Call for Papers

Mentoring as Critically Engaged Praxis: Storying the Lives and Contributions of Black Women

CALL FOR BOOK CHAPTERS
Mentoring as Critically Engaged Praxis: Storying the Lives and Contributions of Black Women Administrators

Editors
Deirdre Cobb-Roberts, University of South Florida
Talia Esnard, University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago

Mentoring remains paramount to the professional advancement and success of all faculty. This is particularly the case of women faculty from underrepresented groups who attempt to break through the proverbial glass ceiling that prevails in the academy (Watkins, Gillaspie, Stokes, Bullard, & Light, 1995; Madsen, 1998; Allen, Epps, Guillory, Suh, & Bonous-Hammarth, 2004; Tatum, 2008; Tillman, 2011). Mentoring can assist African American women faculty and administrators by ‘‘providing access to information networks and opportunities that help them deal with factors critical to their career choices and development’’ (Smith & Crawford, 2007, p. 263). However, little is known of how Black women administrators who assume such positions provide opportunities for others along that administrative pipeline (Alfred 2001; Turner, 2002; Diggs, Garrison-Wade, Estrada, & Galindo, 2009; Jean-Marie, Williams, & Sherman, 2009; Fries-Britt & Kelly, 2012). When we consider the fact that Black women administrators are generally expected to serve as mentors, counsellors, and supporters to their faculty, even less is known about how Black women administrators experience/approach mentoring, or mentor other faculty members from same/other races, cultures, or gender groups (Patton & Harper, 2003; Patton, 2009; Bertrand Jones & Dufor, 2012; Cobb-Roberts, Esnard, Unterreiner, Agosto, Karanxha, Beck, & Wu, 2017. A discussion of Black women in higher education administration as critically engaged mentors will ultimately diversify thought, approaches, and solutions to larger social and structural challenges embedded within academic climates. As we move to advance the call for more socially just environments, our aim is to generate more pointed discussions around the prospects, possibilities and constraints of mentoring practices that are framed around and operate within an academic context.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

(i) Power, identity and leadership
(ii) Mentoring as a pathway to educational leadership for Black women in the administrative pipeline
(iii) Leading by example: Recruitment, retention and promotion of faculty
(iv) Values as leaders, scholars, mentors, and teachers
(v) Black women administrators: Navigating issues of racism, ethnocentrism and sexism in academe
(vi) Praxis as participatory and transformative
(vii) Building authentic cross-race/cross-gender/cross-cultural professional relationships
(viii) Global and transnational leadership among Black women administrators
(ix) Leadership standpoint and practice
(x) Leadership and social justice

Instruction for Authors

  1. Original chapter submissions, unpublished, and not under review by any journal or publisher are invited.
  2. The length of manuscript should be between 6,000 and 8,000 words, including all text, tables, but excluding references.
  3. References and in-text citations should be prepared according to APA 6th edition referencing style.

Submission Procedure

  1. Proposed book chapters should be submitted via email to cobbrob@usf.edu and talia.esnard@sta.uwi.edu by May 1, 2018. A completed proposal should include the following three items:
    a. An abstract/proposal, not to exceed 500 words, that clearly reflects the main topic(s) to be covered in the chapter.
    b. Any sources relevant to your proposed chapter. Sources are not included in the 500-word count.
    c. A biographical sketch of each contributing author, not to exceed 80 words that includes current institutional affiliations, position, as well as, the unique perspective each author lends to the book.
    d. Abbreviated CV and contact information.
  2. Authors will be informed of acceptance/rejection of their proposals no later than June 15, 2018.
  3. Full chapter drafts will be due by November 15, 2018.
  4. Editors will provide feedback to authors by February 15, 2019.
  5. Submission of final chapter due May 15, 2019.

Each chapter should be organized around the following sections: (a) Posing the Opportunity and/or Challenge around Mentoring as Critically Engaged Praxis, (b) Theoretical Framework and Literature Review, (c) Research Method, (d) Findings and/or Outcomes, (e) Implications and/or lessons learned.

The edited volume will be included in the Contemporary Perspectives on the Lives of Teachers Series.

Please feel free to contact the editors with inquiries at any time!