... A PHENOMENOLOGICAL DISCOVERY OF EFFECTIVE DEVELOPMENT OF BLACK LEADERSHIP Patrick H. Jones II SLIDESMANIA.COM Committee Members: Dr. LaTonya Turner (Chair) Dr. Leon Jackson Dr. Kristie Johnson Marian University April 20, 2023 Background on the Researcher 18+ Years in Urban Education 10+ Years in Educational Leadership Founder of an All-Male Middle School Serves as SVP of an Education Non-Prot SLIDESMANIA.COM Founder of a Leadership Support and Development Organization 01 - Introduction and Background Introduction to the study and background of the problem. 02 -Research Q + Theoretical 03 - Literature Framework SLIDESMANIA.COM Research question to be explored. Literature reviewed in preparation for the study. 04 - Methodology 05 - Results 06 - Discussion Methodology proposed to conduct the study. A review of the study and description of the participants, themes, and summary of the ndings. Provides a thorough discussion of the implications, applications, and recommendations from the study. Introduction and Background SLIDESMANIA.COM Introduction Black male superintendents in North Carolina make up less than 8% of all superintendents in the state (Hodge, 2017). Black female superintendents make up less than 2% of the role in the entire nation (Webb, 2022). SLIDESMANIA.COM With Black education being such an important factor in the life of Black people, the supervision and development of Black leaders in schools requires investigation. Background Black leaders in schools make up 9% of the principal population even though the Black population in the U.S. is 13% (Schaeffer, 2021). The disparity gap among female principals has all but closed, going from 25% to 52% representation over the past 30 years. However, in that same timespan, non-White principals have increased from 13% to 20% only (Bailes, 2020). The role of the principal supervisor in many districts and school communities has pivoted from a role of regulations compliance and attending to the physical building needs to a role focused on leadership to improve teaching and learning (Saltzman, 2016). SLIDESMANIA.COM The distinguishing factor is that there is a role designated in school communities to support principals growth and development to improve teaching and learning in the school setting (Honig, 2019). Background Rationale Leaders are power holders who dynamically share their power with power recipients to achieve mutual (and individual) outcomes. Black people in America can benet from sustainable leadership in key areas, but Black America is in a leadership crisis (Wilson, 1998). My focus will be Black leaders in education. Purpose The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine how principal supervisors who identify as Black develop Black principals in K-12 settings. This study will offer a blueprint for educational organizations to develop Black school leadership in a way that creates opportunities for excellence in the principal role to transform schools. SLIDESMANIA.COM Leaders are a particular kind of power holder. Like power, leadership is relational, collective, and purposeful. SLIDESMANIA.COM Dr. Amos Wilson Research Question + Theoretical Frameworks What methods do Black principal supervisors employ to develop the capacity of Back school leaders? SLIDESMANIA.COM Research Question Supporting Questions RQ1: How do Black principal supervisors dene their role in developing Black school leaders in the organization? RQ2: What are the most commonly used activities Black principal supervisors employ to develop Black school leaders to become leaders in the organization? RQ3: To what extent do Black education leaders experience racial identities as a factor in education leadership? SLIDESMANIA.COM RQ4: How do Black principal supervisors describe their impact on the success of Black school leaders in the organization? Theoretical Frameworks: Critical Race Theory CRT explains that systematic racism is not only a behavioral display of bad actors, but also reinforced by the well-intended in a way that upholds the racist structures. CRT was not simply a product of a philosophical critique of the dominant frames on racial power. It was also a product of activists engagement with the material manifestations of liberal reform (Crenshaw, 2019, pp. 56) Complex Adaptive Leadership SLIDESMANIA.COM Adaptive leadership requires emotional intelligence to perceive others' feelings as well as your own. In this theory, leaders are thought to need a deep understanding of themselves and how the environment is pulling their strings. (Heifetz et al., 2009). Literature Review SLIDESMANIA.COM Literature Review: Black Principal Supervisor Representation is Low Black Principals are Critical to Success, but Brown v. Board Dwindled Numbers Black Women Principals Have Shown to be Most