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From the African continent to Colombia: a Case study of African Leadership Academy and developing a new generation of purpose driven Afro-Colombian agents of change

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From the African continent to Colombia: a Case study of African Leadership Academy and developing a new generation of purpose driven Afro-Colombian agents of change

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From the African Continent to Colombia:
A Case Study of African Leadership Academy and
Developing a New Generation of Purpose Driven
Afro-Colombian Agents of Change

T.L. Omowale Crenshaw

Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
A dissertation proposal presented to the
faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Education

August 2023

© Copyright by Thomas LaRon Omowale Crenshaw 2023

All Rights Reserved

The Committee for Thomas LaRon Omowale Crenshaw
certifies the approval of this Dissertation

Mark P. Robison
Curtis Kidd Telemaque
Anthony B. Maddox
Ruth H. Chung, Committee Chair

Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
2023
iv

Abstract
This qualitative research study focused on African Leadership Academy (ALA), an
award-winning Pan-African secondary school located in the suburbs of Johannesburg,
South Africa. ALA provides their students with a sense of purpose and entrepreneurial
training to positively address some of the major challenges on the African Continent (e.g.,
healthcare, infrastructure, education, governance, agribusiness, and the arts). The objective
of the study was to learn about the ALA institutional mission, vision, culture, leadership,
instructional methodologies, professional development, and their innovative curriculum.
Ultimately, these learnings will be applied to develop a network of high-quality secondary
schools serving Afro-Colombian students located in the Pacific region of Colombia, where
most communities of African descent reside.
Dr. Kendall Bronk’s Noble Purpose-Driven Youth Development was the theoretical
framework utilized for this study. The participant stakeholders for this study were ALA
founders, school leaders, administrators, and instructors. A total of 17 in-depth interviews
were conducted. My collective findings revealed that several areas contribute to the success
of ALA. A shared vision based on five principles that define and impact ALA’s
institutional culture. Ninety-three % of interview respondents believe that professional
development can be improved. Instructors and administrators believe subject matter
expertise, structured unit planning and intellectual curiosity are essential for an effective
professional development program. One hundred % of instructors and 71% of
administrators feel supported to use different instructional methods and outside materials to
develop disruptive innovative curricula. Several emerging themes including student
v
recruitment, parental involvement, alumni engagement, and sound fiscal management
contribute to ALA’s success.
Keywords: From Africa to Colombia, Afrocentricity, Afro-Colombia, Afrocentric
education, Ethno-education, Pacific region, Disruptive curriculum, purpose-driven
education.

vi
Dedication

This dissertation is dedicated to the nearly 15 million Africans living in Colombia,
the 200 million inhabitants of African descent living in the Central and South American
sub-region, as well as the 1.7 billion people throughout the African Diaspora. It is from all
of you that I draw energy, gather inspiration, and live out my purpose.

vii
Acknowledgements
Pursuing a doctorate degree has been on my mind for the past 20+ years. It took a
global pandemic for me to finally commit to this journey. First, I would like to thank my
dissertation committee lead by my favorite committee Chair, Dr. Ruth Chung. Your
perspectives, insights, guidance, and patience were much appreciated. To my other
committee members, Dr. Mark P. Robison, Dr. Curtis Kidd Telemaque, and Dr. Anthony
B. Maddox, your sage perspectives, encouragement, course corrections, and “tough love”
was phenomenal and always timely.
I would like to acknowledge the Global EdD program and operations office lead by
Dr. Sabrina Chong and Alondra Morales, your support and encouragement throughout this
journey was truly amazing. To all my Global EdD faculty members, you are the real
MVP’s. Drs. Maddox, Krop, Samkian, Donato, Picus, Seli, Johnson, and the professor who
gave me a love of education policy, Dr. Tracy P. Tambascia, thank you. To Dr. Mark P.
Robison, your ability to impart your knowledge and expertise to help expand my
proficiency to frame issues, structure arguments, and support “with evidence”, are skills
that will always be with me. Our shared love of history was a welcomed bonus.
To my Cohort 10 family, your energy, support, words of encouragement, late night
venting sessions, and compelling experiences in Finland, Estonia, Singapore, Qatar, South
Africa, Botswana, and Los Angeles were incredible. I can’t imagine this journey without
you: Susan, Jimmy, Sedda, J.P., Laishyang, Peter, Mengya, Lisa, Fatima, Adam, Krystin,
and mi hermana Queenie. To the extended Global EdD family, especially Cohort 8, thanks
for joining us. To the BSU, your inspiration and words of encouragement throughout this
journey were so appreciated. Special shout outs to Dr. Rebecca Good, Dr. Andrea Thomas,
and Dr. Sakinah Harrison, your collective guidance and inspiration was invaluable.
viii
I would like to thank the Universidad Santiago de Cali (USC), where I am currently
on faculty, for supporting me throughout this process. I particularly want to thank Luisa
Fernandez Muñoz, Decana de la Facultad de Ciencias Económicas and Dr. Carlos Andrés
Pérez Galindo, Rector (Universidad Santiago de Cali).
I would like to thank my defacto Afro-Colombian “brain trust of Dr. Edinson
Delgado Martínez, Jr. (Universidad Autónoma), Dr. Francisco Adelmo Asprilla
(Universidad del Atlántico), Dr. David Emilio Mosquera (Universidad Tecnológica de
Chocó), Dr. William Mina (Universidad del Valle), Dr. Mabel Gisela Torres (Universidad
Tecnológica de Chocó), Dr. Tonija Hope (Howard University), Dr. Okunini Msomi Moor
(Florida Memorial University), Robert Asprilla, Mábel Lorena Lara Dinas, the Honorable
Luis Gilberto Murillo (Colombian Ambassador to the United States), Dr. Aurora Vergara
Figueroa (Ministra de Educación Nacional de Colombia) and the Honorable Congressman
Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY 5
th
District) for providing inspiration, guidance, sage
perspective, and making sure I stay fiel a la causa (true to the cause). A special recognition
to Michael Franklin, who founded the Organization of Africans in the Americas (OAA) and
was the catalyst to bring many of us together. The ancestors speak profoundly and loudly
through all of you. Muchísimas gracias a todos.
To my mom Brenda Theresa, you gave me the love of learning and helping others.
Ever since I can remember, you encouraged me to seek information and facts contained in
books. My ability to not just dream, but to visualize, plan, and strategize to achieve was
forged from the many books you gifted me as a child. My passion for books and truth was
enhanced with that first library card for the Anna E. Waden Branch of the San Francisco
public library on Third Street in Bayview/Hunters Point. I now realized that your goal was
to ensure that I became autodidactic. To my beloved grandparents Kitt, Melba, Annie Lee,
ix
and Wilhelmena, your unconditional love throughout my life gave me the belief and
confidence that I could achieve anything I committed my mind and heart to. To my sister
Kimberley, cousin Kiara, Pops, and a host of aunts, uncles, and extended family members,
thank you for your love and encouragement throughout my educational journey. To my
uncle Kitt, aka mi hermano mayor (my big brother), you were my rock and my biggest fan.
I learned so much from you, the good, the bad, and the ugly. You helped me to become the
man I am today. Watching you valiantly fight your battle against cancer, while I was
simultaneously enrolled in the Global EdD program was beyond inspirational. I had really
hoped you would make it to and through our hooding ceremony, but alas it wasn’t meant to
be as you passed on the 28
th
of May 2023, seven weeks before. Please rest in power. I will
do my part to continuously love and support our family.
Lowell High School in San Francisco confirmed that academically, I could compete
with anyone. Thank you to my brother for life, Ernest Robert Bates. College of San Mateo
(go Bulldogs) helped me to get my mind right. Dr. Zelte Crawford showed us how much of
our African and African American history and culture was hidden, stolen, or distorted.
Studying in Spain opened a whole new world to me and gave me the love of travel.
Howard University simply put, forever changed my life. There isn’t a day that
passes that I don’t acknowledge and understand, the tremendous responsibility and
expectations to be great, and to positively impact not just the African Diaspora, but the
entire globe. Upenn/Wharton, you unlocked the cheat code to understanding how
economics and geopolitical control are forever linked. The Johns Hopkins University
demystified the details of real estate development. To Brother Luqman Abdul-Haqq you
taught me how the built environment and “blight zones” can shape lives and change
x
communities. KIPP Philadelphia and the KIPP Foundation revealed the charter school
world and the power of education reform, regardless of your zip code.
To my former colleagues at the Canyon-Agassi Charter School Facilities Fund,
thank you for the knowledge and the understanding of how private equity can positively
impacts lives. To Troy A. LeMaile-Stovall former COO of Howard University and my
team in the Capital Asset Development group at Howard University, it was one of the
highlights of my professional career returning to my alma mater to improve the campus
infrastructure through our “extreme makeover” program, other renovation projects, and
multiple new construction initiatives at Howard University. To the Washington, DC
Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi, and my line brothers of the 1997 Juneteenth Crew, I will
always be “training for leadership”. Special shout out to brother and past Polemarch Dr.
Charlie E. Mahone, Jr. We will forever be linked. Thank you for pushing me to excel, Doc.
To my hermano Fabien Anthony and our collective initiatives to support, develop
and link the African Diaspora through entrepreneurship. Our empresarioafro.com efforts
will continue to bear fruit.
Finally, to my Grupo Mecca Colombia family, Berto, Martha Lucia, Nicol, Jhon
Edwin, Tatiana, Niky and Nicolás, our future is so bright. I look forward to going on this
aventura with all of you as we implement not only the content and recommendations in this
dissertation, but the many other initiatives we have been planning to forever change the
lives of not just Afro-Colombians, but many Colombians in the Pacific region. The ultimate
objective is to influence and impact the 200 million people of African descent living in the
Americas. Vistas de Caña has been born. Time to go to work. Thank you so much. Mil
Gracias. Kanimambo (Changana), Asante sana (Swahili), meda wo ase pa ara (Twi) and mo
dupe lowo yin lopolopo (Yoruba).
xi
Table of Contents
Abstract .................................................................................................................................. iv
Dedication .............................................................................................................................. vi
Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. vii
List of Tables ....................................................................................................................... xiv
List of Figures ....................................................................................................................... xv
Chapter One: Overview of the Study ..................................................................................... 1
Organizational Context ....................................................................................................... 2
Background of the Problem: Inequitable Access to Quality Education in Colombia ........ 4
Educational Disruption for Afro-Colombians .................................................................... 8
Instructor and Administrative Leadership Development .................................................... 9
Purpose of the Project and Research Questions ............................................................... 11
Importance of the Study ................................................................................................... 12
Limitations, Delimitations, and Assumptions .................................................................. 15
Definitions ........................................................................................................................ 16
Organization of the Dissertation ....................................................................................... 19
Chapter Two: Review of the Literature ................................................................................ 20
History of African and Indigenous Communities in Colombia ........................................ 20
Inequity of Educating People of African Descent ............................................................ 22
Ley 70 (Law 70) and the Recognition of Afro-Colombian Communities ....................... 24
xii
Demographics and Displacement ..................................................................................... 25
Current State of K-12 Education in Colombia…………………………………………..29
Education Disruption ........................................................................................................ 38
Disruptive and Innovative Education in Colombia .......................................................... 53
Implications for Colombia and Afrocentric Education………………………………….63
Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks………………………………………………..68
Summary………………………………………………………………………………...70
Chapter Three: Methods……………………………………………………………………73
Organizational Overview………………………………………………………..........…73
Participants and Sampling Procedure……………………………………………………75
Data Collection and Instrumentation……………………………………………………77
Interviews………………………………………………………………………………..78
Information in the Public Domain……………………………………………………… 79
Data Analysis……………………………………………………………………………80
Reliability and Validity………………………………………………………………….81
Ethics…………………………………………………………………………………….83
Limitations and Delimitations……………………………………………………...........85
Chapter Four: Findings ......................................................................................................... 87
Participant Profile………………………………………………………………………..88
Finding 1: ALA Foundational Beliefs (Principals) and Values ...................................... 90
Finding 2: Professional Development ………..……………………………………...…97
Finding 3: Disruptive Curriculum ................................................................................. 106
xiii
Emerging Themes……………………………………….…………………………......124
Summary ………………………………………………………………………………141
Chapter Five: Discussion .................................................................................................... 142
Discussion of Key Findings ............................................................................................ 143
Application of Purpose-Driven Youth Development Model in Colombia ..................... 144
Implications for Colombian Policy Makers, Institutional Leaders, and Practitioners .... 148
Recommendations for Colombia, Afro-Diasporic, and Other Communities Based on
Insights from ALA ......................................................................................................... 149
Limitations of the Study ................................................................................................ 157
Implications for Future Research .................................................................................. 157
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 158
Appendix A: Interview Protocol ......................................................................................... 174
Appendix B: Study Information Sheet ............................................................................... 180

xiv
List of Tables
Table 1 African Leadership Academy stakeholder participants .......................................... 89

xv

List of Figures
Figure 1 Conceptual and Theoretical Frameworks .............................................................. 68
Figure 2 Demographic data of participating staff and faculty. ............................................ 89
Figure 3 Professional Development at ALA ..................................................................... 100
Figure 4 African Leadership Academy Curriculum overview .......................................... 108
Figure 5 Leadership Support of Instructors. ...................................................................... 109
Figure 6 European Languages Spoken throughout Africa ................................................ 128

1
Chapter One: Overview of the Study
A disruptive and innovative approach to secondary education is essential to prepare
Colombian students of African descent for a more prosperous future in the 21
st
century. A
transformative education grounded in Afrocentric-education, purpose, critical thinking,
entrepreneurship, leadership, and digital skills will be the necessary foundation for these
students to prepare to be agents of change (Darling-Hammond, L., & Rothman, R., 2015).
Whether students pursue an entrepreneurial venture, vocational program and/or tertiary
education degree program immediately following secondary school, future career
aspirations in a knowledge-based economy requires substantial preparation. Quality
teaching and skilled administrators are critical components of a child’s formal education
and will be essential in preparing Colombian students for a transformative 21
st
century
education (Lee, W.O. et. al, 2014).
This promising practice qualitative study focuses on instructor learning,
professional development, curriculum design, administrative skills, and operational
experiences of African Leadership Academy (ALA). Benchmarking the learnings and best
practices from ALA, a dynamic secondary education exemplar based in South Africa, will
provide an excellent model to develop a disruptive and innovative solution for Colombia.
Understanding how educators and administrators embody the vision and mission of a
schools’ educational philosophy, how instructors and administrators incorporate
Afrocentricity within their curriculum and administrative responsibilities respectively, and
how instructors and administrators continuously expand their skills, can all have a profound
impact on a students’ education and their ability to learn.
The insights from this study and the learnings from the ALA experiences will assist
with the design, development, implementation, and ongoing improvements of a secondary

2
school network to be created in Colombia that will serve students of Afro-Colombian
descent.
Organizational Context
African Leadership Academy (ALA) is a world-renown secondary school located in
Roodepoort, South Africa approximately 30-minutes outside of Johannesburg. The ALA
philosophy of Pan African Afrocentricity, purpose, creative problem solving, and
entrepreneurship, resonates with the needs of equitable secondary education for Afro-
Colombian children. ALA was founded in 2004 and its doors opened in 2008. ALA broadly
is categorized into four programs: Two-year Diploma program, Entrepreneurship programs
(Anzisha Prize), Networks, and Global Programs. The organization operates the non-
diploma programs to generate cash flow, maximize facilities utilization, and deploy idle
staffulty (an ALA term for staff and faculty) mostly during the summer months (June to
August) when the regular diploma program semester is not in session. ALA also hosts the
Model African Union in March, typically offsite at a local hotel. ALA currently enrolls 220
students in their two-year diploma program with an average age of 17. It is dedicated to 16
to 19-year-olds from throughout Africa and the rest of the world, with alumni from 46
countries. The cost of tuition per student at ALA is approximately USD $32,000 per year.
At ALA, most students receive some level of financial support, although no student
receives 100% free tuition. The value of the financial award is determined based on each
family’s ability to pay, after admissions decisions have been made.
Since 2010, ALA alumni have been admitted to more than 160 universities across
the world for undergraduate studies, and more than 230 universities when factoring
postgraduate studies. These include globally reputed universities on the Africa Continent,
the U.S.A., Europe, Asia, and South America. ALA provides their students a sense of

3
purpose and responsibility to be great stewards and representatives of their communities in
addition to the African Continent. The founding beliefs and principles of ALA, as
articulated by its founders, were developed as five guiding principles from which all
decisions regarding curriculum, staff, teaching philosophy, programming and other
activities are assessed. ALA instructors and administrators therefore have the challenge of
translating and incorporating these beliefs and values throughout their lesson plans,
classroom experiences, and administrative responsibilities.
School culture is the tangible conglutinate component of African Leadership
Academy that connects and binds ALA values, beliefs, purpose, classroom experiences and
community together. The core courses at ALA (African Studies, Entrepreneurial
Leadership, and Writing & Rhetoric), are designed and delivered completely by ALA
instructors. The courses aligned to the Cambridge A-Level syllabus have predefined
content, assessment objectives, and a suggested pace that should be followed to prepare
students for the British Council assessments and exams. Developing independent and
liberated, critical-thinking Africans is essential to establishing an authentic commitment to
the continent grounded in a unique purpose-driven experience. Instructors are empowered
and engaged to create resources, case studies, and equip students to conduct their own
research and investigations.
ALA has identified six sectors that are primary challenges for the African continent.
These sectors include infrastructure, agribusiness, health, governance, the arts, and
education. The ALA curriculum, student research projects, and several student
entrepreneurial ventures seek to address these primary challenges on the Continent.
Students are only at ALA for two-years; however, they are encouraged to maintain long-life
engagement by utilizing access to professional development and networking resources.

4
Additionally, alumni have access to an employment opportunity database and to the Young
Entrepreneurs Fund, which is a resource for seed capital and advisory to support alumni
entrepreneurial ventures.
The Development of Noble Youth Purpose, developed by Dr. Kendall Bronk, is the
conceptual framework that guided this study. Consistent with African Leadership
Academy’s mission is to train the next generation of conscious and purposeful leaders
committed to addressing the shorter and long-term development needs of the African
Continent (Bronk, 2012). Dr. Kendall Bronk defines purpose as having a goal in life that
you care deeply about and that contributes to the world beyond yourself in some productive
sense. In some cases, she has found that all it takes to get young people started down a path
of purpose is to engage them in deep, probing conversations, which prompt them to reflect
on their interests and values (Bronk, 2012). It is this purpose or “spark” that we hope to
instill within the Afro-Colombian students who matriculate into the secondary school
academies that we plan to develop in the Pacific region.
Background of the Problem: Inequitable Access to Quality Education in Colombia
Afro-Colombian students represent 30% (2.8 million) of Colombia’s 9.3 million K-
12 student population, but 75% of those students living in poverty (World bank 2018).
Without equitable access to a quality education grounded in Afrocentric education and
purpose, Afro-Colombian students will not be competitive in a knowledge-based 21
st

century digital economy. These students will be taught to love not only Colombia and their
Latin American culture, but also to embrace their African ancestry. The unprecedented
digital transformation of the global economy and society is likely to increase the
complexity of the modern world, as well as the speed of change, largely because of
increased connectivity and a more educated individual worldwide (OECD, 2019).

