Tondra Loder Alumni, Distributed Leadership Study

My name is Tondra L. Loder and I am a graduate student in Human Development and Social Policy. My working relationship with my advisor, James Spillane, has provided me with a unique opportunity to integrate human development and education policy. My research examines school leadership from an adult development perspective. From the life course perspective, I am examining how women school leaders' life trajectories and the subjective meanings of their work are shaped by family, work, community, and their gender and race identities. My project contrasts the lives of African American and Caucasian women principals who came of age either before or after two social movements of the 20th century which created new horizons of opportunity: the Civil Rights and the women's movements. This dissertation will contribute to our knowledge of generational differences between older and younger women school leaders' careers and life patterns, thereby helping us to better understand how they are impacted by changing, multiple contexts.

Year		Degree		Institution
2002		PhD, Human Dev & Social Pol		Northwestern University

Year	Title
2002	On Women Becoming & Being Principals: Pathways, Patterns & Personal Accounts