Successful With Students Recently in North Carolina, Hodge (2017) reported that while the population of African Americans in North Carolina was 21.6%, the population of African American male superintendents was 7.8% Black school leaders are critical to the success of schools with a signicant population of Black students (Jang & Alexander, 2022, p.451). Jang & Alexander (2022) found that educational excellence under Black principals is achieved even if they often serve in districts and schools with mostly impoverished students and students of color, especially Black students. SLIDESMANIA.COM Black women superintendents in the United States constitute less than two percent of people in the role, while the U.S. population is over thirteen percent Black (Webb, 2022). While the Brown v. Board of Education case was used to correct inequities in schools in some sense by allowing Black children to be educated with better resources, it also resulted in the large-scale ring and dismissal of thousands of Black principals and teachers across the United States (Tillman, 2004). Jang & Alexanders (2022) study found that Black women principals were positively associated with positive math achievement scores among ninth grade students. Literature Review: SLIDESMANIA.COM Understanding Curriculum and Creating Learning Environments is Key for School Leaders Leadership is Developed Through Mastery Experiences and Mentorship Grissom Loeb (2011) looked deeper into actual principal effectiveness for behaviors that lead to effective actions and found that they include creating an atmosphere conducive to learning, involvement in staff development, monitoring classrooms, and guarding teachers instructional time. Leaders start to exhibit leadership readiness when they are exposed to mastery experiences, role models and mentors, focused feedback, and have interest in the goals they are pursuing (Hannah & Avolio, 2010). Methodology Phenomenological Qualitative Research Study SLIDESMANIA.COM Methodology - Participants + Collection Participants Convenience and Snowball Sampling from Leadership Networks Surge Academy (Surge) Education Leaders of Color (EdLoC) National Charter Collaborative (NCC) 10-15 principal supervisors who all identify Black (of African ancestry). The following criteria for selection will be utilized: SLIDESMANIA.COM Participants will self-identify as Black/African-American Participants will all be senior leaders Participants will manage a Black/African-American school leader in the some capacity Participants will manage more than one principal. Collection Contact potential participants via email to schedule interviews Conduct 30 min to 1 hour semi-structured interviews Zoom and Zoom Recording Rev Transcription Service Additional physical note taking on interview instrument Methodology - Data Analysis Phenomenology rests on the belief that, ...human meanings are not expressed directly, but instead are embedded by their creators in (or projected onto) the physical, linguistic, and enacted artifacts they create Phenomenology is used by the researcher to make sense of everyday actions and behaviors (Schwartz-Shea & Yanow, 2013). SLIDESMANIA.COM Transcription Organizing Data using QDA Miner Coding using QDA Miner Deducing Themes and Categories Identify Themes and Interpretation Results SLIDESMANIA.COM Results - 8 Themes Black Leadership Brilliance Opportunities in Awareness Centering Instruction SLIDESMANIA.COM Coaching and Care Results - 8 Themes Data and Reality Combating Racial Violations Center Student Life Outcomes SLIDESMANIA.COM Effective Principals and Inspiration Results - RQ1 How do Black principal supervisors dene their role in developing Black school leaders in the organization? Black Leadership Brilliance Opportunities in Awareness SLIDESMANIA.COM Centering Instruction Results - RQ1 How do Black principal supervisors dene their role in developing Black school leaders in the organization? SLIDESMANIA.COM Leaders should be able to be excellent. And that does not equate to perfection. They should be able to be excellent in a highly self-reliant, independent way. PS-11 Black Leadership Brilliance Results - RQ1 How do Black principal supervisors dene their role in developing Black school leaders in the organization? SLIDESMANIA.COM A leader would be making sure that they are self-aware enough to acknowledge the things that they're not good at, acknowledge the gaps that they have in their experience and their expertise in their approach and their ability to support teachers once you're self-aware and can acknowledge those things, then you can accommodate for them. PS-05 Opportunities in Awareness Results - RQ1 How do Black principal supervisors dene their role in developing Black school leaders in the organization? SLIDESMANIA.COM So I think