5
Afro-Colombian students rarely have had access to an equitable quality education,
(OECD, 2018). Historically, in the Americas, ideologies of racial superiority took many
forms, as colonizers attempted to establish social control by shaping the racial and identity
politics of their settlements (Mills, 1998). These racialized intellectual discourses sought to
justify and reiterate the aims of colonialism by embodying ideas of indoctrination,
assimilation, ideological conditioning, and sub-personhood (Mills, 1998). Consequently, as
people of African descent throughout the hemisphere resisted and negotiated space to
legitimize their own identity—both individually and collectively—attempts to recognize a
shared history of African descent were discouraged as they deviated from the colonial aims
of subjugation. With the Haitian Revolution from 1791-1804, colonists had learned the
power of the mobilization of African descendants born out of racial awareness (James,
1938).
A disruptive and innovative approach to K-12 education, particularly at the
secondary school level, is essential to change the trajectory of Afro-Colombian students’
lives and prepare them to be agents of change and lead the positive transformation of their
communities for the current and future generations. If Colombia fails to solve this issue of
relevant quality access to an equitable education for all of its citizens, especially for the
Afro-Colombian population, Colombia will eventually experience a decline in productivity
and a lower quality of living (OECD 2019).
Colombia’s education philosophy and policies have followed an “equity or
excellence” model (Lee, W.O., Low, E.L., & Lee, S.K., 2014), where limited resources
were distributed to a targeted “talented” few, at the expense of the majority of the
Colombian populace (OECD, 2012). The results of these policies have had a particularly
inequitable impact on communities of African descent. Poorly trained teachers with little to

6
no professional development opportunities, antiquated curriculum, and inadequate facilities
are prevalent conditions throughout these underserved communities. Compounding this
inequitable education situation are domestic terrorism and violence in the Pacific region,
where most Afro-Colombians reside (Radinger, 2018). The terrorism and violence have led
to mass displacement and forced migration from rural areas to large urban areas. This
migration has contributed to an already overburdened, understaffed, and underfunded
public school system of nearly 7.5 million students, which represent 80% of the 9.3 million
school-aged children. The other 20% (1.8 million) are in private academies where the
children come from predominately middle- to upper-class non-Afro and non-Indigenous
families, mostly located in the large Colombian urban centers of Bogotá, Medellín, Cali,
Barranquilla, and Cartagena (Radinger, 2018).
The World Bank in 2018 reported that the percentage of Afro-Colombians who
receive primary education is higher than the percentage of primary education received by
the rest of Colombians, being 42% versus 32%, respectively. However, many Afro-
Colombians are not able to receive any education beyond primary level education because
secondary education (high school education) access is only offered to 62% of Afro-
Colombians, while this type of education is offered to 75% of all other Colombians (World
Bank, 2018). Furthermore, researchers from the World Bank also found that the overall
educational quality of schools located in Afro-Colombian communities is much lower and
poorer than those in other communities, mainly because of the lack of government support
and investment in these areas. This has been reflected in the results of the ICFES exam
(national standardized exam), which showed that the average results for Afro-Colombians
were significantly lower than the results of the rest of Colombians (World Bank, 2018).

7
Studies have indicated that students equipped with 21
st
Century high-level skills and
the ability to speak English are seeing unprecedented career and life opportunities, while
those without adequate foundational skills, whether individuals or countries, are
confronting the specter of declining standards of living (UNESCO 2019). Globalization and
tomorrow’s knowledge workers and innovators require high levels of education and
bilingual capability, because a highly educated, well-trained workforce is a prerequisite for
adopting and absorbing innovative new technologies and increasing productivity.
Additionally, through developing new methodologies and efficiencies for working with
older industries or disrupting old business models and creating new models and industry
sectors, tomorrow’s leaders need to be trained and coached to be disruptors and change
agents to compete in an innovative global society (UNESCO 2019).
El-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz" (aka Malcolm X) famously stated during his speech at
the Organization of Afro-American Unity founding forum at the Audubon Ballroom in
1964:
Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare
for it today.

8
Educational Disruption for Afro-Colombians
The history of populations of African descent throughout the western hemisphere
has been “camouflaged, disfigured, and mutilated” (Ki-Zerbo, 2010, p. 23) by projects of
[mis]education that sought to write history solely from the perspective of the European
colonizers. In a coordinated effort that crisscrossed the Atlantic, from Africa to the
Caribbean and the Americas alike, European invaders crafted quasihistorical narratives
rooted in white supremacy and anti-African diaspora racism to uphold and justify colonial,
capitalist, patriarchal, and heteronormative practices (Harrison, 1997). Hemispherical,
antiracist reforms emerged in different ways, varying from constitutional changes that
became part of the national educational standards to regional legislation concerned with the
political and territorial rights of Afro Descendant populations (Silva 2021). Colombia and
Brazil, for example, engaged in extensive reforms that redesigned civil, territorial, social,
and political liberties in Afro-Colombian and Afro-Brazilian communities. Although
distinct in genesis, they intersected with the larger movements of multicultural political
reform and Afro Descendant mobilization in the Americas. More importantly, these
reforms marked the material and symbolic inclusion of Afro-Descendant populations within
the sociohistorical lexicon of education (Silva, 2021).
When considered from the Colombian state’s perspective, education must
inevitably entail notions of legitimate knowledge. However, what is hidden within the
language of legitimacy is the political economy of hegemony. The notion of "legitimate
knowledge" is merely a deception. It is a means of controlling the conversation about the
process of formal socialization-which is schooling. Schooling in the dominant culture is a
process that does not typically privilege critical thought and action, but instead encourages

9
conformity to hegemony, rewards apathy to the status quo, and punishes agency with
regards to radical social change (Rashid, 2012).
Martelli’s research centers conceptually on the fundamental premise that a critically
thinking populace that understands their circumstances and has the wherewithal to craft and
implement viable solutions can change the perception and trajectory for their communities
(Martelli, 2018). It is this understanding and wherewithal that is at the core of African
Leadership Academy (ALA) and their disruptive innovative program of Pan-African
Afrocentricity. The mission and vision of ALA are articulated in its founding principles and
values, which are itemized in the original business plan written by the ALA founders.
Central to these values and beliefs is the understanding that to transform a society, high-
quality ethical leadership is needed. Therefore, if lasting peace and shared prosperity in
Africa is desired, then a new generation of ethical, purpose-driven entrepreneurial leaders
must be developed (ALA, 2022). Both the founding principles and the institutional values
are the compasses which guides, directs, and provides the foundational underpinning of
African Leadership Academy and help to establish, maintain, and reinforce the ALA
mission, vision, and organizational culture (ALA, 2022).
Educational policies in the Americas, including Colombia, still reflect the
“coloniality of power” (Quijano, 2005, p. 9) in which racial politics determined the
production and circulation of knowledge, particularly in relation to teaching the history of
the African Diaspora; the mass dispersion of peoples from Africa during the Transatlantic
Triangular Slave Trades, from the 1500s to the 1800s (Quijano, 2005).
Instructor and Administrative Leadership Development
A significant increase in investment for educational practitioners (instructors and
administrators) in the Pacific region of Colombia is vital to the development of world-class

10
academies. Instructor and administrator growth and professional development are critical
components of a high-performing educator system. These systems have multiple
components, not just a single policy. These components are intended to be coherent and
complementary to support the overall goal of ensuring that each academy is filled with
highly effective teachers, administrators, and is led by a highly effective principal (Darling-
Hammond, L., & Rothman, R., 2015). An education professional’s ability to stay relevant
with respect to the latest pedagogy, techniques, and technologies, can have a profound
impact on efficient operations and the learning outcomes for students. Afrocentric themes
can assist an instructor to connect with their students of African descent.
The society of the early twenty-first century is characterized as the knowledge
society. Instructors and administrators must involve themselves in the relevant competences
that are the unavoidable landmarks of the education of today and of the future. Schools
cannot afford to remain detached from the fast-moving changes that are taking place and
have therefore made Afrocentric education and innovation their priorities. While
knowledge and mastery of tools and techniques as well as processes are no guarantees of
equity in the education system, schools also must face the challenge of making tools and
applications available to all their pupils without neglecting any aspect of their educational
function. (Hepp, 2015). Modeling other global regions can be beneficial to developing a
revolutionary disruptive approach to education in Colombia. In East Asia for instance, there
is a strong culture and belief that education is considered a crucial key to achieve social
mobility, and the higher the quality of education, the higher the opportunity for social
mobility (equity) (Lee, W.O., Low, E.L., & Lee, S.K., 2014).
Although the distance between South Africa and Colombia is nearly 11,000
kilometers (6,835 miles) and a 14-hour flight, the battle for racial identity and solution-

11
oriented thought, is still impacted in 2023 by Euro-supremacy and a politicized inequitable
education system in both countries. The purpose-driven Pan-African education that African
Leadership Academy delivers in South Africa to train the next generation of ethical leaders
for the African Continent, is very similar to the needs and opportunity to train the next
generation of purpose-driven Afro-Colombian leaders. Leveraging the experiences of ALA
to inform the design of curriculum, execution of training programs for education
practitioners, and developing a network of high-quality Afrocentric academies has the
potential for substantial impact. This impact includes future educational opportunities,
increased career options, and ultimately higher standard of living for multiple communities
throughout the Pacific Region of Colombia.
Purpose of the Project and Research Questions
The purpose of this qualitative research study is critical to the development of high-
quality learning academies in Colombia. In order to develop a disruptive and innovative
approach to education in Colombia that incorporates Afrocentric education, benchmarking
global exemplars is indispensable. African Leadership Academy’s (ALA) best practices for
instructor training and administrator learning development with their focus on
Afrocentricity will be extremely helpful in applying these learnings to an Afrocentric
education. African Leadership Academy is a two-year upper secondary diploma program
for Africa’s best and brightest secondary students. The population and stakeholder group
that was the focus of the African Leadership Academy promising practice study were the
founders, instructors, and administrator community at ALA. With this study, the objective
was to understand the ALA culture, instructor, and administrator training, professional
learning, and how did instructors and administrators incorporate the Pan-African
organizational mission and vision throughout the curriculum, outreach programs, and

12
support to alumni in the ALA network. The insights from the ALA study will be utilized to
assist in the development of similar (but not the same) curriculum, programing, training and
outreach initiatives targeting Afro-Colombians contextualized for the South American sub-
region.
The research questions that guided this study include:
1. What is the mission and vision of African Leadership Academy and how does a
purpose-driven Pan-African centered education influence the institutional
culture and pedagogy for instructors and administrators?
2. What professional development and learning opportunities do instructors and
administrators find most useful in supporting them to implement the mission
and vision of ALA?
3. How are ALA instructors and administrators supported to develop disruptive
curriculum and programs centered on a purpose-driven Pan-African Afrocentric
education?
Importance of the Study
Conducting this promising practice study will be fundamental to the design,
development, and implementation of a disruptive innovative approach to educating the
nearly three million Colombian students of African descent. Afrocentric education and
Afrocentricity play a considerable role in building the foundation for cultural identity of
students and by familiarizing and orienting them to native African languages, history, and
culture. This foundation establishes a sense of pride, purpose, confidence, engagement, and
encouragement, which has shown to reach students of African descent and increase higher
educational outcomes more effectively (Constantine, 2006; Shockley, 2015). It also allows

13
students of Afro-Colombian descent to combat and reject the destructive ideals and values
of euro-supremacy (Mills, 1998; Shockley, 2015).
The emergence of High Performing Education Systems (HPES) is a term used to
describe education systems that have excelled in the Programme for International Student
Assessment (PISA) “league tables”. PISA is an international assessment of 15-year-old
students across the world, commissioned by the Organization for Economic Cooperation
Development (OECD). Its goal is to compare education systems across the world on their
participation, quality, equity, and efficiency in delivering a robust education (OECD, 2011).
Colombia currently ranks near the bottom of the Latin America regional PISA scores, and
because of the strong correlation between educational outcomes and a nation’s economic
strength, Colombia’s elected officials and policy influencers are finally taking action to
expand education access and address the significant inequities in K-12 and higher education
(OECD, 2011; Stewart, 2012; Tucker, 2011).
In 2025, the Colombian Ministerio de Educación Nacional (MEN) will mandate that
secondary education be compulsory in dense urban areas, and in 2030, the rural areas as
well. The unprecedented digital transformation of the global economy and society is likely
to increase the complexity of the modern world, as well as the speed of change, largely
because of increased connectivity and a more educated individual worldwide (OECD,
2019). This means that educational equity and consistent quality is essential. The
development of high-quality secondary schools located in Afro-Colombian communities
will be critical to the growth and development of these communities. The resource
requirements will be substantial, however, as the World Bank research indicates, if
Colombia does not make this investment in secondary education, the Colombian economy,
and the standard of living for most Colombians will be negatively impacted (OECD, 2019).

14
Afro-Colombian leaders want the next generation of leaders to purposefully address
the needs of their respective communities throughout the Pacific region of Colombia.
Unmotivated to learn, or bored with their classes, or both, many students are simply “going
through the motions” or dropping out of school altogether. Some suffer from debilitating
depression and anxiety or act out their frustrations in unhealthy ways—like using drugs and
alcohol, or turning to criminal behavior (Bronk, 2012). This is consistent with data from the
OECD and World Bank that highlights the lack of Afro-Colombian students that continue
to and through their secondary education. Many drop out after lower secondary school,
which is the equivalent of the 9
th
or 10
th
grade in the United States. Some, however, drop
out before they ever reach secondary school (OECD, 2018). Nevertheless, there may be a
way to help address this problem: encouraging kids to search for a purpose in life. Studies
have shown how purpose impacts well-being throughout the lifespan, young people are
hungry for purpose—and without it, they tend to be uninterested in school and more prone
to psychological issues down the road. Contrarily, those with purpose look forward to
greater wellbeing (Beck, 2006; Bronk, 2012).
Understanding how instructors and administrators embody the vision of African
Leadership Academy, and how they operationalize and implement the ALA mission and
purpose of Pan-African Afrocentricity, will be extremely insightful. Analyzing this
understanding through a Critical Race Theory lens (critical race theory “CRT” is a United
States developed interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analyzing how laws, social and
political movements, and media shape, and are shaped by, social conceptions of race and
ethnicity) is helpful. Applying a problem-posing education perspective, based on the work
of Paulo Freire (a Brazilian educator and philosopher who was a leading advocate of
critical pedagogy), will be essential to developing the instructor and administrator training

15
programs. Additionally, Afrocentric education influenced curriculum and the programming
necessary to prepare the next generation of purposeful Afro-Colombian leaders will also be
influenced by Freire and CRT.
Limitations, Delimitations, and Assumptions
There were various limitations with this qualitative research study. There were 17
participant interviews as part of the sample. The COVID-19 pandemic provided some
challenges to travel; however, fortunately, most of the interviews were conducted in-person
on the campus of African Leadership Academy in South Africa during the last week of
March and the first two weeks of April 2023. As a case study, this project was bounded
within the institutional limits of ALA and access to the primary stakeholders. This access
was provided by the founders and senior administrators of ALA, who were very supportive
of this research. Initially, the desired data collection methods planned were surveys,
document artifact review, in addition to the interviews that were conducted. Due to time
constraints, interviews were the preferred method of data collection utilized. This method
had inherent limitations including my ability to verify the truthfulness of the responses
provided by the interview participants. The data were triangulated with various interview
participants to confirm accuracy. However, the interviews were not systematically member-
checked, which posed an additional limitation.
Several delimitations were purposefully established due to the time constraints and
focus required by the methodological framework chosen. One delimitation was related to
the focus of the research, which was limited to founders, instructors, and administrators. No
other stakeholder groups such as current students, the parents of students, alumni, funders,
and partner institutions of ALA were part of the study. A more complete study would have
potentially covered student thesis project review analysis to observe the level of

16
Afrocentricity incorporated with each graduating student's senior thesis project.
Additionally, possibly even the tertiary institutions that ALA alumni attend upon
completion of the ALA two-year diploma program could have provided some compelling
insights into how ALA alumni are operationalizing the ALA mission through their choices
of academic focus, and how (if at all) they are incorporating their Afrocentricity into their
career decisions.
Definitions
For the purpose of this study, this section defines specific terms used in this research:
Afrocentricity is an academic theory and approach to scholarship that seeks to center
the experiences and peoples of Africa and the African diaspora within their own historical,
cultural, and sociological contexts (Hopkins, 2013).
Afro-Colombian: Afro-Colombians are Colombians of full or partial Sub-Saharan
African descent. (Blacks, Mulattoes, Pardos and Zambos). Predominantly in the
Pacific Region, Caribbean Region, and urban areas across the country
(Arocha,1998).
The African Diaspora has been defined by the noted historian Joseph Harris as the
voluntary and involuntary dispersion of Africans globally throughout history; the
emergence of a cultural identity based on origin and social condition; and the psychological
and physical return of those in the Diaspora to Africa. (Harrison, 1997).
Afro Descendant populations refers to Afro-descendants as individuals of African
origin who live in the Americas and in the region of the African Diaspora as a result of
slavery, who have been denied the exercise of their fundamental rights. (Silva, 2021)

17
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy refers to a teaching approach that is culturally
conscious of, sensitive to, and responsive to ethnic students whose culture is not a part of
the White, middle-class mainstream education (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995).
Counter-storytelling is an approach that calls attention to the voices of marginalized
people of color by listening to how their own experiences, and the knowledge that emerges
from them, illuminate, and disrupt dominant narratives about race, racism and racial
progress in society and schools (Solrzano & Yosso, 2001).
Ethno-education: Ethno-education. Ethno-cultural educational space. Ethno-cultural
education is an education directed on keeping ethno-cultural identity of the person by
familiarizing to native language and culture simultaneously with values of world culture
development (MEN, 2009)
Eurosupremacy is a worldview that is centered on Western civilization or a biased
view that favors it over non-Western civilizations. (Harrison, 1997)
Indigenous Colombian refers to the Indigenous peoples of Colombia, the ethnic
groups who have been in Colombia for over 15,000 years. Known as pueblos indígenas in
Spanish, they comprise 4.4% of the country's population and belong to 87 different tribes
(Paschel, 2016)
Knowledge society is a term to describe societies which are economically and
culturally characterized by a high degree of dependency on their potentials to create
scientific and technological knowledge (West, 2012)
Pacific Region refers to The Pacific Region of Colombia, which is located on
Colombia's western, Pacific coast, and covers an area of 83,170 km2 (32,110 sq mi). It
extends from the Gulf of Urabá in the north to the border with Ecuador in the south and

18
includes part of the departments (states) of Nariño, Cauca, Valle de Cauca, and the whole
of Chocó Department (González Bustelo, 2016).
Pan-Africanism is the idea that peoples of African descent have common interests
and should be unified. Historically, Pan-Africanism has often taken the shape of a political
or cultural movement. There are many varieties of Pan-Africanism (Imoka, 2014)
Race is a social construct, a human-invented classification system and was invented
to define physical differences between people but has more often been used as a tool for
oppression and violence (James, 1938)
Racism refers to racial prejudice supported by institutional power, used to the
advantage of one race and to the disadvantage of another race (Mills, 1998).
Racial superiority refers to supremacism: the belief that a certain group of people is
superior to all others. The supposed superior people can be defined by age, gender, race,
ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, language, social class, ideology, nation, culture, or
belong to any other part of a particular population (Mills, 1998).
Triangular Trade used to refer to the trade during the 16th to 19th centuries that
involved shipping goods (e.g., arms, tools and liquor) from Western Europe (predominantly
Portugal, Spain, Britain, France and the Netherlands) to West Africa (from modern day
Guinea, Nigeria and Angola) to be exchanged for captured and enslaved Africans. These
enslaved Africans were transported to the Americas (Caribbean/West Indies and South
America) and exchanged for sugar, rum, and other commodities, which were in turn
shipped to North America and back to Europe (Harris, 2003; McFarlane, 1991).

