This study investigates the tacit knowledge of prolific educational scholars. These scholars were motivated by a clear set of values that led them to make research a priority in the midst of competing demands and to persist through the more tedious or arduous parts of the research process. The participants learned to manage not only their time but also their emotions when coping with the pressures of academic life, the criticism inherent in the peer review process, and the politics of organizational life. They formed collaborative networks for both emotional support and intellectual challenge. By making these knowledge structures more explicit, others may benefit from the thinking behind these scholars’ success to improve scholarship in the field.

This article furthers understanding of the tacit knowledge of school administrators and provides a fresh look at the issue of boundedness in the superintendency. The tacit knowledge of a group of Ohio superintendents was examined in light of superintendent classification as place‐bound (rising through the ranks in one school district) or career‐bound (assuming the superintendency in multiple districts across the span of a career). Tacit knowledge items were culled from interviews conducted with the superintendents. The 469 items were sorted by an expert panel and then cluster analyzed to determine categories of tacit knowledge for place‐bound and career‐bound superintendents. A total of 21 categories describe the tacit knowledge across the superintendent group. Differences in categories and amounts of tacit knowledge were found between the place‐bound superintendents and the career‐bound superintendents.