The substance of things hoped for,the evidence of things not seen: Examining an endarkened feminist epistemology in educational research and leadership

This article explores the cultural genesis and meanings of the lives of three African-American women leaders/researchers and disrupts and unsettles the taken-for-granted notions surrounding the very goals and purposes of educational research. By examining the life notes of these women, the author develops an endarkened feminist epistemology, which embodies a distinguishably different cultural standpoint, located in the intersection/overlap of the culturally constructed socializations of race, gender, and other identities and the historical and contemporary contexts of oppressions and resistance for African-American women.