19
Organization of the Dissertation
This study has been organized into five chapters. Chapter One has provided the
reader with the key concepts, historical context, and terminology commonly found in a
discussion about Latin America and populations of Afro descent. Additionally, an overview
of Purpose-driven Youth Development, Critical Race Theory and Paulo Freire's Pedagogy
of the Oppressed were introduced. In addition, this chapter describes the conditions and
policies that have led to inequitable access to quality education for Afro-Colombian
communities. Furthermore, this chapter introduces the organization of study, with its
missions, goals, and the stakeholders involved in achieving those goals. Chapter Two
provides a review of current literature and the theoretical framework used within the scope
of the study. Topics include the history of African and Indigenous communities in
Colombia, Afrocentric education, K-12 education in Colombia, conflict and population
displacement, education innovators, disruptive education, instructor and administrator
training, and development initiatives are addressed. Chapter Three describes the
methodology used in selecting interview participants, data collection, and the process of
analysis. Chapter Four is a narrative of the data and results assessed and analyzed. Chapter
Five provides solutions, based on data and literature, for addressing inequitable access to
quality education in Colombia, as well as recommendations for implementation of the
solutions and an evaluation plan for those recommendations in Colombia targeting
communities of African descent.

20
Chapter Two: Review of the Literature
Chapter Two provides a historical overview and evolution of peoples of Indigenous
and African descent in Colombia and the Americas. The topics addressed include
Afrocentric education, Afrocentricity and eurosupremacy. Next, the inequitable
educational, political, and economic conditions of people of Afro-Colombian descent living
throughout the Pacific region of Colombia are highlighted. Subsequently, the national
education policy and the evolving demographics in Colombia that contextualizes the impact
on the Afro-Colombian communities are reviewed, followed by education disruption,
secondary school exemplars, and the opportunities to implement innovative ideas to
improve secondary schools in the Pacific region for Afro-Colombian students.
History of African and Indigenous Communities in Colombia
Providing a historical context is important to understand the current situation and
challenges of educating Africans and indigenous peoples in the Americas. The history of
Colombia includes the settlements and society of indigenous peoples, most notably, the
Muisca Confederation, Quimbaya Civilization, and Tairona Chiefdoms. While there are
various theories, the most prevalent is that these first settlers arrived in the Americas
through the Bering Straits (near modern day Alaska) and they expanded rapidly throughout
the Americas. Specifically in Colombia, their territory encompassed what is now Bogotá
and its environs and they have gained lasting fame as the origin of the El Dorado legend in
present-day Colombia. Due to its location, the present territory of Colombia was a corridor
of early human migration from Mesoamerica and the Caribbean to the Andes and the
Amazon basin. For centuries the Americas developed unbeknownst to the vast majority of
Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania, until history-altering events occurred in 1492, when

21
three small ships and some men from Europe crossed the Atlantic and arrived in the
Americas (Van der Hammen, 1978).
The history of populations of African descent throughout the hemisphere has been
“camouflaged, disfigured, and mutilated” (Ki-Zerbo, 2010, p. 23) by projects of
[mis]education that sought to write history solely from the perspective of the colonizers. In
a coordinated effort that crisscrossed the Atlantic, from Africa to the Caribbean and the
Americas alike, European invaders crafted quasihistorical narratives rooted in White
supremacy and anti-African diaspora racism to uphold and justify colonial, capitalist,
patriarchal, and heteronormative practices (Harrison, 1997).
Anthony McFarlane’s work, Cimarrones and Palenques in Colombia, provides an
overview of the arrival and evolution of people of African descent that predominately
disembarked in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, in the early 16
th
century during the
triangular transatlantic slave trade. McFarlane highlighted the fact that over 2 million
Africans arrived in Cartagena between the 16
th
and 18
th
century, making its slave trading
market the 2
nd
largest in the Americas, only behind Salvador, Bahia, in Brasil (McFarlane,
1991).
In the Americas, ideologies of racial superiority took many forms, as colonizers
attempted to establish social control by shaping the racial and identity politics of their
settlements. These racialized intellectual discourses sought to justify and reiterate the aims
of colonialism by embodying ideas of indoctrination, assimilation, ideological
conditioning, and subpersonhood (Mills, 1998). Consequently, as people of African descent
throughout the hemisphere resisted and negotiated space to legitimize their own identity—
both individually and collectively—attempts to recognize a shared history of African
descent were discouraged as they deviated from the colonial aims of subjugation. From the

22
Haitian Revolution from 1791-1804, colonists had learned the power of the mobilization of
African descendants born out of racial awareness (James, 1938).
Hemispherically, antiracist reforms emerged in different ways, varying from
constitutional changes that became part of the national educational standards to regional
legislation concerned with the political and territorial rights of Afro Descendant
populations (Silva, 2021). Colombia and Brazil, for example, engaged in extensive reforms
that redesigned civil, territorial, social, and political liberties in Afro-Colombian and Afro-
Brazilian communities. Although distinct in genesis, they intersected with the larger
movements of multicultural political reform and Afro descendant mobilization in the
Americas. More importantly, these reforms marked the material and symbolic inclusion of
Afro-Descendant populations within the sociohistorical lexicon of education (Silva, 2021).
Inequity of Educating People of African Descent
A eurocentric education is still being taught some 210 years after Colombia fought
for and declared its independence from Spain in 1810, and eventually achieving its
independence in 1819. Afro-Colombian communities continue to be marginalized and have
very little confidence that intellectuals and politicians have their best interest at heart. The
linkages between organized armed violence, land grabbing and the massive displacement of
Afro-Colombians, is noticeable as Jacobo Granales points out in his work, State
Involvement, Land Grabbing, and Counterinsurgency in Colombia (Grajales, 2013). This
has affected not only children’s education and the rural school system, but it has also
caused interruptions to the education of displaced students migrating to urban areas,
through recruitment into armed groups, threats to teachers and damage to physical
infrastructure. Additionally, the on-going armed conflict in the Pacific region has caused

23
overcrowding and underfunding in public schools located in large metropolitan areas
(González Bustelo, 2016).
Although slavery was abolished in 1851, the communities of African descent
continue to experience underinvestment, extreme poverty, racism, massive displacement
due to violence and land theft, as well as inequitable access to quality education options
(OECD, 2018). The lack of equity in rural schools in Colombia, as opposed to its urban
school counterparts, have significantly impacted the ability to produce well-developed
student learners who will eventually become productive global citizens. There are
approximately 2.3 million students (25%) of Colombia’s 9.3 million school-aged children
being educated in rural schools, many of them in the Pacific Region (OECD, 2018). The
unprecedented digital transformation of the global economy and society is likely to increase
the complexity of the modern world, as well as the speed of change, largely because of
increased connectivity and a more educated individual worldwide (OECD, 2019). This
means that educational equity and consistent quality is critical.
Social and economic equalities based on geography particularly affect Colombia’s
disenfranchised communities. These communities, specifically Afro-Colombian, which are
highly concentrated in regions with higher poverty, conflict-related violence, massive
displacement, and in the case of indigenous peoples, in rural, hard-to-reach, remote areas of
the country (Radinger, 2018). Less attractive and many times dangerous working
conditions make it difficult to attract and retain high-quality teachers; low student
enrollment impacts the ability to offer a broad and innovative curriculum, and poor physical
and technology infrastructure are contributing factors to this lack of equity in rural schools
(Radinger, 2018).

24
Ley 70 (Law 70) and the Recognition of Afro-Colombian Communities
Prior to the 1990s Colombia, like many other countries in the Latin American
sub-region, had a legal and discursive context that was “color-blind” and therefore Afro-
Colombian social movements were not particularly effective in national politics (Paschel,
2011). However, the 1991 Colombian constitution mandated, through Transitory Article
55 (AT55), the subsequent adoption of “Ley 70” (Law 70), or the law for the Afro-
Colombian communities, arguably the most comprehensive legislation for Afro-Latinos
in the Americas (Paschel, 2011). Among the significant changes this legislation
introduced, were the creation of two special seats in the House of Representatives for
Afro-Colombian communities, the mandatory incorporation of Afro-Colombian history
in the educational curriculum, and the granting of the right of development to Afro-
Colombian communities, as well as the right to be consulted on development projects
that affect their communities (Paschel, 2011). In recent years, the national government
has attempted to solve the problem of offering higher quality education for Afro-
Colombians by deepening its efforts to improve education for the Afro-Colombian
population and incorporate their ethnic dimension into the educational system. To
achieve these purposes, since Ley 70 of 1993, which formalized policies to address the
inequities through Afro-Colombian communities, the question of education has been
addressed in three dimensions: autonomous education, education for competitiveness,
and intercultural education or Afrocentric education.
With respect to autonomous education, reports from the Ministry of National
Education give account of dozens of pilot experiences, in different regions of the
country, one of the most outstanding being the one that has been carried out for some
years with the communities of San Basilio de Palenque, which has among its main axes

25
the rescue of their vernacular culture, starting from the Palenquera language.
Nevertheless, according to a study, between 2002 and 2010, Afro-Colombian
legislators proposed 25 bills directly affecting the Afro-Colombian community and only
two bills were approved (Hernández, 2015). Another study done by the National Union
School found that due to low educational attainment and limited employment options,
65% of Afro-Colombians work in the informal sector and nearly 30% who work in the
formal sector make less than the minimum wage (Soendergaard, 2015). As Ley 70 has
reached 30 years in existence in 2023, while some progress has been achieved, there still
is much work to be done to provide equitable opportunities for the Afro-Colombian
population.
Demographics and Displacement
Evolving Demographics and Implications for Education
The Colombia Constitution of 1991 defines all citizens as being equal and
Colombia as a social state that must ensure equity and freedom from discrimination for any
marginalized or vulnerable populations (Mineducación, 2017). As Ramirez states in World
Society and the Globalization of Education Policy, raw enrollments have expanded rapidly
worldwide (Ramirez, 2016). Primary education has expanded almost to universality, even
in peripheral countries, in just a few decades, and is now treated as an essential human right
(Ramirez, 2016). In Colombia, using the classification of “rurality” developed by the “rural
mission”, almost 2 million students, or one in four children, were enrolled in a rural school
(24.2%) in 2016; 39.8% of these students are in remote areas (Mineducación, 2017, p.23).
Despite well-intended efforts by the Colombian Government, the data does not sufficiently
capture the full impact of the challenges in rural Colombia, predominantly in the Pacific
Region.

26
With respect to demographics, girls are more likely to attend schools than boys,
particularly at the secondary levels, with a 5.9% higher net-enrollment rate at lower
secondary levels and 10.9 % higher at upper secondary. Boys have lower enrollment rates
at the secondary level driven by armed conflict, joining illegal groups, and the need to work
to support their families.
The World Bank recently reported that the percentage of Afro-Colombians that
receive primary education is higher than the percentage of primary education received by
the rest of Colombians, being 42% versus 32%, respectively. However, many Afro-
Colombians are not able to receive any higher education besides primary level education
because secondary education (high school education) access is only offered to 62% of
Afro-Colombians, while this level of education is offered to 75% of all other Colombians
(World Bank, 2018). Furthermore, researchers from the World Bank also found that the
overall educational quality of schools located in Afro-Colombian communities is much
lower and poorer than those in other communities, mainly because of the lack of
government support and little investment in these areas. This was reflected in the results of
the ICFES exam (national standardized exam), which showed that the average results for
Afro-Colombians were significantly lower than the results of the rest of Colombians
(World Bank, 2018).
Conflict and Population Displacement’s Implications for Education
Colombia has one of the largest populations of internally displaced persons (IDPs)
in the world, with more than 8 million IDPs, or nearly 16% of Colombia’s population of 52
million people. Indigenous and Afro-Colombians (25% of the Colombian population) are
disproportionately represented among those displaced. The official victim’s registry
counted a total of 8.6 million victims as of January 2018, with 461,000 being children

27
younger than five, and nearly two million children and young people aged between six and
17 years old, the vast majority located in rural areas (GMH, 2016).
Colombia has suffered from a complex internal conflict lasting more than a half
century, with the responsibility of violence falling on a variety of entities including guerilla
groups, paramilitary and state agents acting outside of their legal mandate. The conflict has
resulted in large numbers of victims, forced disappearances, displacements, abductions,
unlawful recruitment, torture, abuse, anti-personnel mines, and sexual violence (GMH,
2016). Additionally, research has revealed that conflict increases prenatal stress for women,
with negative effects on the birth weight of children, and long-term consequences on
cognitive abilities (Camacho, 2008).
The conflict has also had a significant negative impact on equity in terms of access
to education, leading to high rates of student dropout, especially for disadvantaged children
(Vargas et al., 2013). Security of a person is a basic right guaranteed by the 1948 Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. Threats to safety can be personal or societal. Education can
play a role in helping understand, prevent, and mitigate security risks. It can also help
students distinguish between perceived versus actual risks, build resilience and better
prepare citizens to withstand adversity (OECD, 2019).
The Colombian government and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia
(FARC), one of Colombia's principal armed paramilitary organizations, signed a peace
agreement in 2016 which included highlighting that lack of equity in rural education. The
peace agreement defines 13 goals that should be achieved through the implementation of a
rural education strategy. Included in these 13 goals are: Goal #2, which addresses
innovative and relevant curriculum, to “offer flexible models of pre-school, primary and
secondary education, adapted to the needs of the communities and the rural environment.”

28
Goal #3 addresses physical infrastructure to “implement the construction, reconstruction,
improvement and adaptation of rural educational infrastructure” (Mesa de Conversaciones,
2017, p. 78).
Educating Colombia’s population of African descent is critical to the growth and
development of the country. According to a joint UNESCO and DANE report, individuals
and countries that invest heavily in education, benefit socially and economically. Afro-
Colombians make up nearly 30% (2.8 million) of the 9.3 million school-aged children, yet
they are one of the poorest ethnic groups in the country. More specifically, according to the
Colombian Department for National Statistics (DANE) studies have shown that three-
quarters of the Colombian population which is classified as being "poor", is composed of
Afro-Colombians. This is reflected in some of the most basic, daily, aspects of their lives,
such as the average annual salary of Afro-Colombian adults. While people from this ethnic
group earn, on average, $500 dollars a year (or two million Colombian pesos), people that
are of European descent or Mestizo ethnic groups earn an average of $1,500 dollars a year
(or six million Colombian Pesos), assuming an exchange rate of COP 4000/1USD. This
means that the average Afro-Colombian earns three times less than the average
European/Mestizo Colombian (DANE, 2018). This is largely the result of the long-standing
inequality present in the Colombian education system.
The quality of education afforded the Afro-Colombian population pales in
comparison to that of the European/Mestizo population, whose children overwhelmingly
attend public schools in better neighborhoods or private academies, both of which have
higher quality teachers and better facilities than those in predominantly Afro-Colombian
neighborhoods. The Afro population is also not granted the same opportunities when it
comes to jobs or social advancement. These are the factors that contribute to a 75 percent

29
rate of poverty among people of African descendants (DANE, 2018). Consequently, a new
innovative and disruptive approach needs to be explored: an approach that will have a
profound and sustainable impact on equitable educational opportunities for children and
families of African descent; an approach that will positively influence the current and
future generations of Colombians throughout the Pacific Region.
Due to demographic trends and large displacement, Afro-Colombian families are
streaming into Colombian cities. Children arrive underprepared, traumatized, and
socioeconomically disadvantaged. Urban public education systems, already strained, are
stretched even further by the arrival of thousands of Venezuelan families streaming across
Colombian borders, who are fleeing their faltering economy. A richer understanding of
Colombia’s national education system and policies are paramount for crafting viable
solutions to address these major issues impacting inequitable education access for Afro-
Colombian families.
Current State of K-12 Education in Colombia
National education policy in Colombia is led by the Ministerio de Educación
Nacional (MEN). MEN establish centralized educational policy for the nation, then
structurally that policy is interpreted by the regional departments (states) and
implemented at the municipal level. There is little deviation from this centralized
structure, which limits flexibility to adjust to local and rural nuances at the municipal
level.
National Policy for K-12 Education in Colombia
Today, Colombia is a country of geographic and cultural diversity with a total
population of 52 million inhabitants. The country has become largely urbanized, partially
driven by rural to urban migration as the economy transitions from a predominately

30
agriculturally focused to a service- and knowledge-based economy. The other major factor
driving urban migration, as stated previously, is the mass displacement due to violence
(OECD, 2018). Education in Colombia is both a fundamental right and a public service
with a social function as defined in the Constitution adopted in 1991 (Article 67) —the
previous Constitution having been enacted since 1886. As a fundamental right, education is
essential and integral to the development of the individual. As a public service, the state
guarantees the provision of education. Education shall provide access to knowledge,
science, know-how and all other cultural goods and values. It shall educate Colombians in
the respect of human rights, peace, and democracy and in the practice of work and leisure
to enhance culture, science, and technology and to protect the environment (OECD, 2018).
These general objectives of education would later be further specified in the General
Education Law of 1994 (Law 115) in the form of 13 general goals for nonformal, informal
and formal education. The General Education Law also defines common objectives for all
levels of formal education, from preprimary to upper secondary levels, as well as specific
objectives for different levels (Sánchez (2018). According to the Constitution, the state,
society, and family are responsible for ensuring education quality and for promoting access
to public education (OECD, 2018).
Colombia is a decentralized but unitary state, with all government offices located in
the capital, Bogotá. Politically and administratively, the country is organized into territorial
entities. At this territorial level, there are 32 departments (states), seven districts, 1,122
municipalities and several indigenous territories. While departments correspond to the
regional level, districts and municipalities refer to the local level. Indigenous territories are
governed by their own councils, the Cabildos Indigenous, and their own laws (OECD,
2018). Colombia was one of the first countries in Latin America to begin decentralizing its

