1. AN AFRICAN-CENTERED CRITIQUE OF THE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE LEADERSHIP STORIES OF SELECTED WOMEN COMMUNITY COLLEGE PRESIDENTS OF AFRICAN DESCENT
Dr. L. Miller Newman © 2007
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
ASSUMPTIONS & LIMITATIONS
FINDINGS (CONTINUED)
It is only the story that can continue beyond the war and the warrior. It is the story that outlives the sound of war-drums and the exploits of brave fighters. It is the story that saves our progeny from blundering like blind beggars into the spikes of the cactus fence. The story is our escort; without it, we are blind. Does the blind man own his escort? No, neither do we the story; rather it is the story that owns us and directs us.
— Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah (1987)
The leadership experiences of academic scholars of African descent – because their stories are not found in either the historical literature on the community college system in America or in the literature on “normative leadership and practices” (Meux, 2002, p. 3)—may, like the stories of so many African American educational trail blazers, get lost. And their personal experience leadership stories may be lost not because there is not a story to tell, but rather, because no one has accepted the mantel of the Duga to tell it.
As in all forms of qualitative research, “the researcher is the primary instrument for data collection and data analysis and [she must] build toward theory from observations and intuitive understandings gleaned . . .” (Merriam, 2002, p. 5). In this qualitative research, the proposed narrative research design examines the personal experience leadership stories of four African American women who are former community college presidents.
This study assumed that it was important to the scholarship of women’s leadership styles, the community college presidency, and the contributions which women of African descent who were former community college presidents have made to American higher education.
These women’s personal experience leadership stories meet the criteria that Asante (1987) established to determine Afrocentric discourse. Their discourse as African American women community college presidents not only promoted unity and understanding at their colleges by developing and sustaining relationships based on all of the principles of the Nguzo Saba, they lived by these same principles and were reared by parents who themselves had been reared by these principles. Each woman’s story reflects her heritage as a woman of African descent. By analyzing the discourse using the framework of the Nguzo Saba, the researcher was able to analyze their discourse using African-centered standards and to contribute to the Africentricity and leadership style scholarship.
There are so many untold stories of African American women and men community college leaders and so few scholars willing to establish a body of literature that not only tells of their achievements and legacies, but validates and celebrates them as well that an intervention is required.
A chronicling of the personal experience leadership stories of community college campus leaders will disavow the tenacious propensity to perpetuate the Eurocentric nature of organizations to reproduce discourse that dislocates the holistic leadership styles of Africans in America and subordinates their legacies to the generic accomplishments of the individual institutions that they lead.
NGUZO SABA
Umoja – Unity
Kujichagulia - Self Determination Ujima - Collective Work and Responsibility Ujamma - Cooperative Economics Nia - Purpose Kuumba – Creativity
Imani - Faith
“The definitive characteristic of an Afrocentric theory of African development, of the person and of the people, is as African. That is, Afrocentricity theorizes about the development of people of African descent as African people” (Asante, 1987, p. 59). For purposes of clarity, the researcher acknowledges that, as a term, Afrocentricity is referred to in a variety of forms throughout the literature.
The theoretical framework of the study was anchored in the theory and practice of Africentricity. “Afrocentricity is both theory and practice. In its theoretical aspect, it consists of interpretation and analysis from the perspective of African people as subjects rather than as objects on the fringes of the European experience In its practicality it is about placing African people within our own historical framework ” (Asante, 1991, p. 46). The use of the Nguzo Saba as a framework for placing African American women at the center of the analysis of their personal experience leadership stories as community college presidents of African descent allowed the researcher to refocus the participants’ accomplishments through the Africentric lens so that, when examined by scholars and aspiring community college leaders, their leadership style could be accurately documented as part of their legacy to community college leadership theory and practice.
This research study used Africentric theory as the overall theoretical framework to examine the personal leadership stories of four African American women community college presidents.
RECOMMENDATIONS
PURPOSE OF STUDY
The purpose of conducting this qualitative research study was to propose that the recording of the oral personal leadership experience stories of four women community college CEO’s of African descent could be studied using an Africentric theoretical perspective to examine and interpret their discourse based on Afrocentric values where the Nguzo Saba as a leadership style is a central concept.
This study examined the personal experience leadership stories of four African American community college presidents. In so doing, this study documented the professional accomplishments of these participants as both a cultural phenomenon and as a noteworthy style of leading based on a collective system consistent with Africentric theory and practice. The results of this study expanded the knowledge base of the connection between culture and leadership. Specifically, this study gave voice to a group of women who, by virtue of their positions and race - i.e. presidents and CEOs of American community colleges and women of African descent - have greatly impacted the community college system, one institution at a time.
Overarching Research Question:
How does culture influence the leadership style of selected women community college presidents of African descent?
Two Sub-questions:
What evidence exists in their personal experience leadership stories that show these presidents are culturally located in Africa?
2. When their personal experience leadership stories are examined, what are the interpretations of discourse based on Africentric values?
Not one of these women of African descent demonstrated in their discourse that their leadership styles were oppressive, exploitive, or representative of an ideological or political position that “is the source of the subtle machinations of power and manipulation of words . . .” (Asante, p. 24) and consistent with the Eurocentric worldview of leadership. In fact, when all of the participants were asked to recount a story that they believed was exploitive, none of them could think of a single example. Rather, these four African American women conveyed in their discourse an empowerment that is consistent with the Nguzo Saba as a collective leadership model and discernable in their leadership style. Each of these community college presidents offered themselves as a lightning rod for change when they accepted the presidency of community colleges that were not serving predominantly African American or Hispanic students.
As change agents whose leadership styles were deeply rooted in a sense of family, these four selected African American women community college presidents embody the active voice of Africentricity. They are the subjects of leadership, women doing something for someone or something rather than women who are having something done to them or someone doing something to them. The women in this study all acknowledge the interconnectedness of their family units and acknowledge the fluidity of the roles these family members provided.
FINDINGS
SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
FINAL THOUGHTS…
The fact is that every woman in this study represented a series of firsts for their institutions: first woman, first Black person, first Black woman, the first president to repeatedly lead the college through multi-faceted crises. But the truth is that every woman in this study was able to move beyond, above, around, or under political ideologies to become a community college president. And that each of the four participants self identified as African centered. Collectively, the four African American women who participated in this study represent over half a century of lived leadership experiences as community college presidents and are living proof that African American women continue to rely on the skills of our ancestors to protect and to ensure the survival of the community. Now, that’s a story that should be told by the Duga.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
CONTACT INFORMATION
Dr. L. Miller Newman, Director
Center for Teaching and Learning
Montgomery College
51 Mannakee Street
Rockville, Maryland