Between a Rock and a Hard Place: How Black Mother Principals Protect Black Boys While Serving as Agents of a Carceral System

Black women principals navigate complex leadership terrains where they have the potential to disrupt or reify anti-Blackness experienced by Black boys. Despite often harsh conditions, Black women leaders have leveraged their positions to protect and empower Black boys at their expense. This study employs Motherwork and anti-Blackness to illuminate the challenges and practices that Black women principals engage in to protect and support the needs of Black boys in K–12 schools. The findings of this study illuminate how the ancestral practice of mothering serves as resistance as well as a labor that challenges their ability to sustain their roles.