31
school system and, although a unitary state, Colombia has become one of the more
decentralized countries in the region. Following first steps to decentralize education to
municipalities, districts, and departments in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, before and
after the adoption of the new Constitution, the reform of the fiscal transfer system in 2001
further clarified responsibilities for each level of government (OECD, 2018).
At the central level, the Ministry of National Education (Ministerio de Educación
Nacional, MEN) is the head of the sector. According to the General Education Law, the
ministry holds four types of responsibilities: i) policy and planning; ii) monitoring; iii)
administration; and iv) regulation. The ministry formulates policies, and objectives,
regulates provision, establishes criteria and guidelines, monitors the system, and provides
technical advice and support, but does not directly provide education. In recent years, the
ministry has taken on an increasingly important role in the design and implementation of
programs that target individual schools (MEN, 2018).
National Education Plan for Colombia 2016-2026
The National Decennial Education Plan 2016-2026 is a roadmap to advance towards
an educational system of quality that promotes the economic and social development of the
country, and the construction of a society whose foundations are the justice, equity, respect,
and recognition of differences. The main attributes of the National Ten-Year Education
Plan are its inclusive and participatory nature. The document is divided into five sections.
In the first section, the frame of reference used for the preparation of the Ten-Year
Education Plan, which includes the regulations, its guiding principles, and the vision on
education for the year 2026. In the second an approximation is made of the current situation
of education in Colombia and the lessons learned during the formulation and
implementation of the ten-year plans 1995–2005 and 2006–2016 (MEN, 2017). The third

32
chapter describes the methodology for defining the new plan, the different stages that took
place during its development, and the collegiate bodies responsible for the preparation of
the document are presented.
The fourth segment includes the ten challenges of education in Colombia,
established from an exercise of collective construction that included the participation of the
National Government, teachers, researchers, experts, academic communities, businessmen,
civil society and, in general, those who are directly related to the execution of public
policies in educational matters (MEN, 2017). Finally, in the fifth section, the document
formulates a series of indicators for the measurement and evaluation of the National Plan
Decennial of Education, which guarantee the continuous and precise follow-up of the goals.
The National Decennial Education Plan 2016-2026 is a proposal for the education sector to
become a driving force that promotes economic development and social transformation.
The guiding nature of this document makes it a beacon that guides educational strategies,
plans and policies during the next decade (MEN, 2017).
For school education, there are, thus, three levels of administration: central,
territorial (regional and local), and school levels. The governance framework is the same
for all levels of education from preprimary to upper secondary, and the same authorities are
responsible for regulating, funding, and providing education for all these levels (MEN,
2018). In school education, the ministry works with three different entities: the National
Institute for the Blind (Instituto Nacional para Ciegos, INCI), the National Institute for the
Deaf (Institutional Nacional para Sordos, INSOR) and the Colombian Institute for
Educational Evaluation (Instituto Colombiano para la Evaluacion Educativa, ICFES). INCI
and INSOR promote public policy for people with a disability. ICFES is the institution
responsible for evaluation and assessment in education and for carrying out research on the

33
quality of education. All of these three institutions have administrative autonomy and an
independent budget (MEN, 2018).
Under the General Education Law, formal education is defined as education that is
offered by approved institutions, organized in a sequence of cycles and progressive
curricular standards, and leads to academic titles and degrees.
According to the law, formal education is divided into four levels:
● preschool education (educación preescolar), which is composed of
prekindergarten (pre-jardín), kindergarten (jardín) and a transition
year/Year 0 (año de transición)
● basic education (educación básica), which consists of a first cycle
of primary education (educación básica primaria)
● second cycle of lower secondary education (educación básica
secundaria)
● upper secondary education (educación media).
Colombia’s system of school education transitions between earlier and later levels
of the education system and other types of provision (OECD, 2018).
Based on Colombia’s Constitution of 1991, compulsory education lasts ten years,
from the age of five to 15, comprising the transition year and all basic education. Colombia
has 9.3 million school-aged children enrolled in public and private schools combined. The
vast majority (79%) of these students are enrolled at the basic primary (Primaria) levels.
Preschool (Pre-escolar) and secondary (Secondaria) represent 10% and 11% respectively.
There are approximately 2.3 million students (25%) of Colombia’s 9.3 million school-aged
children being educated in rural schools (OECD, 2018). Recently, compulsory education

34
has been extended to the upper secondary level. As set out in the country’s National
Development Plan for 2014-18, this is being introduced gradually and upper secondary
education will be compulsory for all students in urban areas by 2025, and in rural areas by
2030 (OECD, 2018).
Education in Colombia is both a fundamental right and a public service with a
social function as defined in the Colombian Constitution. The national education plan for
Colombia and the Ministerio de Educación Nacional, the agency charged with crafting and
disseminating education policy, has worked to decentralize the public education system
(MEN, 2017). The current system as currently designed is not serving all children equitably
(OECD, 2018). Students of Afro-Colombian descent require a different and more
comprehensive disruptive approach to education.
The National Development Plan (NDP) “Todos Por Un Nuevo País” ("All for a new
country"), was recently updated in early 2023 by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s
administration and ratified by the Colombian congress in May of 2023. The principal
objective is “to build a peaceful, equitable and educated Colombia” (DNP, 2023, p. 21). In
harmony with the purposes of the National Government, best practices and international
standards were developed. A vision for long-term planning helped to provide sustainable
development goals. In the Plan “Todos Somos Pacífico” ("We are all Pacífico”), a green
growth strategy based on information and environmental education at all levels, was
developed to encourage the adoption of green practices for the generation of added value to
achieve economic, social, and environmentally sustainable growth, (Gobierno Nacional,
2023). The NDP is based on three pillars of the government’s economic policies:
1) Peace: The NDP does not limit the proposed reforms on signing an agreement in
Havana.

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2) Fairness: The NDP recognized that social inequality is the government’s main
concern, because of its significant impact on poverty and violence.
3) Education: The NDP establishes that the development of human capital is a
necessary condition for fostering economic growth, so an increase in the quality
and coverage of the educational system has a vital part to play in reducing social
inequalities
Valle del Cauca Ten-Year Plan
Within the framework of the international decade for the Afro-descendant
population (2015-2024), and in accordance with the Durban declaration and action
program, the international convention on the elimination of all forms of racial
discrimination was very well defined. As a result, the Secretary of Ethnic Affairs of the
Department of Valle de Cauca (Valle), Colombia, proposed the design, and development of
a ten-year plan (2018-2028) focused on Afro-Colombian, Raizal and Palenquera
communities that reside in Valle del Cauca, (Asuntos Étnicos, 2018).
Given the foundation of the Colombia Constitution of 1991, and the context of the
National Development Plan of 2014, the Valle del Cauca ten-year plan (2018-2028) was
developed. Valle del Cauca is a department (state) in western Colombia abutting the Pacific
Ocean. This comprehensive plan, developed in 2018, serves as a tool and instrument to
recognize and guarantee the rights of Afro-Colombians that reside in Valle. The Afro-
Colombian population in Valle populates 50% of the 42 municipalities that make up the
Department of Valle del Cauca (DANE, 2016). The Department has the largest
concentration of Afro-Colombians in the country, after the Department of Chocó. Santiago
de Cali (Cali) is the capital of Valle, with a total population of 2.8 million inhabitants and
has the highest number of Afro-Colombians, with nearly 639,000 Afro-Colombians

36
residing in Valle. Cali is followed by the District of Buenaventura, the largest and most
important port in the country, with a total population of 450,000 residents, (85% or 383,000
Afro-Colombians). Buenaventura is affected by social and cultural problems related to
basic sanitation, health, housing, education, and violence. 44% of people are in
multidimensional poverty, with a high percentage of victims of armed conflict, due to the
presence of groups outside the law, generating dynamics of forced displacement, gangs,
and drug trafficking, among other types of violence.
Valle del Cauca Education Policy
The Valle del Cauca Ten-Year Plan (2018-2028) has various aspects, and
comprehensive strategic action components. These components include economic
development, healthcare, social development, gender equality, sexual diversity, peace and
territorial reconciliation, tourism, environment and agriculture, adequate housing, sports
and recreation, and education. The principal challenges identified that apply to each of the
strategic action components are significant participation, transparency, equality, and
tolerance. With respect to the education policy, the policy clearly states that education is a
fundamental right afforded the Afro-Colombian population and there is a guarantee that this
education will have a differential ethnic focus for the Afro population in Valle del Cauca,
(Secretaría de Asuntos Étnicos, 2018).
The specific education policy objectives outline and guarantee: 1) Access to the
Chair of Afro-Colombian studies (decree 1122 of 1998) at all educational levels; 2)
Promote the qualification of teachers to be ethno-educators in the department of Valle del
Cauca; 3) Promote permanent programs against racism and discrimination in all scenarios
of Valle del Cauca society; 4) Strengthen bilingual education for the Afro population in
Valle del Cauca; 5) Identify the unique causes of problems of desertion, illiteracy,

37
absenteeism and repetition of school years in the Afro, Raizal and Palenquera from Valle
del Cauca; 6) Track and monitor investment in the improvement and adaptation of the
infrastructure of the Afrocentric educational institutions of the department of Valle del
Cauca; 7) Increase access to higher education for the Afro population of the department of
Valle del Cauca, (Secretaría de Asuntos Étnicos, 2018).
Policy Efficacy and Possible Alternatives
The Valle del Cauca Ten-Year plan (2018-2028) and education policy is now
approaching its five-year milestone, which is an excellent opportunity to assess the efficacy
of the plan and determine if it’s necessary to “course-correct” and develop possible
alternatives. Michael Howlett’s perspective on policy evaluation is that a government often
assesses how the policy is working, while simultaneously various other members of the
policy subsystems and general public are engaged in their own assessment of the workings
and effects of the policy in order to express support or opposition to the policy, or demand
changes to it (Howlett, 2009).
When the Valle del Cauca educational policy ten-year plan was developed, there
were definitive goals articulated such as: a) develop fifty (50) didactic materials (five per
year) in audiovisual and printed format that promote ethnic identity and strengthen
multiculturalism; b) 70% of educational institutions in the primary and secondary levels
have incorporated Afro-Colombian literature during the decade in their study plans and c)
Sixty (60) educational activities (one bi-monthly educational activity) related to forums,
seminars, workshops, diploma courses, meetings aimed at the qualification of teachers in
topics of Afrocentric education have been carried out during the decade, (Secretaría de
Asuntos Étnicos, 2018).

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While there doesn’t appear to be a report generated that directly correlates to an
evaluation of the original 10-year education plan for Afro-Colombians in Valle, there is
evidence that some activities and initiatives have been implemented, (DNP, 2020). Howlett
discusses that perhaps the greatest benefits from policy evaluation are not necessarily the
direct results the policy generates, in terms of definitive assessments of success and failure
of a particular policy, but rather the educational dynamic that it can stimulate among
policymakers. He further postulates that, whether the policy evaluators realize it or not,
they are often participating in a larger process of policy learning, (Howlett, 2009).
Nevertheless, given the resources (human and financial) required to implement significant
aspects of the 10-year education plan in Valle del Cauca to improve outcomes for Afro-
Colombian students, a formal five-year assessment of the 10-year plan has merit. The
policy learnings from a formal assessment, can assist in identifying effective aspects of the
policy, which will assist in redirecting resources, if necessary, to maximize outcomes and
impact (Howlett, 2009).
Education Disruption
What is education disruption?
New instructional models of education are critical to adopting to current and future
society needs. This includes the reorganization of curricula, emphasis on freedom and
individuality, and responding to changing and dynamic workforce requirements. John
Dewey in his seminal book, Schools of Tomorrow (written in 1915) warned that: “If we
teach students as we taught yesterday, we rob them of tomorrow” (Dewey,1915, p. 271).
Learning academies must reinvent themselves to engage students and train them for
needed areas, otherwise, it will be difficult to compete in the global economy (West, 2012).
Instructors assume the roles of coaches, students learn at their own pace through real-life

39
projects (project-based learning), software programs track student progress, and schools are
judged by the outcomes they produce. Rather than being limited to six hours a day for half
the year, this kind of education moves toward 24/7engagement and full-time learning.
“Disruptive” pilot projects from around the globe are experimenting with different
organizations and delivery systems, thereby transforming the manner in which formal
education takes place, including personalized learning, blogs and wikis, mobile technology,
video games, augmented reality, and real-time assessment in K–12 and higher education.
Emerging approaches to education make it possible to envision a system where the barriers
between secondary school and university are broken down and students can take courses
that fit their needs and interests (West, 2012).
Digital technology enables fundamental shifts in instructional methods, content, and
assessment. However, technology by itself will not remake education. Meaningful change
will require alterations in technology, organizational structure, instructional approach, and
educational assessment. Combining innovations in technology, organization, operations,
and culture, then overcoming current barriers, produce better results, and reimagine the way
schools’ function (West, 2012).
The revolution in information and communications technology has transformed
numerous industries over the past few decades. Virtual devices such as automated teller
machines, grocery scanners, and airport check-in kiosks have reduced costs, facilitated
shifts in organizational models, and enabled the delivery of innovative services and
products. Industries from food, banking, and airlines to manufacturing and entertainment
have embraced digital technologies and deployed them to automate routine tasks, flatten
organizations, and dramatically improve efficiency and effectiveness. Many of these
improvements were made possible by the invention of the transistor in the 1950s. The

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transistor created unimaginable economies of scale for mechanical devices and paved the
way for microchips and computerized systems (West, 2012).
In industries that are lightly regulated by the government and subject to market
feedback, it is possible for path-breaking inventions such as transistors or hydraulic systems
to transform key sectors. Discoveries typically start at the low-cost end of the industry; as
specific benefits are demonstrated; they migrate up the value chain and produce
transformation in a short period of time. Seeing the virtues of new creations, business
leaders alter their business operations to bring low-cost products into the marketplace. But
when the field is highly regulated and there are weak market mechanisms to guide
innovation, industry disruption is more challenging. Powerful business and labor interests
can use government bodies to delay change and create barriers to experimentation and
adoption. The weakness of market signals to parents, producers, and policymakers makes it
difficult to assess costs and benefits and leads to misperceptions of risks as well as virtues.
(West, 2012).
In this situation, people hang on to old ways of doing things because the benefits of
inventions are not clearly apparent. Rather than embracing transformation and using
technology to further innovation, organized interests fight change and argue that the old
system is superior to newly emerging ones. That type of status quo orientation slows
change and raises the political and economic costs of innovation. This dynamic is the
central problem limiting changes in education today (West, 2012). The field is regulated
and lacks market mechanisms such as consumer information, price points, transparency,
and clear assessment mechanisms. Defenders of the status quo fight change, and the lack of
commonly accepted metrics makes it difficult to judge the effectiveness of proposed
reforms. Uncertainty over costs and benefits limits the potential for meaningful change in

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public schools. Joanne Weiss, the former U.S. Department of Education’s chief of staff,
notes that:
The biggest challenge for us is that education has been a place that is wildly
resistant to innovation. It was designed very much to resist the status quo so that
crazy fads wouldn’t use kids as guinea pigs. And the problem with that is now when
we desperately need innovation, we have built a system that is really, really, good at
repelling it (West, 2012, p. 4).
Disruptive Innovators in Secondary Education
There are excellent models of disruptive and innovative secondary academies
throughout the globe. The initial disruptive models incorporate a sense of purpose instilled
into its students, staff, and stakeholders. In addition to purpose, instructor and
administrative training programs, innovative curriculum, skill enhancement, and project-
based learning are essential components of these disruptive models. Financial viability and
sustainability are also an important aspect of these disruptive models of excellence. The
African Leadership Academy is one of the most recognized exemplars in global disruptive
secondary education.
African Leadership Academy (South Africa)
African Leadership Academy (ALA) was founded in 2004 and its doors opened in
2008. ALA is located in Roodepoort, South Africa, in the suburbs outside of Johannesburg.
ALA is broadly categorized into four programs: Two-year Diploma program,
Entrepreneurship programs (Anzisha Prize), Networks, and Global Programs. ALA
operates the nondiploma programs to promote Pan-African cooperation, prospect for
potential students, generate cash flow, utilize the facilities, and idle staffulty (and ALA
term for staff and faculty) mostly during the summer months (June to August) when the

42
regular diploma program semester is not in session, although ALA hosts the Model African
Union in March, typically offsite at a local hotel. ALA currently enrolls 220 students in
their two-year diploma program with an average age of 17. It is dedicated to 16- to 19-year-
olds from throughout Africa and the rest of the world, with alumni from 46 countries. The
cost of tuition at ALA is approximately USD $32,000 per year. At ALA, most students
receive some level of financial support, although no student receives 100% free tuition. The
value of the financial award is determined based on each family’s ability to pay, after
admissions decisions have been made (ALA, 2023).
ALA was born out of the conviction that the predominant efforts aimed at Africa's
development addresses symptoms and not the root cause of Africa's problems. For ALA, at
the root of contemporary Africa’s underdevelopment is the paucity of good leaders. That is,
Africa lacks a critical mass of people with the mindset and skillset to bring about a different
future. In developing this mindset amongst Africans, they have focused on African
teenagers who they are grooming to love Africa in its entirety and to acquire skills to
continue to support the continent. Looking at ALA’s programming approach, ALA appears
to understand the need for the type of democracy and leadership that will be grounded in
African culture, Pan-African cooperation, transformative and empowering education, and
the engagement of young people (ALA 2005; ALA 2014; Imoka 2014).
ALA is accredited to operate in South Africa as an educational institution. ALA is a
member institution of the World Leading Schools Association (WLSA), New England
Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), Independent Schools Association of
Southern Africa (ISASA), Global Online Academy (GOA), International Association for
College Admission Counseling (IACAC), and National Association for College Admission

43
Counseling (NACAC). Its graduates are eligible to pursue tertiary education all over the
world (ALA, 2023).
Since 2010, ALA alumni have been admitted to more than 160 universities across
the world for undergraduate studies, and more than 230 universities when factoring
postgraduate studies. These include globally reputed universities on the Africa Continent,
USA, Europe, Asia, and South America. ALA provides their students a sense of purpose
and responsibility to be great stewards and representatives of their communities in addition
to the African Continent. The founding beliefs and principles of ALA, as articulated by its
founders, were developed as five guiding principles from which all decisions regarding
curriculum, staff, teaching philosophy, programming and other activities are assessed. ALA
instructors and administrators therefore have the challenge of translating and incorporating
these beliefs and values throughout their lesson plans, classroom experiences, and
administrative responsibilities (ALA, 2023).
These guiding principles are:
1. Address the underlying causes of problems: treat root causes, not symptoms,
to create lasting positive change.
2. The Power of One: Individuals catalyze the actions of large groups and
transform societies.
3. The Power of Youth: Young people can dream big, take action, and change
the world.
4. The Need for Pan-African Cooperation: Collaboration will stimulate growth
and development across the African Continent.
5. Entrepreneurship is key for growth.

