement of the principal in mediating relationships of teachers (mostly White) and
students and community (mostly Black).