there's like the content bucket, so like how do I, how do I develop leaders on what they need to know? Instructional. So like they're, they're solid understanding of instructional core and then all things that are, uh, like adjacent to that. And then I think the, the bucket of, um, just like people management. PS-07 Centering Instruction Results - RQ2 What are the most commonly used activities Black principal supervisors employ to develop Black school leaders to become leaders in the organization? Coaching and Care Data and Reality SLIDESMANIA.COM Results - RQ2 What are the most commonly used activities Black principal supervisors employ to develop Black school leaders to become leaders in the organization? SLIDESMANIA.COM And so we are doing a lot of coaching around how to still deliver the high expectations message would deliver in a way that people can receive it. And so we spend probably about an hour and a half a week saying, okay, what are your key messages? PS-10 Coaching and Care Results - RQ2 What are the most commonly used activities Black principal supervisors employ to develop Data and Reality Black school leaders to become leaders in the organization? SLIDESMANIA.COM A lot of times there's a, a conversation behind the conversation about this person's leadership or what, what they are or not good at. And that's not fair to us as leaders, but it's also, I try to have those direct conversations to say like, this is the conversation being said around you. Um, what are you going to do about it? And not in the way of like how you're gonna ght and defend yourself. PS-03 Results - RQ3 To what extent do Black education leaders experience racial identities as a factor in education leadership? Combating Racial Violations SLIDESMANIA.COM Results - RQ3 To what extent do Black education leaders experience racial identities as a factor in education leadership? Combating Racial Violations SLIDESMANIA.COM So mostly it's dealing with white teachers, at least from my experience. You know, like the cultural differences for, for black, um, leaders that I've worked with. Usually it's that. And so the best, I think probably the best person I've seen deal with, it was a very maternal black female principal. PS-08 Results - RQ3 To what extent do Black education leaders experience racial identities as a factor in education leadership? Combating Racial Violations SLIDESMANIA.COM And to be able to understand the things that are happening in a room, whether you're looking at power and privilege or whether you're looking at like, you know, white supremacist behaviors that we all have internalized that are also at play. PS-02 Results - RQ4 How do Black principal supervisors describe their impact on the success of Black school leaders in the organization? Center Student Life Outcomes Effective Principals and Inspiration SLIDESMANIA.COM Results - RQ4 How do Black principal supervisors describe their impact on the success of Black school leaders in the organization? Center Student Life Outcomes SLIDESMANIA.COM Yeah, I mean I think ultimately for me it's like student life outcomes in regards to college and career readiness, and even civic participation readiness if they choose. Cuz I think that's what should drive all levels of, of effectiveness in a school building anyway. Like, I feel like if kids are moving to me, that's happening. The leaders are impacting the teachers who are then impacting the students. PS-07 Results - RQ4 How do Black principal supervisors describe their impact on the success of Black school leaders in the organization? Effective Principals and Inspiration SLIDESMANIA.COM I think that when I think, uh, for my personal, like I know that I'm successful when my people are like, Hey, I was in a situation and my rst inclination was like, what would my boss say? Or, um, what, what, what, oh, my boss would not want me to do that. Like, what's my move? But, so when I hear that people are responding to things that we practice with automaticity, I think I know that I am much more successful around things. PS-10 Results - Additional Analyses Gender Type Differences Reading - Black Female The reading code connects the thoughts of participants suggesting they read books or articles to develop themselves or assigned reading to their teams. Female participants were more likely to express the use of reading to develop than their male counterparts. Reading as a development activity was moderately correlated to women and is nearly statistically signicant according to the p-value. SLIDESMANIA.COM Pearsons R P Value -0.481 0.067 Results - Additional Analyses Gender Type Differences Name It - Black Female The code connects the thoughts of participants as they describe being clear about racial challenges as they occur in the workplace and having discussions