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School culture is the tangible conglutinate component of African Leadership
Academy that connects and binds ALA values, beliefs, purpose, classroom experiences and
community together. The core courses at ALA (African Studies, Entrepreneurial
Leadership, and Writing & Rhetoric), are designed and delivered completely by ALA
instructors. The courses, aligned to the Cambridge A-Level syllabus, have predefined
content, assessment objectives, and a suggested pace that should be followed to prepare
students for the British Council assessments and exams (ALA, 2023).
African Studies is the foundation of African Leadership Academy. The African
studies course foregrounds an African account of the continent and takes on an
interdisciplinary approach by studying Africa through historical, economic, geographic, and
political lenses. The course is divided into two parts between the two years of study at
ALA. Year One prepares the students for further specialization in Year Two (ALA 2014;
ALA 2018; Imoka, 2014). The fundamental approach with the African studies courses at
ALA begins with the history of African Studies as a discipline. Who was it created by and
what was it created to serve? The purpose is to encourage students to be suspicious of the
information received and to challenge the status quo, while simultaneously developing the
skill to formulate an argument and support it with evidence. This recognizes that
historically education in most respects is some form of ‘indoctrination’.
Developing independent and liberated critical thinking Africans is essential to
establishing an authentic commitment to the Continent grounded in a unique experience.
During the first year, students also discuss: what does it mean to be African? How can
African identity be defined at the individual level? Is there such a thing as ‘Africaness’ that
can apply to everyone? On a weekly basis, students read the news and current affairs from
other African countries that they normally would not learn about and discuss in class. The

45
purpose of this is to enable students to understand the similarities between each country’s
local conditions, social issues, and potential solutions that can apply to multiple countries in
the region. Instructors are empowered and engaged to create resources, case studies, and
equip students to conduct their own research and investigations. The goal is to ensure that
stories and experiences are drawn from a variety of contexts (Imoka 2014; ALA, 2023).
The Entrepreneurial Leadership (EL) program at ALA is designed to develop the
interpersonal and leadership skills that are essential for future agents of positive change.
Through the Entrepreneurial Leadership program, students enhance the mind-set, approach,
and skills necessary to be entrepreneurial leaders on the African continent and beyond. The
syllabus includes a variety of teaching methods, including team-based design challenges,
guest speakers, minilectures, simulations and games, case studies, and experiential learning
(ALA, 2022).
ALA has identified six sectors that are primary challenges for the African continent.
These sectors include infrastructure, agribusiness, health, governance, the arts, and
education. The coursework and solution-orientated entrepreneurial student ventures have
been developed around these primary challenges. The design thinking model that ALA uses
is framed around a concept called “BUILD” (Believe, Understand, Invent, Listen, and
Deliver). The first year of the diploma program culminates in the Original Idea for
Development Incubator where students bring to market ideas for change that align with
their passions and skills. During their second year, students run a for-profit or nonprofit
venture on the ALA campus in teams of 5-7 students through the Student Enterprise
Program. This program allows ALA’s young leaders students to put the first-year
curriculum into practice by simulating real-life business scenarios (ALA, 2023).

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The second aspect of the African Leadership Academy academic program are the A
and O level courses which are incorporated into the ALA curriculum to prepare students for
tertiary education at a college or university. ALA is an accredited Cambridge International
Examinations (CIE) test center. CIE is the world’s most popular international examination
for high school students and A-Levels are accepted as proof of academic preparedness for
entry into outstanding universities globally, (ALA, 2022). Students study the core offering
of English and Mathematics, then students choose a combination of Cambridge-
administered electives that can include courses from the Natural Sciences, the Humanities
& Languages and Commerce.
Students are only at ALA for two-years; however, they are encouraged to maintain
long-life engagement, which is managed by other administrative departments called
“networks” and “alumni engagement”. These departments track the progress of ALA
alumni to and through university and into their professional careers. Additionally, Alumni
have access to an employment opportunity database and to the Young Entrepreneurs Fund,
which is a resource for seed capital and advisory to support alumni ventures (ALA, 2023).
African Leadership Academy was highlighted in an article entitled, Youth
Leadership for Development: Contradictions for Africa’s Growing Leadership Pipeline,
written by Krystal Strong and Christiana Kallon Kelly. The premise of the article questions
whether “elite-driven” strategies, corporate leadership models, and foreign collaboration
models such as ALA, will have the desired impact of training enough future leaders for the
African Continent (Strong & Kelly, 2022). As mentioned previously, ALA only has a total
of 220 combined students between its first- and second-year classes for its two-year
Diploma program. There are no immediate plans by ALA leadership to expand the number
of students in the Diploma program. One of the binding constraints to expansion is the lack

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of additional rooms in the existing residence halls. Moreover, the required investment of
$32,000 USD to educate each student in the Diploma program presents financial challenges
that would further strain and potentially compromise ALA’s financial solvency.
ALA Synopsis
The proposed network of secondary schools to be developed in Colombia will instill
a sense of pride and responsibility for its Afro-Colombian students, who upon graduation
will be expected to return to their communities and become agents of impactful change
during, and upon completion of, their formal education. Administratively, the desire was to
study ALA’s organizational structure, curriculum design, instructor recruitment,
professional development programs, financial sustainability, and fund-raising strategies to
ensure that the proposed academies based in Colombia will also thrive.
Academically, the planned Colombian academies will be multilingual, with Spanish
and English as primary languages, Afro-Colombian languages such as Palenque and Bande,
and African languages such as Yoruba and Swahili, will also be studied. A virtual diaspora-
peer program with upper secondary students and potentially with ALA students where each
group of students can learn from each other would be very compelling. Incorporating a
study tour so that Colombia students can visit ALA and Colombia can host students from
ALA is one of the many proposed initiatives to reconnect the Afro-Colombian population
to their historical roots on the African Continent. Nevertheless, the focus of this study
regarding understanding how ALA educators and administrators embody the vision and
mission of a schools’ educational philosophy, and how ALA instructors and administrators
incorporate Afrocentricity within their curriculum and administrative responsibilities,
respectively, will be critical in developing a viable implementation strategy. Furthermore,
how ALA instructors and administrators continuously expand their skills will provide

48
additional invaluable insights and perspectives to assist in the objective of opening
disruptive and transformative educational academies serving high-potential Afro-
Colombian students.
Colegios en Concesión (Colombian Charter Schools)
Colegios en Concesión (Colombian version of United States Charter Schools) began
in 1999 as a disruptive innovative option intended to provide education that was high-
quality, privately managed, and publicly funded to support poor students in specific areas
of Bogotá, (Colombia’s capital city). Charter schools are state-sponsored public schools
that are sometimes able to operate under fewer regulations than the traditional public
schools. They often use this latitude to offer unique programs or to serve particular
populations (Macey, 2009).
The expansion of private educational providers and public private partnerships
(PPP’s) in Colombia is largely explained by the historical underfunding of the public
education sector in the country. Thus, Colombian government spending on education as a
percentage of GDP is only 4.8% (a figure lower than the regional average for Latin
America). As a consequence of this underfinancing, Colombia has insufficient resources to
address the need for adequate public education. Bogotá alone has a deficit estimated of
more than 31 thousand school places (seats). In addition, enrollment rates are only 63% in
preprimary, 87% in primary, 72% in lower secondary, and 41% in upper secondary, figures
below the average for Latin America and the Caribbean. In this context, the political
strategy to increase educational access has consisted of increasing the student/teacher ratio
and multiple school days. In fact, public schools offer school days in the morning (7am-
12pm), afternoon (12-4pm), and even at night (2-7pm).

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Only 0.8% of public-school students enjoy a full school day of learning. The low
expansion of the public sector has stimulated the increase in the number of private schools
throughout Colombia, but especially in cities such as Bogotá, where the private sector
covers 62% of the students enrolled in preprimary, 35% of the students in primary, 34% in
secondary lower, and 38% in upper secondary. Consequently, the need for educational
expansion amidst budgetary constraints makes Colegios en Concesión a viable alternative,
(Termes, Verger, Bonal, 2017).
Developing public-private partnerships with the Ministry of Education and private
operators of schools can be a plausible method to accelerate development of equitable
educational options in underserved communities. There is a critical need to consider other
viable strategies to finance the development of high-quality schools in Colombia,
particularly in underserved Afro-Colombian communities. As mentioned previously, public
schools serving Afro-Colombian students are grossly underfunded, which impacts
instructional quality, professional development, scarcity of resources and poor
infrastructure. The Colombian government invests approximately $3,200 per K-12 student
in public schools. Colombian K-12 private education can exceed $8,000-$10,000 per
student. Most of this $4,800 to $6,800 differential is used for instructor and administrative
staff, facilities enhancements, and infrastructure expansion, (Edwards Jr., DeMatthews, &
Hartley, 2017).
With the Colegios en Concesión (CEC) program, private schools with demonstrated
high student outcomes, have the opportunity to manage public resources through the
inclusion in their schools of children from vulnerable sectors or low-income students who
reside in the surrounding area near the educational establishments. The CEC’s must provide
the educational services based on their institutional program and pedagogy. The schools

50
also provide educational materials, meals, and must maintain the educational facilities in
good condition. These CEC’s are evaluated by the Ministry of Education on an annual basis
for compliance and educational outcomes, (Termes, 2017; Macey, 2009).
The Colegios en Concesión program has become a well-known and relatively high-
profile education reform for Colombia and has been promoted by the World Bank and the
Inter-American Development Bank. Colegios en Concesión allow for jointly developing
curriculum and education materials, shared professional development, implementation of
various pilot programs, and sharing of resources. Even though the model has been
extremely successful with strong student outcomes, teachers and other labor unions are
threatened and therefore pressure elected officials to not expand the program, (Edwards Jr.,
DeMatthews, & Hartley, 2017)
According to a report from the Ministry of National Education that analyzed the
Colegios en Concesión, “this model has presented good results in some educational
indicators, such as low dropout and repetition levels”; and according to the 2006
Corpoeducación Report on Educational Progress in Colombia, "between 2000 and 2003,
school dropouts fell from 8% to 6% in elementary school, and from 6% to 5% in
secondary" (MEN, 2006, p. 11). However, public education in a city like Bogotá, where
there are close to a million children, families should not focus on whether the schools are
administered by public or private entities, but rather, that the opportunity and freedom to
choose exists. Parents of low-income families can provide their children with a high-quality
option to be educated in private schools with high educational standards at no additional
cost to them (MEN, 2006).
The concept of the private schools for many poor and working-class families can be
problematic. The arguments focused on considering that what funds the State administers

51
are for the benefit of the ‘people’, while what is in private hands only benefits an elite few.
Many community services delivered by private models can potentially be better managed
and executed more efficiently. Therefore, the public-private partnership with the Colegios
en Concesión has worked well (Edwards Jr., DeMatthews, & Hartley, 2017).
Currently in Bogotá, Colegios en Concesión resources are being administered by 22
schools such as Cafam, Calasanz, Colsubsidio, Don Bosco, and Fé y Alegría. However,
traditional public schools still make up most schools in the capital city, as only 5% have the
concession model. In addition to the existing 22 concession schools, there was a projected
goal of authorizing an additional 13 schools that would have 10-year operating agreements.
There was a $369 billion Colombian peso budget ($92 million USD) approved by the
Bogotá City Council in 2018 for the new concession schools, however the program
encountered serious problems. There was significant political discontent by some elected
officials who disagreed with allocating public resources to private operators. There were
also philosophical differences and questions regarding political lobbying on the behalf of
school operators and construction companies that influenced the award decisions (Consejo
de Bogotá, 2020).
Complicating matters was the fact that seven of the thirteen newly authorized
schools had construction delays, which resulted in these seven schools operating on a
partial schedule with limited space completed and available for use. Some buildings were
completed as planned and delivered in January 2020, while others were still under
construction when the January academic school year began. Regarding the other schools
that were not yet completed, the decision was made to look for temporary space in nearby
commercial properties to provide classroom space until the newly constructed buildings
were completed. The previous municipal administration and mayor signed lease contracts

52
for various properties to address the space needs caused by construction delays. As a result
of the political in-fighting and disagreements, the construction delays undermined the
Colegios en Concesión program and harmed the district’s confidence in the entire initiative
(Consejo de Bogotá, 2020).
The fundamental challenge is allocating the necessary resources to better educate
the more than 330,000 low-income children and youth in the city of Bogotá so they can
study for a full eight-hour school day, and not half days, which is the existing model in
some schools due to teacher shortages and space limitations (Consejo de Bogotá, 2020).
Bogotá has two primary shortcomings in public education: teachers and infrastructure. The
municipality is considering multiple options to advance more equitable education for
underserved communities, and concession schools are a viable solution that meets all the
criteria. The Colegios en Concesión model provides opportunities for innovation, quality,
and program flexibility. Nevertheless, many families are uncomfortable and afraid of the
private model, even though this model has been rigorously evaluated and has demonstrable
positive results (Consejo de Bogotá, 2020; Termes et al., 2017).
While the CECs program initially begin in Bogota led by the Education Secretariat,
the Colegios en Concesión model has expanded to other parts of the country. Today
operators must be incorporated as non-profit entities, have prior experience, and
demonstrate “academic excellence”. New Colegios en Concesión schools are now built in
municipalities with low economic indicators, underserved populations, and a shortage of
quality schools.

53
Disruptive and Innovative Education in Colombia
Disruptive and Innovative Instruction & Professional Development
Meaningful change will require alterations in technology, organizational structure,
instructional approach, and educational assessment. The two principal components however
are teacher professional development and curriculum design that are adapted to fit the
targeted communities and students. The foundational principle is that all students can learn.
It is the adult’s responsibility to leverage all tools, resources, and technologies to ensure
every child can and will learn.
The society of the early twenty-first century is characterized as the knowledge
society. Schools cannot afford to remain detached from the fast-moving changes that are
taking place and have therefore made innovation one of their main priorities. One of the
most profound change and innovation experienced in the last few years concerns digital
technology. While knowledge and mastery of digital tools and processes are no guarantees
of equity in the education system, schools also must face the challenge of making digital
tools and applications available to all their pupils without neglecting any aspect of their
educational function. At the same time, teachers must also involve themselves in the digital
competences that are the unavoidable landmarks of the education of today and of the future
(Hepp, 2015).
As with other professions in other sectors, being familiar with these digital tools and
processes, mastering them, and constantly updating them are now components of the
teaching profession. When viewing these new learning environments from a general
transformational perspective and the technology-related teacher-training perspective, we
need to bear in mind the following three dimensions according to Hepp (Hepp, 2015):

54
Firstly, both initial and continuous teaching training programs should largely focus
on developing the competences teachers need to use information and communication
technologies (ICTs) for teaching purposes. Continuous training should be organized around
the teacher’s autonomous learning, but it should also incorporate a training and
implementation strategy that is based on work carried out by teams of teachers. Secondly,
the undeniable emergence of new codes and languages that have their origin in digital
technologies brings disruptive new ways of thinking and new ways of learning and
accessing knowledge. It also means that teachers must be prepared to abide by a set of
professional ethics and standards that require them to work individually and collectively to
conceptualize the educational role that should be played by digital technologies. Thirdly,
the signs of the times require us to think about creating teaching-center models that
incorporate disruptive pedagogical innovations and open, flexible, creative, real, and
participatory digital projects in which digital technologies can be the best pretext for
innovation and for encouraging creativity in the classroom in order to introduce cross-
disciplinary and organizational changes and open schools to the community, (Hepp, 2015).
These digital projects should make teachers question their individual roles, promote
teamwork and involvement with others, generate synergies with other departments and
areas as well as other teaching centers and their staff, and, finally, help to realize the dream
of being “networked and web-based” (Hepp, 2015, p. 30).
In Singapore, the Ministry of Education and the National Institute of Education
(NIE), in 2009, launched a new Teacher Education Model for the Twenty-First Century
(TE21). The TE21 Model:
Encompasses curriculum improvements that align to new competencies; values
development that re-envisions teacher professionalism and calling; pedagogical

55
changes that emphasizes self-directed inquiry and technology-enabled learning; and
a theory–practice nexus that strengthens and enhances teaching practices through
school partnerships and mentoring (Tan, 2017, p. 20).
The model looks to the future first and foremost, replacing “presentism” with an
understanding of the gravity of the nature of the challenges that await young Singaporeans
(Tan, 2017, p. 21).
There is a growing consensus around the world among policymakers, international
consultancies, and independent scholars, that no other education system is tied together
with such interdependent synergies as the Singapore system. While some of this is due to
the small size of Singapore, an overemphasis on the singular nature of this city state would
miss out on key design principles that undergird the system. The Ministry of Education, the
NIE, and the schools are inextricably linked as part of bold vision and consequential
implementation. An isolated action from any part of the system will have a significant
impact on the whole entity. This is a system where ‘synergy’—the ancient idea that the
whole is more than the sum of its parts—is not a slogan but a lived reality (Tan, 2017). To
attain this status, Singapore’s system needs to be open to continuous improvement. Not
only does NIE respond to the Ministry’s policy changes, but it also constantly reviews itself
to further improve instruction, curriculum, and assessment. (Tan, 2017).
High-performing systems place a strong emphasis on providing prospective teachers
with a solid grounding in knowledge and experience to ensure that all teachers are ready to
practice from the start. But they do not stop there. These systems also provide structures
and opportunities to enable teachers to continually hone and improve their practice and
keep learning so that they can become better and better each year. Finally, they provide
teachers with opportunities to use their enhanced skills to take on new roles in schools and

56
school systems. These opportunities and structures take many forms (Darling-Hammond,
2017).
First, the systems have articulated clear statements about what constitutes high-
quality teaching; these are often codified in standards of practice. These standards guide
teacher education, beginning teacher mentoring and induction, professional development,
assessment, and feedback. Second, the systems provide teachers with time to work with and
learn from colleagues and to conduct their own research to test and measure the effects of
innovative practices. To accomplish this, schools in these countries break down classroom
walls (metaphorically) to allow teachers to collaborate and observe one another’s practices,
and they structure the school day so that teachers have time for these activities—they are
not in front of students every minute of the school day. They also encourage teachers to
engage in research about practice and find ways to share, use, and celebrate what is learned.
Third, the systems view teacher evaluation as a way of providing feedback to teachers to
help them improve their practice, rather than as a punitive measure aimed at weeding out
the weakest performers. Furthermore, some, such as Singapore, couple appraisals with
opportunities for teachers to grow in the profession (Darling-Hammond, 2017).
Jensen and colleagues’ (2016) study of four high-performing systems— British
Columbia, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Singapore—identified a set of common policies that
support professional learning in each system. These include policies for building in time for
collaboration, developing teacher leadership roles that organize and support professional
learning, and using school-level and individual-level evaluation and accountability systems
to support learning and collaboration. When well-managed, these policies result in the
following (Darling-Hammond, 2017):

