Youth Leadership Experience Creating Equity and Access for Students of Color
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1 Youth Leadership Experience Creating Equity and Access for Students of Color By Antonio B. Boyd A Dissertation in Practice Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Education Graduate School of Education College of Professional Studies Northeastern University Boston, Massachusetts 6/09/2020 2 Copyright by Antonio B. Boyd (2021) All Right Reserved 3 Acknowledgement I want to express my sincere appreciation and thanks to my Committee Chair Dr. Cherese Childers - McKee, who supported, guided, and provide innumerable opportunities for critical and constructive feedback throughout this process. Thank you, Dr. Kristie Searcy, for providing me with direct feedback and sound counsel throughout my academic writing adventure as a doctoral student. Thank you, Dr. Dave Eng, for mentoring me throughout the dissertation process. I would also like to thank my committee members, Dr. Rashid Mosley and Dr. Darlene Booth-Bell, who served on my committee and provide their time, feedback, and guidance. Special thanks to my wife Audrey, Son Justin, Daughter in law Tiffany and grandkids Justin, Jr., Taylin, and Jace Antonio, who gave me the time and space to complete this process. Thank you to my family, Mom (RIH), Pops (RIH), Dad, Brother Charles, and Sisters Karen and Kim. Thanks to my extended family on both sides, fraternity brothers and friends who prayed for me supported me throughout this life-changing endeavor on my path through higher education. To the Posse, Team Lit, and the Caucus, you guys are the greatest! Thank you to my friends and colleagues in education equity who keep me energized to ensure all students can reach their unbounded potential! Thank you to my colleagues who started this journey with me in September of 2018 and lent emotional and social support along the way. Finally, thank you to all students of color out there whose experiential journey and educational voice must be heard. You have shown that you learn best through experience. We are committed to making sure your stories are told and that you have programs, practices, and the college and career pathways to succeed in the future workforce. 4 Dedication I want to dedicate this to the teachers and faculty at Horace Elementary School and Lindblom Technical High School for the experiential learning opportunities you afforded me. Especially Ms. Johnson and Ms. Ford, two teachers who influenced my entire life. I also would like to thank the YLE Staff and students from the "Sweet Sixteen" who allowed me to be a part of your Fun in the Action journey over the last three years! Finally, to my mother, Margie Dean Holly (Rest in Heaven), my first teacher and encourager. She always told me, "If you don't know anything else, know you are loved." 5 Abstract This study explores the Youth Leadership Experience (YLE), (pseudonym) an afterschool experiential learning and leadership program for 9th and 10th-grade high school students from the midlands area of Columbia, SC. The study aims to identify and document the experiential learning and leadership practices at Youth Leadership Experience using a qualitative participatory action research design. The study's secondary goal is to develop and implement practices that will enable YLE to be more equitable and accessible for students of color. Youth Leadership Experience has helped to inspire over 550 alumni to graduate from high school, attend college, and begin careers. It is critical to build the infrastructure necessary to provide access to experiential learning opportunities, particularly for students of color. Eliminating barriers to student participation is also essential (Hora et al., 2019). The study's findings indicated that YLE implements eight experiential learning and leadership practices through the program's monthly modules. However, the YLE program staff realized they had not effectively addressed diversity, equity, access, and inclusion in the program through intentional practices and policies. Participation in the study enabled the YLE stakeholders to implement eight practice and policy changes that created more equitable access to the program for students of color. YLE also developed a module on diversity, equity, and inclusion and implemented it during the YLE Arts and Culture months to encourage dialog, reduce fear of discussion, and enhance the learning community amongst the students at YLE. YLE delivered a survey before and after the module. The findings indicate a change in attitude, outlook, and interaction between the students about diversity, equity, and inclusion. Keywords: experiential learning, experiential leadership, diversity, inclusion, equity, access, and action research 6 Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………….………………………….5 Section One: Introduction………………….………………………………………….…….………………………………………………. 7 Section Two: Results...………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….17 Cycle One Findings…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 17 Cycle Two Action Step(s)………………………………………………………………………………………………………….27 Evaluation………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 30 Section Three: Literature Review……….…………………………………………………………………………………………………40 Section Four: Contextualization…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….64 References……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………78 Appendices………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….100 Appendix A: Research Design………………………………………………………………………………………………….100 Appendix B: Dissemination Plan……………………………………………………………………………………………..123 Appendix C: Critical Reflection……………………………………………………………………………………………….124 Appendix D: YLE Data Display and Coding and Theme Matrix…………………………………………………125 Appendix E. YLE Interview, Observation and Focus Group Protocols………………………………………131 Appendix F: Organizational Practice Assessment Chart and YLE SWOT Analysis……………………..133 Appendix G: Programmatic Practice and Policy Change Matrix and Survey Results...……………..135 Appendix H: Participants Table Cycle One and Cycle Two……………………………………………………….139 7 Section One: Introduction The purpose of this Action Research study was to investigate and document experiential learning and leadership practices at Youth Leadership Experience (YLE), an afterschool program for 9th and 10th high school students from the midlands area of Columbia, SC. The secondary goal of the study was to develop and implement practices that would enable YLE to be more equitable and accessible for students of color. This report begins with an introduction to the research related to YLE to provide context and background to the study. This introduction includes an overview of the problem of practice addressed in the research, the research purpose, and research questions, description of the research context and participants, and a brief synopsis of the research design. The Results section of the report outlines the research results. How the participants describe and interpret their experiences is discussed in this section. The Literature Review will provide descriptions and critique of existing perspectives from the literature on the topic. The Contextualization section contrasts and comments on the differing perspectives presented in the results section and the literature and discusses implications of the research study. This description includes specific examples of how findings were used in the practice setting and suggestions for areas of future investigations. The format of this dissertation in practice has been influenced by the principles of action research, with a particular focus on elevating the voice of the participants in the research process. In contrast to a traditional dissertation structure, the description of the research methods has been placed in the appendix to feature the perspectives of participants and stakeholders more prominently through the results (Stringer, 2014). 8 Problem Statement By practically every metric, South Carolina's schools trail behind many states, leaving high school students, mostly rural, poor, and students of color, unprepared for the workforce (Bowers, Smith, Adcox, Berry Hawes & Moore, 2018). South Carolina State tests show one in three students graduate high school unprepared for most jobs. In every subject, just 2% of Black students and a sixth of White students reached the college-ready criteria (Bowers et al., 2018). A growing proportion of South Carolina students live in poverty, trauma, and even homelessness, and with dwindling resources and rising academic standards, public schools confront huge problems (Wilkerson, 2016). According to the 2018 Condition of College & Career Preparedness study, the Palmetto State is at the bottom of the country in terms of college readiness (Young, Huffman & Chung, 2018). The study puts South Carolina 50th out of 50 states and Washington, D.C., based on composite ACT results for English, reading, math, and science. Nevada was the only state that fared worse than South Carolina. According to the results of the South Carolina Department of Education's 2018 Ready to Work exam, less than two- thirds of 11th graders had the abilities required to do 65 percent of specified professions (Young et al., 2018). While working as an educational consultant, I held question and answer sessions with more than 65 educators, students, business leaders, politicians, and academics. The sessions revealed a state school system hampered by gaping racial and economic disparities that thwart progress, particularly for Black students. Most of the discussion was about students, families, and