Documenting the experiences of instructional leaders and scholars of Historically Black Boarding Schools to inform the development of a 21st-century model of Black education at Ascend Legacy Academy
Date
2024
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
This Educational Leadership Portfolio documents the experiences of instructional leaders and scholars of Historically Black Boarding Schools to inform the development of a 21st century model of Black education at Ascend Legacy Academy. The problem addressed is the lack of centrally accessible knowledge of practices and available resources to assist educational professionals in leading and developing a 21st century Black Boarding school with an academic environment that maximizes the educational benefits to Black scholars. The five improvement goals were to: 1) Identify the distinctive qualities of teaching at a selection of Historically Black Boarding Schools that contribute to scholar learning and empowerment; 2) Identify the distinctive qualities of leading at a selection of Historically Black Boarding Schools that contribute to scholar learning and empowerment in order to compile information to create professional learning communities and leadership training workshops; 3) Identify the distinctive features of the school community–e.g., residential life, mentorship, racial congruence, religious support–from the perspective of scholars at a selection of Historically Black Boarding Schools that contribute to scholar learning and empowerment; 4) Develop a course catalog for Ascend Legacy Academy by combining lessons gleaned from historical artifacts, the impactful features of teaching, leading, and the school community that have been identified; and 5) In partnership with my ASCD champions of education, leadership coaches will identify, compile, synthesize, and extract lessons to inform the development of a legacy toolkit that will serve as the foundation for the creation of the HBBS Legacy Fellowship for Black educators seeking to open, lead or serve in a Black Boarding school community. ☐ In an effort to achieve the five improvement goals, I developed the following three strategies: 1) Documented and learned about leadership and curricula at Historically Black Boarding Schools (HBBS) through the distribution of a survey to faculty. 2) Documented and recorded the experiences of HBBS leaders and scholars through oral history through a series of interviews and 3) Reviewed historical artifacts and evidence of teaching and learning by conducting a document analysis. ☐ This portfolio is the first step in the documentation process of instructional leaders and scholars which can serve as a resource for educators seeking to incorporate the Ascend Legacy Pedagogy into their own Black Boarding school. In future research, I will conduct additional qualitative analysis to examine the cultural, social, and academic outcomes of Black alumni and if the community which surrounds Black Boarding schools are a mechanism which contributes directly to the success of Black scholars.
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Keywords
Ascend Legacy Academy, Black Boarding School, Black curriculum, Black leadership, Black pedagogy, Educational professionals