MIAMI UNIVERSITY - THE GRADUATE SCHOOL CERTIFICATE FOR APPROVING THE DISSERTATION We hereby approve the Dissertation of Kamara Sekou (Paul D. Collins) Candidate for the Degree: Doctor of Philosophy _______________________________ Richard Quantz, Director _______________________________ Raymond Terrell, Reader _______________________________ Peter Magolda, Reader _______________________________ Yvette Harris Graduate School Representative ABSTRACT RITUALS OF EMPOWERMENT, DISEMPOWERMENT, AND CRITICAL TRANSFORMATIVE LEADERSHIP AT A SCHOOL IN TRANSITION by Kamara Sekou (Paul D. Collins) Despite over forty years of integrated public education in the United States of America there has continued to be an unsatisfactory outlook on education for increasingly large numbers of children of African descent. This issue has led many educators, parents, and concerned citizens such as those at The Marva Collins Preparatory School of Cincinnati (MCPSC) to implement alternative strategies in order to provide quality educational spaces within their communities. Independent schools have been one of the avenues used by African-Americans in pursuit of better educational opportunities in a complex and ethnically pluralistic society. Specifically, this study explores the ways that parents, students, administrators, teachers, and school support staff at an independent day school ritualize aspects of critical transformative leadership in their transition to an independent boarding school. This study focuses on an elaboration and exploration of distinguishing characteristics of critical transformative leadership as well as how these characteristics manifest in this educational setting at such a critical juncture in its development. This study is organized into three parts for a more coherent and accessible document. Part one (I) provides an introduction, a review of related literature, and the theoretical and methodological frameworks guiding this study. Part two (II) encompasses the historicizing of blacks and education in the city of Cincinnati, as well as “inside stories” on daily life at MCPSC during the 2000-2001 school year. Finally, part three (III) entails a critical analysis of the research data with implications and recommendations for the significance of this study. With the above stated in mind, theories of leadership in the United States of America have been articulated, discussed, and debated in the field of education for as long as schools have existed in this country. Much of the discourse usually stemming from technocratic, business models of administration have been thoroughly scrutinized leading to very different ways of conceptualizing what educators such as Thomas Sergiovanni refer to as “leadership for the schoolhouse” (Sergiovanni, 1996). Recent educational leadership discourse on transformative leadership have offered new hopes and possibilities to educational leaders and theorists who are interested in practicing a critically oriented, ethic of risk for the betterment of America’s schools. Studies of this critical ethnographic nature are vital in an epoch in which Carlson and Apple (1998) have identified as “these unsettling times” in American education. RITUALS OF EMPOWERMENT, DISEMPOWERMENT, AND CRITICAL TRANSFORMATIVE LEADERSHIP AT A SCHOOL IN TRANSITION A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Educational Leadership by Kamara Sekou (Paul D. Collins) Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2002 Dissertation Director: Richard Quantz © Kamara Sekou (Paul Collins) 2002 ii Acknowledgements First, I give honor to my bloodline and collective ancestors and the Creator’s essence that manifests through our traditions. I hope that I have stood on your shoulders and pray that this work is pleasing. I am because we are. Then, of course, there’s Mama (moms) and Baba (pops). There are no adequate words to express my appreciation to the both of you. Ya’ll did what you knew best—I can make no excuses. To my wife, thanks for givin’ me the space to think, write, and sometimes procrastinate under the guise of “I just need to lie in bed and think a bit more.” Doctoral studies have an infamous reputation for disrupting marriages. Tameka, the world has a lot to learn about unselfishness and support from a sista’ like you. You knew I could get it done even when I sometimes doubted myself—thank you. I am truly grateful to the Marva Collins Preparatory School of Cincinnati family for their unwavering fortitude in the struggle to make this world a better place through education. They were, without exception, cooperative and tolerant of my probing and “gazing” for an entire school year. I am forever thankful and proud to know people of such caliber. For guiding me through my doctoral coursework and dissertation, I will attempt to thank Dr. Richard Quantz, Dr. Peter Magolda, Dr. Raymond Terrell, and Dr. Yvette Harris. What a dissertation committee! Dr. Quantz and Peter I can’t thank the both of you enough for extending yourselves on my behalf, even during your sabbaticals. The both of you are ethnographers extraordinaire. Dr. Terrell, you extend yourself in the service of others like a true African elder. There is so much that I have learned from you through the process of osmosis. I couldn’t get it in a book—but I got it! I appreciate you Dr. T. I would also like to give thanks to a sista’ docta’ who has made herself available to me as a scholar, intellectual, and a friend. Dr. Harris thanks for helping me through this process, as well as making Oxford a homely place away from home. There are a few additional components to my committee, my extended committee allies, in which I would be remiss in not recognizing. First, to Jan and Peggy (the glue of the Educational Leadership Department at Miami) I am very thankful for all that the two of you have done to make life in EDL pleasant and technical matters a breeze. Second, I would like to thank Dr. Cheryl Evans, Mr. Sidney Carthell, and Dr. Tom Poetter for providing support in my professional development as a Teaching Associate and Graduate Assistant at Miami University. In addition, I must give thanks for all of the scholarly and brotherly expressions of “Afrohumanhood” to brotha’ docta’ Winston T. Gittens. The ancestors must have known what I needed and placed you in my world. You pushed me to be better than I ever thought that I could—the mark of a liberating education. Finally, “Big Ups” to my Miami family (I won’t start naming, they know). Life in Oxford would not have been the same without y’all. I am truly grateful for the support, get-togethers, favors, and just plain ole fun times that I had with all of you. Let’s fight on! -Kamara iii TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I Situating the Study......................................................................................1 Chapter 1 Introduction.................................................................................................2 Chapter 2 A Review of Related Literature.................................................................9 African-American Schools (Independent and Boarding).............................9 “The Marva Collins Way”............................................................................11 Ritual............................................................................................................14 Transformative Leadership Theory..............................................................17 Power............................................................................................................19 Chapter 3 Theoretical and Methodological Framework...........................................22 Methodology: Qualitative, Critical Ethnographic Research.........................22 Data Collection and Methods.....................................................................23 The Ethnographer..........................................................................................24 The Research Site..........................................................................................24 Gaining Access..............................................................................................24 Obtaining and Recording Data......................................................................26 PART II Historicizing the Setting and a Three Phase Description of Daily Life of Stakeholders at the Marva Collins Preparatory School in Their Transition to an International Boarding School.............27 Chapter 4 The Setting Cincinnati, “The City”.....................................................................................28 iv Historicizing African-Americans and Education in Cincinnati.......................30 The Marva Collins Preparatory School............................................................42 Chapter 5 Phase I: Inside Stories on the First Term at MCPSC.................................49 Introduction......................................................................................................49 Getting Out of the Gates: The First Day of School..........................................49 The Fourth Grade Classroom...........................................................................57 The 5/6th Grade Classroom...............................................................................74 The 7/8th Grade Classroom...............................................................................83 Downtime: Lunch & Recess.............................................................................100