57
● School improvement organized around effective professional learning
Professional learning built into daily practice.
● Recognition for the development of teacher expertise—and use of that
expertise to support learning for others.
● Teachers sharing responsibility for their own and other’s professional
learning.
● District or state strategies that lead to professional learning throughout the
system (Darling-Hammond, 2017, p. 45)
Disruptive and Innovative Curriculum Design & Development
Developing dynamic curricula targeting the 21st century learner requires a new,
more interactive, and collaborative process. This includes incorporating online learning, the
use of social media and open web platforms. Additionally, academic staff are encouraged to
engage in collaborative team projects to develop their courses and programs (Goode, 2018).
Designing curricula for blended, flexible, and experiential learning is strategically
important, while simultaneously, matching educational technologies to innovative
pedagogical approaches considered appropriate for both the target learners and the context.
Learner profiles should be developed with teams, and staff are encouraged to think outside
the box to enhance access for their students to different approaches to learning (Goode,
2018)
One compelling design model is the four-phase curriculum design process
(Preparation – Design – Development – Delivery). This approach to curriculum design has
seen a change to institutional business models, primarily around project management.
Project teams and reporting lines are cross-functional across different program areas and
departments. As Edmondson and Harvey (2017) highlight, crossing boundaries to form

58
teams is an increasingly popular strategy for innovation, as it brings together groups of
people with diverse knowledge and perspectives. Educators have found that taking part in
this creative curriculum design process has provided a unique opportunity to find out how
others design their courses and programs, and how expertise and experiences can be shared
through what is described as collegial exchange (Huizinga, 2014). Collaborative
environments, incentives, and project funds can help to break down disciplinary barriers
and contribute to the development of a cross-organizational culture, regardless of whether
managers or teaching staff lead the process (Townsend, 2015).
Working in diverse teams has value, but this cannot be exploited unless the team
dynamics are supportive and enable an environment that is conducive to collaboration
(Daspit, 2013). Accordingly, members of a collaborative team have a shared purpose,
demonstrate trusting and cooperative behaviors, and operate cohesively. In addition, a
positive team environment encourages shared leadership and healthy dialogue, enabling
diverse views to be shared openly and honestly (Daspit, 2013). These aspects, in turn,
enhance team cohesion and collaboration influencing effectiveness and positive outcomes
(Daspit, 2013).
To foster an effective professional learning community, (Lumpe, 2007) suggests
that along with distributed leadership, incentives and dedicated time for professional
development are essential. The process lends itself to learning in professional and
interdisciplinary communities in which academic staff work towards a shared vision for
framing their projects. The construct of shared visioning was found to emerge from teams
undergoing an intense collaborative workshopping process, and this leads to a change in
thinking (Healey, 2013). This type of collaboration is possibly unusual for many, as most
are accustomed to more traditional professional development approaches, typically

59
attending a workshop and applying their learning in isolation. Therefore, this optimal
dynamic approach has the potential to drive significant organizational cultural changes for
academic teaching staff and its leadership (Healey, 2013).
Importance of Ethno-education for Afro-Colombian Children
The field of Ethno-education is understood as an epistemological and
methodological perspective of work, that is, it is a conception closely linked to the way of
thinking and doing ethnography that seeks to articulate local knowledge with the
educational processes developed there and/or in development. Within this perspective of
Afrocentric education, the actions take place in a collaborative way, where teaching and
learning take place in a critical way, with the valorization of the territory in which the
actions take place and the perception of work as a collective construction of the sum of the
most varied voices (Zoia, 2021). Thus, education is conceived as a practice that is built
together, where the protagonists are teachers, students, and the community itself, who
participate in the whole process in a collaborative way. In this conception, an Afrocentric
education enters as an element that seeks to achieve autonomous, critical, and humanized
training, always fully committed to the human being, still bringing as a central element the
respect for the historical particularism and cultural diversity of the community (Zoia, 2021).
Afrocentric education is one of the key features defining Colombia as a
multicultural nation. For the state and mainstream Colombia, it means the materialization of
the push for inclusion for those groups that have been marginalized in a multicultural
nation. While for Afro-Colombians, it is a pivotal mechanism of resistance, based on their
struggle to maintain their ethnic identity, seek self-determination, and gain the necessary
knowledge to successfully adapt to an intercultural context (OECD, 2018).

60
Although affirmative action policies have been designed in recent years, most have
not been fully implemented. The Colombian Constitution of 1991 addresses
antidiscrimination laws, and certain Supreme Court and Constitutional rulings have been
made to address the needs of Afro-Colombian communities. Further, numerous laws,
decrees and policy documents exist that focus on protecting their rights. However, again,
they have not been fully or effectively implemented. Corruption and lack of transparency
are two deeply rooted problems that affect these underserved groups. In addition, in some
parts of the local, regional, and national government, there is limited awareness of the
needs of the Afro-Colombian community and oftentimes a lack of political will to address
these needs (OECD, 2018).
There has been a high rate of human rights violations against Afro-Colombian
population, mainly in rural areas. These violations include selective assassinations,
disappearances, death threats, and forced displacement because Afro-Colombian
communities inhabit areas used by illegal groups for illegal crop cultivation and trafficking
of drugs and weapons. Thousands of child combatants have been forcefully recruited by
illegal armed groups. Children are particularly vulnerable due to a combination of factors
including poverty, lack of education, limited economic opportunities, and the presence of
illegal armed groups. There are four major problems regarding education in the Afro-
Colombian community: 1) High illiteracy rate; 2) High dropout rate, especially in
secondary and higher education due to the need to contribute to family household income;
3) Lack of quality education (65 percent of public schools in Afro-Colombian territories
were categorized as inferior or very inferior institutions); and 4) Lack of implementation of
Afrocentric-focused education curriculum (OECD, 2018).

61
The subsequent sections of the literature review highlight the importance of sharing
these rich and dynamic histories and the need to include these histories into an updated
curriculum. Afrocentric education, the existing national education system, and the legal
recognition of Afro-Colombian communities are three critical areas that establish the
foundation for additional analysis, and the role the Christian church played (and continues
to play), in the education of these communities (OECD, 2018).
Unfortunately, in Latin America, literature on Afrocentric education has focused
mainly on the analysis of its legal frameworks, its political potential as a tool to claim
historically violated rights, and the possibility of advancing in the battle against prejudice
and discrimination while achieving the recognition of these expressions by the rest of
society. Although these experiences have dealt with aspects related to the curriculum,
through the teaching of the language and other concrete strategies for the rescue of the
customs and traditions of the ethnic groups, very few have delved in the pedagogical and
didactic components, (Flores & Palacios, 2018).
According to the study conducted by Flores and Palacios (2018) that analyzed the
experiences of Ethno-education teachers in Colombia, Afrocentric educational policy has
least advanced in the field of pedagogy and more concretely in its implementation in
schools. Although in this area, progress has been made in the construction of curricular
guidelines, teachers have been appointed to occupy Afrocentric educational tenures and
educational projects have been structured with different approaches. Attempts to implement
Afrocentric education in the classrooms have encountered many difficulties (Flores &
Palacios, 2018).

62
The Flores & Palacios study identified some of these difficulties as:
• Afrocentric education has not been incorporated in the sector responsible for
educational policy. There is a coexistence of a national public education system
on the one hand, and an educational system for ethnic groups on the other.
• The implementation of a national educational model based on standardization
and competitiveness has created a rivalry between Afrocentric educational
policies and the official approach.
• Interdisciplinarity has not been fully managed. There are still teachers with
minimal professional training and teachers who have found it difficult to
specialize in disciplinary fields.
• There is a lack of tools and pedagogical support; thus, Afrocentric education is
considered as an alternative in which there are no actions that will render this
result. Although guidelines have been proposed, there is no adequate support in
the construction of school curricula that specify and materialize governmental
proposals.
The national government has attempted to address these issues; nevertheless, the
problems persist. Changing demographics and displacement of Afro-Colombian
communities have compounded the challenges of equitable education in Colombia.
Afrocentric Education and Curriculum
With respect to the Afrocentric educational pedagogical approach to curriculum
design, Dr. Kmt Shockley is a professor in the University of Houston College of Education,
he is also Executive Director of K.M.T. Productions, which is an institution that makes

63
documentary films and creates educational content. As a former professor in the School of
Education at Howard University, Dr. Shockley published in 2015, in the Journal of African
American Studies, reflections of the work of a group of educational leaders in Oklahoma,
who committed to transforming a traditional school into an African-centered institution to
meet the culture-educational needs of children within the community. This work charts
their efforts toward creating an African-centered school by using transformative
educational methods and African-centered theories.
Dr. Shockley’s work is directly applicable to the efforts in Colombia to develop a
comprehensive and innovative Afrocentric education curriculum, that is not only designed
to teach Afro-Colombian children about their history and ancestors, thereby establishing a
foundation of pride, confidence, engagement, and encouragement, which has shown to
reach students of African descent more effectively, and increase higher educational
outcomes (Constantine, 2006). The curriculum will also incorporate the most innovative
pedagogy and practices related to critical thinking, project-based learning, blended
learning, and the most valuable and relevant technological tools and skills that will allow
students of African descent to complete and thrive in the 21
st
Century.
Implications for Colombia and Afrocentric education
When considered from the Colombian state’s perspective, education must inevitably
entail notions of legitimate knowledge. However, what is hidden within the language of
legitimacy is the political economy of hegemony. The notion of ‘legitimate knowledge’ is
merely a ruse. It is a means of controlling the conversation about the process of formal
socialization—which is schooling. Schooling in the dominant culture is a process that does
not typically privilege critical thought and action, but instead encourages conformity to

64
hegemony, rewards apathy to the status quo, and punishes agency with regards to radical
social change (Rashid, 2012).
The society's achievement rewards and the means of accessing them are controlled.
Not only does a student have to demonstrate the capacity to meet academic achievement
benchmarks, such as standardized test performance at prescribed levels, a student must also
play the game according to the rules that the politically dominant culture's elite establish
and control. Students who rebel rarely make it—the society's institutional structures are
designed to promote conformity to those rules (Shujaa, 2003). Hence schools do not
typically exist as embodiments of the masses’ will, but rather as a reflection of state power
and the related mandates of capitalism, and White supremacy (Hilliard, 1998).
An analysis of the problems confronting African people is the notion that Africans
are negotiating reality with a Eurocentric consciousness. This Eurocentric consciousness,
while projected as normal, healthy, and universal, is actually a major source of the social,
political, economic, health, and psychological problems of Africans in Colombia, the
Americas, and throughout the world. There are insightful and colorful examples of how a
Eurocentric consciousness impacts the physical and psychological health of people of
African descent (Hilliard,1998). Eurocentric consciousness manifests in several classical
notions of the mental health consequences of psychological/cultural oppression (Baldwin,
1980, 1985), including Fanon’s conception of “wearing the White mask” to Akbar’s
nosology of mental disorders (Akbar, 1980; Fanon, 1967, p. 15). A central theme common
to the dysfunctions associated with this alien cultural consciousness is that they are
negatively related to an African-centered historical, cultural consciousness (Baldwin,
1984).

65
In 2007, the Colombian national government implemented a new section in the
government for Afro-Colombians called "la Comisión Intersectorial para el Avance de la
Población Afrocolombiana, Palenquera y Raizal." This section was intended for the
advancement of the education of Afro-Colombians. Not only this, but the Colombian
government had also conducted specialized studies and 18 workshops across the cities of
Colombia. As a result, approximately 4,000 Afro-Colombian educators and community
leaders came together to write recommendations to the government by May 2009.
However, after many years, none of the strategies have worked, and Afro-Colombians still
lack the same opportunities as their Colombian counterparts of European descent (MEN,
2017).
The Colombian government has tried to help the Afro-Colombian community by
creating more programs to further the education of Afro-Colombians past secondary school.
The main program is the "Admisión Especial a Mejores Bachilleres de la Población Negra,
Afrocolombiana, Palenquera y Raizal" which gives admission to about 200 Afro-
Colombians per semester into the National Colombian University. This program can be
compared to affirmative action in the United States, once again highlighting the imbalance
of opportunities for Afro-Colombians. The Ministry of Education has attempted to make
recommendations on the subject of the background and history of Afro-Colombians when
teaching Colombian history. In hopes of incorporating more Afro-Colombian history, the
ministry of education plans to add Afro-Colombian history on exams of the state
(Ministerio de Educación, 2017).
Training teachers and teaching directors according to Colombian regional,
departmental, municipal and institutional diagnoses in areas of specialization: bilingualism,
new approaches to evaluation, research, professional orientation, use of information and

66
communication technologies (ICT), special educational needs, Afrocentric education,
specific knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and strategies for personal development, ethics
and values, cultural diversity, civic, human and interdisciplinary training, and the
sustainable use of biodiversity, is the objective of the Ministry of Education
(Mineducación, 2017).
Nevertheless, adopting Afrocentric educational and cultural policies that generate
new pedagogical models from the respective Afro-Colombian communities, pertaining to
history, art, use of technology, research, creation, and innovation are critical for the
development of communities of African descent. This implies valuing the role of
interculturality in the generation, use and appropriation of knowledge, and sensitizing
public officials to assume with commitment and responsibility the implementation of an
Afrocentric educational epicenter.
As stated previously, the country’s National Development Plan for 2014-18, is
being introduced gradually and upper secondary education will be compulsory for all
students in urban areas by 2025 and in rural areas by 2030 (OECD, 2018). Due to poor
teacher training and development, antiquated and increasingly irrelevant curriculum, and
inadequate facilities, students of Afro-Colombian descent currently have inequitable access
to a quality education and therefore will not be competitive candidates for tertiary
educational opportunities.
With the new Ministry of Education secondary school mandate, the only way to
close the achievement and performance gap for students of Afro-Colombian descent is to
design, develop, and implement an innovative and disruptive education strategy. A strategy
grounded in continuous instructor professional development, Afrocentric education,
academic rigor, leadership, entrepreneurship, and purpose. The purpose of this qualitative

67
research study is to conduct a promising practice analysis of African Leadership Academy
in South Africa. Benchmarking ALA best practices for instructor training and learning
development with their focus on Afrocentricity will be extremely helpful in applying these
learnings to an Afrocentric education in Colombia.
Afrocentricity is an academic theory and approach to scholarship that seeks to
center the experiences and peoples of Africa and the African diaspora within their own
historical, cultural, and sociological contexts. With this study, the objective is to understand
how ALA implements instructor training, professional learning, and supports how
instructors incorporate their Pan-African organizational mission and culture throughout
their curriculum design. The learnings from this study will be applied to the design and
development of a world-class network of Afrocentric-education-focused secondary schools
serving predominantly Afro-Colombian children in the Pacific region of Colombia.
If Colombia fails to solve this issue of relevant quality access to education for its
Afro-Colombian population, Colombia will eventually experience a decline in productivity
and lower quality of living. The world is rapidly becoming a different place, and the
challenges to individuals and societies imposed by globalization and modernization are
widely acknowledged. Those equipped with 21
st
Century high-level skills are seeing
unprecedented career and life opportunities, while those without adequate foundational
skills, whether individuals or countries, are confronting the specter of declining standards
of living.
Globalization and tomorrow’s knowledge workers and innovators require high
levels of education, because a highly educated, well-trained workforce is a prerequisite for
adopting and absorbing innovative new technologies and increasing productivity.
Additionally, through developing new methodologies and efficiencies for working with

68
older industries or disrupting old business models and creating new models and industry
sectors, tomorrow’s leaders need to be trained and coached to be disruptors and change
agents in order to compete in an innovative global society (UNESCO, 2009).
Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks
The Development of Noble Youth Purpose, developed by Dr. Kendall Bronk, is the
conceptual framework that guided this study. Dr. Kendall Bronk defines purpose as having
a goal in life that you care deeply about and that contributes to the world beyond yourself in
some productive sense. In some cases, she has found that all it takes to get young people
started down a path of purpose is to engage them in deep, probing conversations, which
prompt them to reflect on their interests and values (Bronk, 2012).
Figure 1
Conceptual and Theoretical Frameworks

In addition to purpose, Afro-Colombian leaders want to train its students to become
critical thinkers and to be consciously aware of policies and practices that contribute to
inequalities and bias in education as well as career opportunities. This is depicted in Figure
Education Revolution
Conceptual and Theoretical Frameworks
Kendell Cotton Bronk, PhD.
• Optimal human
development
• Psychological well-
being
• Resiliency
• Life satisfaction
• Race is a social construct
• Framework of legal analysis
• Curricula that reinforce racist ideas
• Policies and practices that contribute
to racial inequalities in education
• Critical
consciousness
• Liberation of the
poor through
education
• Critical pedagogy vs.
banking model
PEDAGOGY OF
THE OPPRESSED
(TF)
CRITICAL RACE THEORY
(TF)
NOBLE YOUTH PURPOSE
(CF)
Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw
and Richard Delgado.
Paulo Freire
CRT
PEDAGOGY
OF THE
OPPRESSED
NOBLE
PURPOSE
Youth

69
1 above. The two theoretical frameworks that support this thinking are Paulo Freire's
Pedagogy of the Oppressed (date) and Critical Race Theory (CRT). Note that this is an
adaptation of CRT to circumstances outside of the United States (CRT was originally
created to analyze policy and practices in the United States).
Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed is a combination of philosophical,
political, and educational theory. Freire outlines a theory of oppression and the source of
liberation. In Freire's view, the key to liberation is the awakening of critical awareness and
the thinking process in the individual (Freire, 1993). This is particularly relevant for
Colombia as Freire’s research centers on conditions throughout Latin America. Freire was
born and raised in Brazil, however he also lived in exile in Chile, where he conducted a
significant portion of his research. The conditions in Brazil and Chile are very similar to
Colombia (Altamirano, 2016).
The key concepts associated with Pedagogy of the Oppressed include that people
bring their own knowledge and experience into the process (Freire, 1993). Training is
typically undertaken in small groups with lively interaction and can embrace not only the
written word but art, music, and other forms of expression (Freire, 1993). Additionally, the
contrast between "banking" education (in which facts are deposited into the minds of
passive students) and problem-posing education; the notion of conscientization (which is
much more than simply awareness-raising); and the idea of the "culture of silence", in
which people are unable to reflect critically upon their world – they become fatalistic and
dominated (Altamirano 2016).
Critical race theory (CRT) is a valuable framework for helping identify how law and
policy can either entrench or eradicate historic racial inequities and eurosupremacy in
education. CRT is an academic concept whose core idea is that racism is a construct, and

