‘Demonstrable experience of being a Mammy or Crazy Black Bitch’ (essential). A critical race feminist approach to understanding Black women Headteachers’ experiences in English schools

Abstract

This paper builds on the emerging, but significant scholarship of Critical Race Feminism (CRF) in education. It adds to the literature in this area by applying the theoretical and methodological underpinnings to the British education context where such applications are vanishingly small in favour of broader critical race applications. Supported by racialised and gendered images of professional Black women in leadership roles as the analytical standpoint for understanding a Black woman Headteacher’s experiences in an English school, this paper argues that Black women’s tenure and trajectories are underpinned by the white racial colonial logics of the Mammy, Crazy Black Bitch, Superwoman and/or Feisty Sapphire. In so doing, institutional racism continues to underpin and undermine Black women Headteachers’ leadership potential, experiences and outcomes.