In the Spirit of Ubuntu: Educating and Leading Through an African-Centered Paradigm

Developing college access in high schools for students from marginalized backgrounds (i.e., low socioeconomic status, people of color, and first-generation) is important because these students enroll in postsecondary education at lower rates than White, wealthier, and non-first-generation students. A qualitative case study was conducted to examine how an African-centered charter high school’s personnel, who were teachers and administrators of color, cultivated students’ college-going aspirations while affirming their cultural identities. This study used a social constructivist paradigm to understand how Ubuntu school personnel were active agents in both the school’s college-going culture and African-centered culture. The selected site was an urban public African-centered coeducational charter high school with a postsecondary education focus located in the Northeastern United States. The school has excelled academically both in terms of graduation rates and postsecondary enrollment. The findings suggest that personnel worked collaboratively with each other to develop and foster environments that supported a college-preparatory ethos while simultaneously affirming African Americans and Blacks. They believed that students being successful led to the school being successful, which led to the community being successful, which most importantly led to the Black race being successful. Success began at the individual level but had the potential impact of improving the community and nation as a whole. Personnel believed it was their responsibility to provide students with the necessary social and cultural capital to develop college-going aspirations.

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