70
that it is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something
embedded in legal systems and educational policies (Cabrera, 2018). CRT from its
inception was not intended to be a ‘Theoretical Framework, but rather a theorizing counter
space for scholars of color to challenge and transform racial oppression in the United States
(Cabrera 2018). Nevertheless, this same oppressive dynamic exists throughout Latin
America, which is what Afrocentric education is partially designed to address (OECD,
2011). The basic tenets of critical race theory emerged from a framework for legal analysis
in the late 1970s and early 1980s created by legal scholars Derrick Bell, Kimberlé
Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado (Sawchuk, 2021). CRT also has ties to other intellectual
currents, including the work of sociologists and literary theorists who studied links between
political power, social organization, and language. Its ideas have informed other fields, like
the humanities, the social sciences, and teacher education (Sawchuk, 2021). CRT in a
Colombian context applies to the Colombian constitution, the National Development Plan
(PND), and the education plan for Valle de Cauca, Colombia, the department (state) where
Santiago de Cali (Cali) is located.
Summary
There is no such thing as a neutral education process. Education either functions as
an instrument which is used to facilitate the integration of generations into the logic of the
present system and bring about conformity to it, or it becomes the "practice of freedom",
the means by which men and women deal critically with reality and discover how to
participate in the transformation of their world (Mayo, 1999, p. 14). The very nature of the
"practice of freedom" is disruptive to the status quo. Until recently, educational policies in
the Americas still reflected the ‘coloniality of power’ (Quijano, 2005) in which racial
politics determined the production and circulation of knowledge, particularly in relation to

71
teaching the history of the African Diaspora; ([African Diaspora is the term commonly used
to describe the mass dispersion of peoples from Africa during the Transatlantic Triangular
Slave Trades, from the 1500s to the 1800s. This Diaspora took millions of people from
Western and Central Africa to different regions throughout the Americas and the
Caribbean]; Harris, 2003). At the dawn of the 1980s, however, many countries engaged in
antiracist reforms targeting historically neglected groups, such as Afro descendant
populations (Paschel, 2016). For these neglected groups, the fundamental goal of their
communities is to increase their children’s preparedness for tertiary education and to
increase the standard of living for themselves and their communities.
Due to poor teacher training and professional development, antiquated curriculum,
and inadequate facilities, students of Afro-Colombian descent have inequitable access to
quality schools. Additionally, domestic terrorism and violence in the Pacific region has led
to mass displacement and forced migration from rural areas to large urban areas. This
migration has led to overcrowded classrooms and contributed to an already overburdened,
understaffed, and underfunded public school system of nearly 7.5 million students, which
represent 80% of the 9.3 million school-aged children, the other 20% (1.8 million) are in
private academies mostly located in the large urban centers of Colombia (OECD, 2018).
The development of a network of high-quality secondary academies targeting
students of Afro-Colombian descent is essential. Academies that are based on relevant
Afrocentric education, robust teacher training and development programs, innovative
curriculum, multilingual education, quality infrastructure, and global exchange programs,
will provide these students with equitable access to a world class education. Additionally,
these academies will prepare students for increased competitive higher education and
gainful career opportunities, both domestic and international.

72
Developing a new generation of purpose-driven young leaders who are historically,
culturally, and socially conscious is essential. Young leaders who are critical thinkers who
are concerned with quality education, sustainability, elimination of poverty, climate change,
economic opportunity, and other relevant issues that are consistent with the United Nations
17 Sustainable Development goals (UN General Assembly, 2015). A revolutionary
disruptive approach to training and educating the next generation of young Afro-Colombian
leaders can change the trajectory of families, communities, Colombia, and the Latin
America sub region as a whole. Youth that have purpose tend to demonstrate compassion,
have direction, and are also psychologically well. In addition, purpose-driven youth achieve
optimal human development; they are resilient and happy (Bronk, 2012). The ability to
identify, encourage, inspire, and train the next generation of Afro-Colombian youth will
create the needed leadership to increase equitable access to a quality education, expand
economic opportunity and improve higher quality of life for all.

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Chapter Three: Methodology
The research questions guiding this study include:
1. What is the mission and vision of African Leadership Academy and how does a
purpose-driven Pan-African centered education influence the institutional
culture and pedagogy for instructors and administrators?
2. What professional development and learning opportunities do instructors and
administrators find most useful in supporting them to implement the mission
and vision of ALA?
3. How are ALA instructors and administrators supported to develop disruptive
curriculum and programs centered on a purpose-driven Pan-African Afrocentric
education?
This chapter of the qualitative study presents the research design and methods for
data collection and analysis that was utilized and implemented. The primary method of data
collection was one-on-one in-depth interviews. Additionally, information available in the
public domain served as a secondary form of data collection. Dr. Kendall Bronk’s
framework helped to inform the design of the primary instrument and the subsequent
analysis.
Organizational Overview
African Leadership Academy (ALA) was founded in 2004 and its doors opened in
2008. ALA is located in Roodepoort, South Africa, in the suburbs outside of Johannesburg.
ALA is broadly categorized into four programs: Two-year Diploma program,
Entrepreneurship programs (Anzisha Prize), Networks, and Global Programs.
ALA currently enrolls 220 students in their two-year diploma program with an
average age of 17. It is dedicated to 16 to 19-year-olds from throughout Africa and the rest

74
of the world, with alumni from 46 countries. The cost of tuition at ALA is approximately
USD $32,000 per year. At ALA, most students receive some level of financial aid, although
no student receives 100% free tuition. The value of the financial award is determined based
on each family’s ability to pay, after admissions decisions have been made.
Since 2010, ALA alumni have been admitted to more than 160 universities across
the world for undergraduate studies, and more than 230 universities when factoring in
postgraduate studies. These include globally reputed universities in Africa, USA, Europe,
Asia, and South America. ALA provides their students a sense of purpose and
responsibility to be great stewards and representatives of their communities and the African
Continent. The founding beliefs and principles of ALA, as articulated by its founders, were
developed as five guiding principles from which all decisions regarding curriculum, staff,
teaching philosophy, programming and other activities are assessed. ALA instructors and
administrators, therefore, have the challenge of translating and incorporating these beliefs
and values throughout their lesson plans and classroom experiences.
Dr. Bronk’s research focuses on how commitment (purpose) is initiated, sustained,
increased, and changed over time. The results revealed that exemplars made commitments
early in life. With the exceptions of triggering experiences, which immediately intensified
their level of commitment, commitment generally grew slowly but steadily in response to
positive feedback (Bronk, 2011). This positive feedback loop is embedded into the Pan-
African culture at African Leadership Academy.
Dr. Bronk’s research suggests that a noble purpose in life is interrelated with
optimal human development. It is important to understand the way noble purpose is
sustained over time, due to the central role noble purpose plays in positive youth
functioning. This allows ALA leaders, administrators and instructors concerned with the

75
well-being of students to be more successful at nurturing a noble sense of purpose in the
lives of the entire ALA community. Therefore, the interview protocol instrument was
designed and informed by Dr. Bronk’s research. The questions focused on the purpose-
driven Pan-African influence of African Leadership Academy on institutional culture,
professional development, and the development of purposeful curriculum.
Participants and Sampling Procedure
The population and interview participant stakeholder groups that were the focus of
this African Leadership Academy promising practice study were the ALA founders,
administrators, and instructors. A total of 17 interviewees participated in the study. While
the study participants serve a variety of roles within ALA, they were all members of the
“staffulty” (an ALA term meaning staff and faculty) or the board of directors. Given the
size of the instructional and administrative staff population that interact with students on a
regular basis (approximately 50 people), implementing purpose sampling interviews,
provided excellent data and the ability to triangulate various perspectives given the roles
and responsibilities of the study participants (Johnson & Christensen, 2015). The
participants were recruited from the 50-member student facing faculty and staff population
at ALA. Nonrandom (nonprobability) sampling techniques were ideal, since this study is a
qualitative research study, and not a quantitative study, where generalization in a statistical
sense is the goal (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Conducting personal in-depth interviews (IDI’s) with ALA founders, and the
existing instructional and administrative staff was ideal since the population was somewhat
small. The gender, academic specialization, type of professional development completed,
and tenure at ALA are examples of the diverse questions that were included in study
interview protocols, which was not distributed to study participants prior to interviews.

76
Administering a survey was also considered since it would have been very inexpensive to
execute using the Qualtrics platform, however time constraints limited the data collection
methods implemented (Johnson & Christensen, 2015).
The interviews of 17 staff members were the elements of the sample. These staff
members were recruited from the 50+ member staff population. Nonrandom
(nonprobability) sampling techniques were ideal, since this was a qualitative study, and not
a quantitative study, where generalization in a statistical sense is the goal. Nonprobability
sampling is the method of choice for most qualitative research (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Interviewing ALA founders, instructors, and administrators provided valuable insights into
how ALA’s mission and purpose is operationalized into the organizational culture and
professional development that the instructors and administrators received. This professional
development is directly connected to how curriculum is implemented and how institutional
culture is reinforced. This purposeful sampling provided me with a richer understanding of
ALA’s professional development processes (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The interviews
allowed for a deeper discussion during the one-on-one interview portion of the data
collection for this research study.
The general attributes that were essential to the research study and therefore drove
the criteria utilized to select ALA interviewees include tenure at ALA, academic or
administrative areas of focus, and experience on the African continent (native and non-
native Africans). This recruitment technique asked currently enrolled research participants
to help identify other potential participants. The types of purposeful sampling used in the
research study included a typical sample, which was chosen because it reflected the average
instructor or administrator at ALA, however, some aspects of a network sampling were also
be pursued. This helped to identify a few information-rich ALA instructors and

77
administrators who truly represented and embodied those staff members that had
significantly benefited from professional development initiatives. These initiatives have had
varied levels of impact and influence on their implementation of curriculum and
Afrocentric cultural nuances in their classrooms (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
While there was not a definitive number of interviewees, the objective was to reach a point
of information saturation. Interviewing 17 staff members represented approximately 35%
of the total 50 instructors and administrative staff population that was student facing.
Reaching a point of saturation or redundancy means that I as the interviewer began to hear
the same or similar responses to the interview questions or observed similar behaviors,
where no new insights were apparent. It was not possible to know ahead of time when
saturation would occur; however, by analyzing the data in real time, while it is being
collected, insights, redundancy patterns, and a point of saturation were reached (Merriam &
Tisdell, 2016).
Data Collection and Instrumentation
The research methods utilized for data collection were interviews, information
available in the public domain such as the African Leadership Academy annual reports and
the ALA website. Through the interviews, ALA staff members provided valuable insights
into how ALA’s mission and purpose was operationalized into the professional
development the instructors and administrators received. Information in the public domain
had begun to be reviewed during the second quarter of 2022 and continued through the visit
to ALA’s campus. The interviews took place during the last week of March and the first
two weeks of April 2023.

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Interviews
Interviews were conducted with each of three stakeholder groups: founders,
administrative team members, as well as instructors from ALA. The goal was to interview
multiple founders, members of the leadership team, administrators, and instructors one
time, follow up interviews were not necessary; however, upon review of the interview
transcripts, there were follow-up emails sent requesting clarity as information was revealed.
Interviews were both formal and informal. The average interview took between 45-60
minutes to conduct. All interviews were conducted in English. The in-depth interviews
were scheduled in advance to ensure that there was ample time to cover the desired
material. All but two of the interviews took place in-person on the ALA campus in South
Africa. One interview was conducted at the home of an ALA founder living in South Africa
and the other interview was conducted using the video conferencing Zoom software
application for another founder who currently resides outside of South Africa. The
interview protocol was support as an instrument of inquiry in asking questions for specific
information related to the objectives and aims of the planned study (Patton, 2015).
A semi-structured approach was used with open-ended questions as an instrument
for conversation to capture participants' experiences as leaders, administrators, and
instructors at ALA. This was the ideal approach because it assumed that the participants
defined the world in their own unique ways (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). All, but two
interviews were recorded. Permission was granted by each participant and notes were taken
during each interview. The questions that were asked centered on how African Leadership
Academy leaders, administrators and instructors implemented a purpose-driven Pan-
African Afrocentric education. Specifically, questions were based on Patton’s (2002)

79
categories of questions with an emphasis on opinions, values, knowledge, feelings, and
demographics.
Additionally, the interview questions were focused on gathering data and
knowledge related to how were ALA instructors and administrators influenced by the ALA
mission and vision in addition to being influenced by the purpose-driven Pan-African
Afrocentric education and its impact on ALA’s institutional culture and pedagogy?
Questions explored what professional development and learning opportunities instructors
found most useful in supporting them to implement the mission and vision of ALA. Finally,
questions probed how instructors and administrators were supported to develop disruptive
and innovative curriculum and programming centered on a purpose-driven Pan-African
Afrocentric education? (See Appendix A for sample interview protocol.)
Information in the Public Domain
Information in the public domain provided valuable information and context to
better understand ALA and its accomplishments to date. Multiple sources of information
were reviewed with respect to African Leadership Academy. These included historical
information, decisions, and strategic plans made during critical years since the founding of
ALA in 2004 and its doors opening in 2008. The initial ALA business plan, ALA annual
reports, documents available in the public domain, assessments, and case studies written
about ALA were reviewed.
The ALA decennial report provided a substantial amount of information
summarizing its initial ten years of operations. Additionally, staff profiles available on the
ALA website and learning materials distributed by ALA staff members were very helpful.
Furthermore, ALA had a robust amount of information, data, activities, and events on their
various social media platforms, this included YouTube, Twitter, Facebook page, Instagram,

80
and Tik Tok. This information was an excellent way to triangulate and support findings
from the interviews that were conducted to confirm the level of the practices and various
levels of support provided to instructors and administrators from ALA leadership.
Documents of all types were used in the research process to uncover meaning,
develop understanding, and discover insights relevant to the research study. The
information reviewed was not prepared as part of this research study. Because this
information was produced for reasons other than the research study, some creativity was
required to locate and analyze the information such that it could specifically address the
research study and research questions, (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Data Analysis
For interviews, data analysis began during data collection. I wrote analytic memos
after each in-depth interview. I documented my thoughts, concerns, and initial conclusions
about the data in relation to my conceptual framework and research questions. The data
analysis process adopted for this study sought to follow suggestions for simultaneous
collection and analysis (Merriam, 2016). Once I left the field, interviews were transcribed
utilizing Microsoft Word’s transcription application then coded. In the first phase of
analysis, I used open coding, looking for empirical codes and applying a priori codes to
reflect categories that were already of interest before research began, such as ethnicity,
years of education, gender, tenure at ALA, school culture and culturally responsive
pedagogy. I then analyze this data with respect to the conceptual framework developed by
Dr. Bronk.
A second phase of analysis was conducted where empirical and a priori codes were
aggregated into analytic/axial codes. Critical race theory (CRT) and Pedagogy of the
Oppressed theoretical concepts were utilized as additional analytical lenses to code the data

81
collected. The framework and theoretical concepts were useful individually and collectively
when thinking about the goal of ALA’s purpose-driven Pan-African centered education,
and how ALA addressed the continued European influence throughout education on the
African Continent. In the third phase of data analysis, I identified pattern codes and themes
that emerged in relation to the conceptual framework and research study questions. I
analyzed information in the public domain for additional evidence consistent with the
concepts in the conceptual framework (Merriam, 2016).
Corbin and Strauss (2008) pointed out, that analytical tools are heuristic devices that
assist to understand possible meaning. Several analytical tools were used to assist in
thinking through the data. Another analytic tool I used, was drawing from my personal
experiences teaching in the United States, Latin America, and on the African Continent. I
shared similar experiences with the stakeholder group, and I used these experiences to
stimulate thinking about various dimensions and concepts. Finally, I used tables, graphs,
illustrations, and matrices to organize and interpret the data collected.
Reliability and Validity
Validity of interview items was addressed by using triangulation, checking
interpretations with individuals interviewed as well as information in the public domain.
Reliability, the extent to which there was consistency in the findings, was enhanced by
explaining the assumptions and theory underlying the research study. Triangulating data
and leaving an audit trail was essential to describe in detail how the study was conducted
and how the findings were derived from the data. Obtaining high response rates was
important to the validity and quality of this research study. High response rates were
predominately achieved by personalizing and appealing to ALA founders, administrators,
and instructors. Communicating the purpose of the interviews as a tool to increase

82
professional learning opportunities for staff members and to provide useful data that could
potentially improve student outcomes and organizational effectiveness was fundamental.
The second strategy I used was member checks by soliciting feedback on
preliminary findings from the stakeholder group, which were ALA staffulty members
(Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). This strategy minimized the possibility of misinterpreting the
meaning of what interview participants said while they shared their perspectives on their
experiences, as well as being an important way of identifying my own bias and
misunderstanding of what I observed (Maxwell, 2013). The third strategy I used was
collecting copious, low inference fieldnotes, all of which were verbatim and mechanically
recorded. I considered my positionality within the context of this study, due to the
relationships I developed with participants (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). As a current
university instructor in both the USA and Colombia, and formerly secondary school
instructor in Philadelphia and Nigeria, I have previously taught business and
entrepreneurship in urban school districts with an underlying tone of Afrocentricity. I did
not want these experiences to impact the type of information that ALA instructors shared
with me, which could have resulted in being a limitation of the study, because it is
something I could not control.
With a goal of developing a network of secondary schools in Colombia, my
research was centered on the experiences of founders, administrators, and instructors,
which supported the development of trust with participants. Due to the power relations
inherent in the research act itself, critical attention was paid to the role of reflexivity. A
basic assumption in one of the theoretical frameworks that was considered, CRT, is that the
world is informed by structured power relations based on race, gender, class sexual
orientation, disability or religion and therefore including the research study itself (Merriam

83
& Tisdell, 2016). I conducted my research with my stakeholder group and not on them. I
own the effects of positionality and insider/outsider stances (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Ethics
The research I conducted focused on improving educational outcomes for
Colombian students of African descent, particularly located in the Pacific Region of
Colombia. Through my initial research, I have identified administrative excellence,
effective teacher training, innovative curriculum, and professional learning programs as
viable opportunities to improve student performance and achievement. Honest and frank
discussions during the interview process were critical to identifying the various issues and
challenges that inhibit quality professional development of educators. No incentives nor
renumeration was offered to interview participants (Rubin & Rubin, 2012). A small token
of appreciation in the form of a bookstore gift card was provided to the majority of
interview participants after all of the in-person interviews were conducted. Senior
leadership received a restaurant credit.
As a third-party investigator, I did not have any contractual or fiduciary
relationships with any municipality, secretary of education or ministry of education
organization. Therefore, I was not in a leadership role, administrator, nor position of power
in the organizations of the interview participants. I clearly stated and explained my role as
an investigator (Mitchell & Irvine, 2008). Interviewees agreed to participate in the study, to
talk openly about a particular topic: in return, I, the researcher, had an absolute
responsibility to behave ethically. That means no deceit or pressure was involved, and that
interviewees were treated with respect from the first contact to the last, and that all
promises made were kept (Rubin & Rubin, 2012). With respect to informed consent, study
participants were made aware that (1) their participation was voluntary, (2) any aspect of