with colleagues as transgressions around race present themselves. Female participants were more likely to express the use of this code exclusively. Male participants had no submitted instances of naming racial transgressions during the interviews. SLIDESMANIA.COM Pearsons R P Value -0.690 0.009 Discussion SLIDESMANIA.COM a crisis of leadership occurs when the intentions and needs of leadership are severely mismatched with those of its followers. SLIDESMANIA.COM Dr. Amos Wilson Discussion: Implications Colleges of Education There needs to be increased study and training of mindset around Black brilliance and reducing biases educators have around black authority gures and students. This could alleviate challenges around racial violations, so black principal supervisors can focus on instructional leadership. Philanthropy Philanthropic organizations can invest in Black afnity learning spaces managed by Black-led not-for-prots, so Black leaders can learn from one another, expand their leadership, and decompress from racial transgressions in the workplace. This could also serve as a community to practice tough conversations that are driven by data in a low-stakes community populated by goal-aligned individuals. School Systems SLIDESMANIA.COM School systems have the opportunity to shift their management structures to a coaching and care model that centers on side-by-side walkthroughs, conversations that focus on concepts as well as action, and includes tough conversations to get leaders into action when success has not yet been evident. Discussion: Recommendations Recommendations for Future Research SLIDESMANIA.COM Conduct research to nd quantitative measures of Black principal supervisor actions in respect to student achievement. Conduct qualitative research on Black principal supervisor actions vs. white counterparts. Conduct qualitative research on Black senior leadership actions beyond the education eld. Conclusion SLIDESMANIA.COM Education, and its roles of power, are critical tools for advancing social mobility and career opportunities. This makes it essential for Black communities to establish and use best practices (or blueprints) that reect their unique needs. These blueprints are crucial for Black leaders to exert greater control over the education institutions in which Black children attend. References Bailes, L. P., & Guthery, S. (2020). Held down and held back: Systematically delayed principal promotions by race and gender. AERA Open, 6(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858420929298. Crenshaw, K. W. (2019). 3. Unmasking colorblindness in the Law: Lessons from the formation of Critical race theory. In Seeing race again (pp. 52-84). University of California Press. a global healthcare corporation. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 18(4), 581605. Hannah, S. T., & Avolio, B. J. (2010). Ready or not: How do we accelerate the developmental readiness of leaders? Journal of Organizational Behavior, 31(8), 11811187. Heifetz, R. A., Linsky, M., Heifetz, R., & Grashow, A. (2009). The practice of adaptive leadership: Tools and tactics for changing your organization and the world. Harvard Business Press. Tillman, L. C. (2008). The scholarship of Dr. Asa G. Hilliard, III: Implications for Black principal leadership. Review of Educational Research, 78(3), 589607. Hodge, A. (2017). African American superintendents experiences with a midwest states hiring practices. [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Michigan -Dearborn. Honig, M. I., & Rainey, L. R. (2019). Supporting principal supervisors: what really matters? Journal of Educational Administration 57(5), 445-462 Jang, S. T., & Alexander, N. A. (2022). Black women principals in American secondary schools: Quantitative evidence of the link between their leadership and student achievement. Educational Administration Quarterly, 58(3), 351-521. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X211068415. Saltzman, A. (2016). Revising the role of principal supervisor. Phi Delta Kappan, 98(2), 5257. Schaeffer, K. (2021, December 10). Americas public school teachers are far less racially and ethnically diverse than their students. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/12/10/americas-public-school-teachers-are-far-less-racially-and-ethnically-diverse-than-their-students/ SLIDESMANIA.COM Schwartz-Shea, P., & Yanow, D. (2013). Interpretive research design: Concepts and processes. Taylor & Francis. Tillman, L. C. (2004). Chapter 4: African American principals and the legacy of Brown. Review of Research in Education, 28(1), 101146. Webb, T. D. (2022). Where are all the African-American Women Superintendents in California, Oregon, and Washington State? [Doctoral dissertation]. University of the Pacic. Thank You! SLIDESMANIA.COM ...