ALERT: COVID-19 INFORMATION, EBOOK AND ONLINE RESOURCES

Juggling Flaming Chain Saws

Academics in Educational Leadership Try to Balance Work and Family

Edited by:
Joanne M. Marshall, Iowa State University
Jeffrey S. Brooks, University of Idaho
Kathleen M. Brown, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Leslie Hazle Bussey, Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement
Bonnie Fusarelli, North Carolina State University
Mark A. Gooden, The University of Texas-Austin
Catherine A. Lugg, Rutgers University
Latish C. Reed, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
George Theoharis, Syracuse University

A volume in the series: Work-Life Balance. Editor(s): Joanne M. Marshall, Iowa State University. Jeffrey S. Brooks, Curtin University. Bonnie Fusarelli, North Carolina State University. Latish C. Reed, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. George Theoharis, Syracuse University.

Published 2012

Challenges of work-life balance in the academy stem from policies and practices which remain from the time when higher education was populated mostly by married White male faculty. Those faculty were successful in their academic work because they depended upon the support of their wives to manage many of the not-work aspects of their lives. Imagine a tweedy middle-aged white man, coming home from the university to greet his wife and children and eat the dinner she’s prepared for him, and then disappearing into his study for the rest of the evening with his pipe to write and think great thoughts. If that professor ever existed, he is now emeritus.

Juggling Flaming Chainsaws is the first book in a new series with Information Age Publishing on these challenges of managing academic work and not-work. It uses the methodology of autoethnography to introduce the work-life issues faced by scholars in educational leadership. While the experiences of scholars in this volume are echoed across other fields in higher education, educational leadership is unique because of its emphasis on preparing people for leadership roles within higher education and for preK-12 schools. Authors include people at different places on their career and life course trajectory, people who are partnered and single, gay and straight, with children and without, caring for elders, and managing illness. They hail from different geographic areas of the nation, different ethnic backgrounds, and different types of institutions. What all have in common is commitment to engaging with this topic, to reflecting deeply upon their own experience, and to sharing that experience with the rest of us.

CONTENTS
Foreword: The See-Saw of Work-Life Balance, Michelle D. Young. Why Juggling Flaming Chainsaws in Educational Leadership? Joanne M. Marshall. A Note on Methodology: Autoethnography and Other Reflections, George Theoharis. PART I: EARLY CAREER SCHOLARS. Working the Spirit: Narrating Work and Life, Noelle Witherspoon Arnold. The Journey to Fulfillment: Varied Paths, Same Destination, Lisa Bass. Finding Balance in a Tilted World, Karen Stansberry Beard. Reflections From The Brink of Tenure Application: Working Through Various Pathways, Bill Black. In and Out: Finding Work-Life Balance as a Queer Scholar, Christa Boske. myworklifebalance.edu, Melanie C. Brooks. The “Good Mother:” One Woman’s Battle With the Hegemony of Work-Life Balance, Leslie Hazle Bussey. Fantasies and Strategies: A Graduate Student’s Critical Examination of Work/Life Balance, Bradley Carpenter. Running Against the Clock: Staying Present on the Road to Tenure, Sarah Diem. Navigating the Terrain of the Three Selfs: Work-Self, Family-Self, Personal-Self, Kathrine J. Gutierrez. Working Without a Net: One Professor’s Reflections on Work-Life Balance, Kristina A. Hesbol. “Where am I at Right Now, Anyway?!” Blurred Boundaries of Home and Work Life, Muhammad Khalifa. One Family, Different Perspectives on Work-Life Balance, Lisa A. W. Kensler. Flying by the Seat of My Pants, Katherine Cumings Mansfield. Singing Along With “The Lone Ranger” Joanne M. Marshall. From Condescending Cabbies to Caring Coaches: Basketball, Fatherhood, and the Shaping of Professional Feedback, Peter Miller. Work-Life Balance for Latina Faculty in a Hispanic-Serving Institution, Elizabeth T. Murakami. Pieces of a Professor: Living With Limitations, but High Expectations, Latish C. Reed. Creating Space, Martin Scanlan. A PhD is a Family Affair, Douglas Wieczorek. PART II: MIDCAREER SCHOLARS. Working to Live and Living to Work: Finding Balance in the Academy, Floyd D. Beachum. How Can We Balance Work and Life? Reframing the Question: A Buddhist Perspective on Balance, Kathryn Bell McKenzie. Be Kind, Be Critical, Be Productive: Nine Suggestions for Keeping Your Life and Work in Balance, Jeffrey S. Brooks. Achieving Work-Life Balance: Reflections of a Midlife Entrant to the Academy, Tricia Browne-Ferrigno. Seeking More Than Balance: An American Indian Female Scholar’s Attempt to Navigate the Perceived Work-Life Divide, Susan C. Faircloth. Mommy Guilt and Chicken Coops: Work/Life Imbalance on the Tenure Track, Bonnie C. Fusarelli. Finding Courage and Choice on the Journey to a Balanced Life, Mark A. Gooden. Gen X in the Academy, Liz Hollingworth. Man, I Work Like a Woman, Eric A. Houck. Why Balance Isn’t the Best Option: Changing Our Perspective to Work-Life Integration, Audrey J. Jaeger. Taking Control? The Struggle to Balance Professional and Personal Life, Gaëtane Jean-Marie. A Perspective of Work-Life Balance in the Academy From a Single Male, Carlos R. McCray. Militello & Sons, Inc.: A Family Business, Matthew Militello and Dominic Militello. Navigating a Work-Life Balance in the Era of High-Stakes Accountability, Stacey A. Rutledge. PART III: SENIOR SCHOLARS. Thrown Out of Balance to Find True Balance ..., Kathleen M. Brown. Se Hace el Camino al Andar/We Make the Road by Walking: Ruminations on Work, Love, and Struggle in a Latino Academic Household, Gerardo R. López, Marina Nayar López, and Cora Lucía López. Not Even Built for Balance, Catherine A. Lugg. Role of Values in Work-Life Balance: Restoring Harmony and Reclaiming Purpose, Anthony H. Normore. Boomer Bred: Professional and Personal Reflections and Strategies to Survive in the Professoriate, Rosemary Papa. Don’t Stop Believin’ in the Importance of Work-Life Balance, Linda Skrla. Avis la Fin at the Downtown Grill and Brewery, Autumn K. Tooms.

PREVIEW
MORE INFORMATION