Vincent A. Anfara, Jr. (1954-2013), PhD, University of New Orleans was professor of educational administration and supervision at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. Before entering the professoriate, he taught for 23 years in middle and high schools in Louisiana and New Mexico. He was past president of the American Educational Research Association′s Middle Level Education Research Special Interest Group, chair of the National Middle School Association′s (NMSA) Research Advisory Board, and a member of the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform. He authored over 80 articles published in journals including Educational Researcher, Middle School Journal, Research in Middle Level Education Annual, Education and Urban Society, The Journal of School Leadership, and the NASSP Bulletin. Norma T. Mertz, EdD, Curriculum and Teaching, Teachers College, Columbia University, is professor of educational administration and policy studies at the University of Tennessee. Before becoming a University of Tennessee faculty member, she was an assistant professor at Eastern Michigan University and Hunter and Brooklyn Colleges where she prepared teachers to work in urban, inner-city schools in Michigan and New York City. After joining the University of Tennessee, she was an assistant director of the Race Desegregation Assistance Center and director of the Sex Desegregation Assistance Center. Her research, which centers on gender and leadership, equity in administration, mentoring, and organizational socialization, has been published in Educational Administration Quarterly, Urban Education, Journal of School Leadership, Planning and Changing, and Communications of the ACM.

PREFACE
1. Setting the Stage - Vincent A. Anfara, Jr. and Norma T. Mertz
2. Seeking Understanding of School Culture: Using Theory as a Framework for Observation and Analysys - Joyce L. Henstrand
3. Struggling With Theory: A Beginning Scholar¿s Experience with Mazzoni¿s Area Models - Frances C. Fowler
4. Black Feminist Thought and Examining the Experiences of Black Graduate Women in the Academy - Lori Patton Davis, Nadrea Njoku and Juhanna Rogers
5. Transformational Learning and HIV-Positive Young Adults - Sharan B. Merriam
6. Using Multiple Theoretical Frameworks to Study Organizational Change and Identity - Michael R. Mills and Pamela J. Bettis
7. Using "Othermothering" to Study Administrative Worklife at Historically Black Colleges and Universities - Terrell L. Strayhorn
8. Mary Douglas¿s Typology of Grid and Group - Edward L. Harris
9. Adapting Bourdieüs Field Theory to Explain Decision-Making Process in Educational Policy - Carol A. Mutch
10. A Look Through the Kubler-Ross Theoretical Lens - Kerri S. Kearney and Adrienne E. Hyle
11. Examining the Intersection of Race, Gender and Environment Using Bronfenbrenner¿s Bioecological Systems Theory of Human Development - R. Darrell Peterson
12. Lagniappe: Theoretical Frameworks in Brief - Various
13. Closing the Loop - Norma T. Mertz and Vincent A. Anfara, Jr.
ABOUT THE EDITORS
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS