The Journal of Texas Women School Executives (JTWSE)

The Journal of Texas Women School Executives (JTWSE) is an official publication of the Texas Council of Women School Executives (TCWSE). The purpose of JTWSE is to provide a forum to promote the development of women school executives through scholarly research and practice, as well as recognize the professional knowledge and wisdom of practicing and aspiring women school executives, higher education faculty, and other significant partners in education. Since leadership is both art and science, JTWSE solicits creative works that promote the journal purpose. The journal solicits original submissions in three categories to recognize the diversity of talents and skills of women school executives (see Categories of Articles).

Because of a commitment to leadership development and scholarly school women executives, Texas Council of School Women School Executives previously published an annual monograph until 2008. In January 2011, President Lu Anna Stephens and the Executive Board, commissioned Dr. Genie Linn and Ms. Karen Saunders to serve as coeditors to design and launch a new professional publication for TCWSE to be published in an electronic format with the first publication to be unveiled at the Annual Conference in January 2012. Currently, Dr. Jennifer Jones and Dr. Sharon Ross serve as Executive Editors.

JTWSE is a double-blind, peer-reviewed, open-access e-journal publishing original scholarly research and creative works. The JTWSE, although originated by Texas women school executives, it serves as a national scholarly journal. For membership information: https://tcwse.org/membership/. At present, all editorial, Board, and reviewer services are provided without cost to JTWSE or its members by volunteer scholars and practitioners.

What a year! As we moved from “Finding our Joy” to “Dream it, Believe it, Claim it, Be it,” our TCWSE sisters left the 2021 conference on fire! It was amazing to bear witness to all the tweets, posts, emails, texts, and phone calls I received from our sisters earning and gaining promotions to hearing them talk about rebranding themselves for the next phase of their career. It was my honor to be their cheerleader!!

This year we have grown again to almost 600 women in our organization with several regions having great regional meetings and staying connected throughout the year. We were able to meet in person for TCWSE Leadership YOU with our regional representatives and from that networking, over 10 regions now have a social media presence. My vision of going national was met with a resounding YES and an exploratory committee was formed eager to reach out to women leadership across the nation. With that in mind, the Research on Women and Education (RWE), SIG conference was held in Houston, Texas where I invited our TCWSE sisters in Region 4 to sit on a panel to discuss their experiences after the pandemic and how they had to reimagine education. I was in awe of their willingness to participate and share with researchers from across the nation. They were so impressed, they wanted to know more about our organization and some have already joined.

I also reflect on the growth in the area of conducting research. The research that has been done during the conference and published in our JTWSE journal has been recognized and went national as it was accepted not only last year 2022 but this year 2023 as well by the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Our research was chosen out of 10,000 and 11,000 proposals respectively. My writing circle that consists of TCWSE members, Drs. Kelly Brown, Janice L. Taylor, Sharon Ross and myself, presented it at the AERA annual meeting in San Diego, California in 2022, “Women Superintendent's Perspectives Leading During Challenging Times.” We are looking forward to presenting our latest research “During Critical Times: The Perceptions of Women in Educational Leadership and Work Satisfaction” this spring in Chicago, Illinois at AERA. It has already been accepted and presented at the AERA RWE SIG conference and included in this years’ JTWSE. One of my research agenda foci is on women in leadership and it’s my desire to increase TCWSE membership with more women leaders in higher education.

Our mission: Create and maintain a united community of professional educational executives by promoting equity and quality in leadership through renewal, mentoring, and career advancement support. With this year’s theme of “Making History, Writing HERstory,” I’m excited to hear more history making stories in 2023. It is my hope that those after me will continue to shine the beacon that will draw more women into leadership and our organization like a moth to a flame. We are stronger together!

Honored to have served as your President,

Kathryn Washington, Ed.D.

TCWSE 2022 President