84
the research might affect their well-being, (3) they were free if they chose, to stop
participation at any point in the study (Glense, 2011).
My objective as an investigator was to ensure that the interview participants felt
comfortable and secure to share candid and sometimes confidential information. I
understood that my role was an investigator, not a teacher. The interview was not about
educating or debating with the interviewee but hearing what they had to say (Rubin &
Rubin, 2012). All interviewees were informed that they were being recorded. I
reemphasized that recording interviews were essential to accurately capturing the responses
of interviewees (Rubin & Rubin, 2012). If there was a particularly sensitive topic or
information to be shared, interviewees were reminded that they were being recorded. If
they informed me that they would like to strike a specific comment from the record, I
would have honored their request (Rubin & Rubin, 2012; See Appendix B for study
information sheet).
The goal of research is ‘understanding’. Therefore, according to Merriam, the
human instrument can be immediately responsive and adaptive (Merriam, 2016). The
interviewer is neither a judge nor a therapist. Nevertheless, if it was apparent that an
interviewee was experiencing some high levels of stress, pain or suffering, a referral to
resources for assistance would have been appropriate (Patton, 2015). Additionally, as a
human instrument, I had the advantage of being able to process information immediately,
clarify and summarize material, check with respondents for accuracy of interpretation, and
explore unusual or unanticipated responses (Merriam, 2016). The responses that were
provided by interview participants were confidential and were only shared with my
dissertation committee. I was willing to share my tabulated survey results or interview
transcripts with the interviewees in the form of a summary report upon request. All

85
recordings and transcripts were coded alphanumerically and did not use actual names of
participants. All data was stored on a password protected portable hard drive that I keep
under lock and key in my office (Rubin & Rubin, 2012).
Limitations and Delimitations
There were several limitations with the proposed study. The COVID-19 pandemic
continued to provide challenges for travel, and slightly impacted my ability to recruit and
secure additional participants during my trip to South Africa in March and April of 2023. I
was seeking 8-10 participants to interview for my sample, however fortunately I was able
to secure 17 participants, which was more than the initial total number sought. The 17
participants were extremely diverse in areas of study, including: (history, literature,
entrepreneurship, education, communications, leadership, accounting, and administration),
ethnicity (11 different countries represented), gender (six females and eleven males), and
tenure (ranging from two years to fifteen years at ALA). Of the 17 interview participants,
there was a combination of original founders, former ALA teaching fellows who are now in
leadership roles, people who were hired from other educational institutions, non-profit
organizations, and people hired from the private sector. Some of the participants learned of
the opportunities at ALA through word of mouth, prior contacts, and job postings among
other sources of information.
As a case study, this project was bounded within the institutional limits of African
Leadership Academy and access to the primary stakeholders. This access was provided by
the administrators of ALA. If the institutional/administrators restricted access to
information and staff members, the study could have been substantially impacted.
Additionally, the methods I used to collect data were in-depth interviews information
available in the public domain, and multiple visits to the ALA campus. These methods had

86
inherent limitations including my ability to verify the truthfulness of the participants during
the interviews.
Several delimitations were purposefully established due to the time constraints and
focus required by the particular methodological framework chosen. Another delimitation
was the focus of the research, which was limited to founders, administrators, and instructors
and no other stakeholder groups, such as, parents of students, students, alumni, funders, and
partner institutions of ALA. A more complete study would potentially have covered student
project analysis to observe the level of Afrocentricity incorporated with each graduating
student's senior thesis projects. Additionally, possibly even the tertiary institutions that
ALA alumni attend, or attended upon completion of the ALA two-year diploma program,
could have provided some compelling insights into how ALA alumni operationalized the
ALA mission through their choices of academic focus, and how (if at all) they incorporated
Pan-African Afrocentricity into their career decisions.

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Chapter Four: Findings
This qualitative research study focused on African Leadership Academy (ALA), an
award-winning Pan-African secondary school located in the suburbs of Johannesburg,
South Africa. The objective was to learn about the institutional vision, leadership,
instructional methodologies, and culture at ALA, and apply these learnings to develop a
network of high-quality secondary schools serving Afro-Colombian students in the Pacific
region of Colombia, in South America. Chapter Four outlines the findings, analysis, and
interpretation of the data collected within this qualitative research study. The three research
questions that guided this study were:
1. What is the mission and vision of African Leadership Academy and how does a
purpose-driven Pan-African centered education influence the institutional culture
and pedagogy for instructors and administrators?
2. What professional development and learning opportunities do instructors and
administrators find most useful in supporting them to implement the mission and
vision of ALA?
3. How are ALA instructors and administrators supported to develop disruptive
curriculum and programs centered on a purpose-driven Pan-African Afrocentric
education?
The Development of Noble Youth Purpose is the conceptual framework that
influenced this study. Dr. Kendall Bronk, who developed this theory, defines purpose as
“having a goal in life that you care deeply about and that contributes to the world beyond
yourself in some productive sense” (Bronk, 2012, p. #). This framework is consistent with
African Leadership Academy’s mission and fundamental values to train the next generation
of conscious and purposeful leaders committed to addressing the shorter and long-term

88
development opportunities and challenges of the African Continent. Five comprehensive
sections of this chapter were developed based upon the study research questions and the
data collected during the stakeholder interview process. These sections include: Research
Question #1, (A) Foundational Beliefs and Values and (B) Purpose-Driven Youth;
Research Question #2, (C) Instructor Professional Development; and Research Question #3,
(D) The ALA Curriculum. The last section (E) Emerging Themes, have components of
each of the three research questions.
Participant Profile
The participant stakeholders for this study were the ALA co-founders, school
leaders, administrators, and instructors, at African Leadership Academy. A total of 17
interviewees participated in the study, See Table 1. While the study participants serve a
variety of roles within ALA, they are all members of the “staffulty” (an ALA term meaning
staff and faculty) or the board of directors. Interestingly, many of the ALA school leaders
and administrators have served or continue to serve as student-facing instructors, in
addition to their day-to-day administrative responsibilities. This commitment is embedded
in, and reinforced throughout the culture of ALA, as a student-leader and alumni network
focused institution.
Figure 2 below highlights the demographics of the interview participants. This
includes two of the four founders of ALA, eight instructors and seven administrators. The
average years working in education, and the average years working at ALA were 9 years
and 7.5 years respectively. The founders began and continue to be involved as members of
the campus school board or the ALA extended network board.

89
Table 1
African Leadership Academy stakeholder participants

Figure 2
Demographic data of participating staff and faculty.

PSEUDONYM ROLE ALA TENURE GENDER COUNTRY of
ORIGIN
Founder 1 F 15 M Cameroon
Founder 2 F 15 M USA
Administrator 1 A/I 14 M Sudan
Administrator 2 A 9 F Nigeria
Administrator 3 A 1 F South Africa
Administrator 4 A 10 M Moçambique
Administrator 5 A 6 F South Africa
Administrator 6 A 4 M Kenya
Administrator 7 A 1 F South Africa
Instructor 1 I/A 11 M Botswana
Instructor 2 I 5 M Kenya
Instructor 3 I 6 M Angola
Instructor 4 I/A 6 M South Africa
Instructor 5 I 9 F Zimbabwe
Instructor 6 I 2 M South Africa
Instructor 7 I 6 F South Africa
Instructor 8 I/A 7 F South Africa
Average ALA
Tenure = 7.5
years

2
15
15
8
11
7
7
7 6,5
# OF INTERVIEWEES AVG. YEARS IN EDUCATION AVG. YEARS AT ALA
INTERVIEW PARTICIPANTS YEARS IN EDUCATION
Founders Instructors Administrators

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RESEARCH QUESTION #1: What is the mission and vision of African
Leadership Academy and how does a purpose-driven Pan-African centered education
influence the institutional culture and pedagogy for instructors and administrators?
Finding 1: Operationalization of the Five Guiding Principles and Six Institutional
Values of ALA Influences Instructors and Administrators
ALA Foundational Beliefs (Principles) and Values
The mission and vision of African Leadership Academy is articulated in its
founding beliefs (principles) and values. These beliefs (principles) and values of African
Leadership Academy were articulated in the original business plan by the four ALA
founders. The first research question that guided this study, “What is the mission and vision
of African Leadership Academy and how does a purpose-driven Pan-African centered
education influence the institutional culture and pedagogy for instructors and
administrators?, addresses the founding beliefs (principles) and values of ALA.
ALA instructors and administrators are influenced through the operationalization of
the ALA beliefs (principles) and values. Central to these values is the understanding that in
order to transform a society, high-quality ethical leadership is needed. Therefore, if lasting
peace and shared prosperity in Africa is desired, then a new generation of ethical purpose-
driven entrepreneurial leaders must be developed, as articulated in the African Leadership
Annual Report (ALA, 2022).
According to Founder #2 of ALA,
Regrettably many well-off African families historically (and continually), send their
children to Europe or the United States for their secondary education. While 450-
year-old boarding schools in England were preparing African students academically,

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the cultural pressure of assimilation encouraged these students to be less African
and more English”.
“These schools prepared Africans for 450 years to be English gentlemen and not
necessarily agents of change for the African Continent, even though these students
possessed access to financial, political, and social capital,” according to Founder #2. The
founders of ALA hence recognized the significant importance of culture and how culture
can drive great schools. The founders believed that a world-class secondary school
institution that was centered on leadership, Pan-Africanism, and entrepreneurial problem
solving, could attract financially well-off African families. The initial business model of
ALA was predicated on every well-off family paying full tuition at ALA, this would
subsidize and fully fund a scholarship for a financially disadvantaged student, as well as
develop a sustainable operating model, one of the founders mentioned.
Founding Beliefs of ALA
The founding beliefs and principles of ALA, as articulated by Founder #1, were
developed as five guiding principles from which all decisions regarding curriculum, staff,
teaching philosophy, programming and other activities are assessed. ALA instructors and
administrators, therefore, have the challenge of translating and incorporating these beliefs
and values throughout their lesson plans and classroom experiences. The same five
principles guide ALA decisions in 2023 and I would expect these five principles will
continue to guide ALA in future years as well (ALA, 2023).
These principles are:
1. Address the underlying causes of problems: treat root causes, not symptoms,
to create lasting positive change.

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2. The Power of One: Individuals catalyze the actions of large groups and
transform societies.
3. The Power of Youth: Young people can dream big, take action, and change
the world.
4. The Need for Pan-African Cooperation: Collaboration will stimulate growth
and development across the African Continent.
5. Entrepreneurship is key for growth: Look beyond existing constraints and
pursue opportunities to create value.
Institutional Values
In addition to the five guiding principles, there are six institutional values that were
recited by Founder #2, these values are referenced daily and are posted throughout ALA
classrooms, administrative offices, conference rooms, residence halls and many of the
common areas as well:
Integrity: We are people of our word, with courage to do what is right
Curiosity: We challenge the status quo and take the initiative to pursue new ideas
Humility: We are thankful for opportunities and are aware of our limitations
Compassion: We emphasize with and care for those around us.
Diversity: We respect all people and believe that difference should be celebrated
Excellence: We set high standards for our own achievement and celebrate the
achievement of others
Both the founding beliefs (principles) and the institutional values are the compasses which
guides, directs, and provides the foundational underpinning of African Leadership
Academy and help to establish, maintain, and reinforce the ALA mission, vision, and
organizational culture (ALA, 2022).

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Purpose-Driven Youth
A purpose-driven Pan-African “geocentric” education (Afrocentric education with a
global perspective) is core to developing future generations of young African leaders.
Administrator #1 shared that with the understanding that “the root challenge of Africa is not
climate issues or culture; it is ethical purpose-driven leadership.” The first research
question “What is the mission and vision of African Leadership Academy and how does a
purpose-driven Pan-African centered education influence the institutional culture and
pedagogy for instructors and administrators? addresses the critical concept of purpose.
Two of the first three ALA principles are (#2) The Power of One: Individuals
catalyze the actions of large groups and transform societies and (#3) The Power of Youth:
Young people can dream big, take action, and change the world. Empowered, encouraged,
and guided, youth yield incredible power.
Founder #2 shared a poignant example of the power and influence that African
youth can have. He communicated that, Nelson Mandela (26), Oliver Tambo (27), and
Walter Sisulu (32), helped to start the African National Council Youth League (ANCYL) in
1944 at early ages. The aim of the Youth League was to galvanize the youth to escalate the
fight against segregation within South Africa. At the time the ANCYL was established,
political circumstances in South Africa were tenuous as the ruling United Party was divided
about South Africa's participation in World War II. The Youth League's drive for a more
militant posture was given further fuel in 1948, when the National Party (NP) won national
elections on a platform of legislating apartheid. In December 1949, at the ANC's 38th
National Conference. The Youth League leadership carried out a "remarkable putsch"
(coup), which successfully installed several younger and more “militant” (less passive)

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members onto the party's National Executive Committee – including Sisulu, who was
elected ANC Secretary-General.
Greater Aspirations
The vast majority of study participants 15 of 17 (88%) believe that the students of
ALA have far greater aspirations than their parents have for them. “The parents want their
children to develop sufficient grades in secondary school, in order to be accepted to a
competitive/prestigious university” according to Founder #2. He went on to say that parents
believe these universities will prepare their children for a chosen “career”. Whereas most
students at ALA feel empowered to think beyond themselves and aspire to change the
world (ideally the African Continent). The leadership and instructional staff at ALA
exposes students to the history and stories of African and other world leaders. The daily and
nightly conversations throughout the ALA campus community constantly reinforces the
five guiding principles (beliefs). Classroom discussions, extracurricular activities, and
positive reinforcement from administrators, instructors, school leaders, classmates, alumni,
and ALA partners support each student’s desire and belief that they too can be “agents of
change” (ALA Principle #2, The Power of One).
“African Leadership Academy has been recruiting some of the most talented youth
from throughout the African Continent’s 54 countries since its founding in 2007,”
according to Administrator #4, who is one of the administrators charged with identifying
talented students on the Continent. Students are selected to attend ALA based on their
demonstrated leadership potential and academic talent, without regard to nationality,
gender, religious affiliation, wealth, or social status (ALA, 2022). ALA’s ultimate objective
is to create a Pan-African network of leaders who have the potential to collaborate to drive

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positive change across the continent. Pan-African cooperation is essential in order to scale
the impact throughout the 54 countries on the Continent, shared several of the interviewees.
Community and Context Matters
When environments like ALA feature supportive networks, noble purposes appear
to grow, and when they do not, commitments stalls. As adults concerned about the welfare
of youth it is important to keep this in mind. Youth's noble purpose and its motivations can
be driven by many factors. Every individual is different. Nevertheless, ALA Administrator
#1 communicated that, “ALA, its beliefs, values, and culture of positive reinforcement led
by leaders and instructors help make youth aware of opportunities for furthering their
involvement”. ALA student enterprises, business plan competitions, and utilizing creative
problem solving helps students focus on addressing Africa’s greatest challenges, while
simultaneously developing organization skills, budgeting, communication, and leadership
skills. These challenges faced by the African Continent are articulated and framed by ALA
into six “sector communities”. The sector communities include: infrastructure, agribusiness,
health, governance, the arts, and education.
The sector communities allow students to harness the power of connections to
achieve greater impact in their work. Founder #2, shared that, the ALA culture, curriculum,
and extended network allows ALA students to gain real-time, real-world perspectives in
their areas of interest. Whether they ultimately decide to pursue the interest they developed
at ALA or develop a different focus once they matriculate to university or beyond, the ALA
students have developed the confidence, analytical tools, structural template, and
supportive networks (connections) to pursue their interest, whatever they may be. Dr.
Bronk’s research findings underscore the need for adults to remain vigilant of youths’
budding, noble interests and to support and even “fan the flames” (Damon, 2008) whenever

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feasible (Bronk, 2011), this is consistent with ALA’s practices. ALA’s supportive culture
and environment permeates the entire ALA ecosystem, including alumni, extended network
of corporate partners and well-positioned funders.
Understanding the importance of purpose-driven youth to the African Leadership
Academy experience, many of the ALA students would not have discovered noble purposes
in the areas they did, had they not been involved in those areas early on, shared multiple
Administrators. As parents, teachers, and other adults interested in fostering purpose among
youth then, it is important to expose young people to a wide variety of activities. Further, it
is impossible to predict which activities, are likely to inspire a lifelong commitment, but
without exposure, purpose seems doubtful, according to Bronk’s research.
Summary
Based upon my findings the purpose-drive Pan-African centered institutional culture
and pedagogy influences instructors and administrators through the operationalization of
the five guiding principles and six institutional values of ALA. The application of these
principles and values permeates every aspect of ALA. Senior leaders of ALA model these
beliefs and values during their daily activities and through their behaviors and actions.
Additionally, by applying Bronk’s theories of purpose-driven youth leadership to train the
next generation of ethical leaders throughout Africa, ALA instructional and administrative
staff constantly engage leadership through strategic planning and staff meetings to reinforce
purpose-driven Pan-African Afrocentric education concepts and initiatives, (Bronk, 2011).
ALA, its beliefs, values, and culture of positive reinforcement led by leaders and instructors
help make youth aware of opportunities for furthering their involvement.

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RESEARCH QUESTION #2: What professional development and learning opportunities
do instructors and administrators find most useful in supporting them to implement the
mission and vision of ALA?
Finding 2: Instructors and Administrators Believe That Subject Matter Expertise,
Structured Unit Planning, Targeted Group Training, and Mentorship are Very Useful
in Supporting Their Efforts to Implement the Mission and Vision of ALA. Most Agree
(93%) That ALA Professional Development Needs Improvement.
The process of building and developing an instructional and administrative staff at African
Leadership Academy has evolved from its original opening in 2009 to how staff building is
done today. Research Question #2, “What professional development and learning
opportunities do instructors and administrators find most useful in supporting them to
implement the mission and vision of ALA?” addresses the essential components of
instructor and administrative professional development. One long-time teacher (Instructor
#1) shared that, “during the initial days of ALA, there were not many subject matter
experts. The department heads handed instructors books that they planned to distribute to
students. The instructors regardless of their area of study in college, had to rapidly prepare
and develop relevant lesson plans”. However, ALA instructor selection has evolved.
Today ALA is much more deliberate about having a variety of disciplinary
backgrounds in each department, especially in African Studies. Administrator #2 stated,
“our staff now may be a historian, but also anthropologists, economists, geographers, etc.,
since there are several disciplines that are needed to develop and curate the curriculum each
year.” The common connection is that irrespective of political perspective there needed to
be some interest in Pan-Africanism and alignment to the ALA mission, which was core to
the institution. Whether these instructors were African or not, was not as important as

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having various views, being passionate about their perspectives, and having an inquisitive
intellectual curiosity. In addition, another administrator commented, “each instructor
needed to be versed in applying the seven critical traits that all ALA students should master
upon graduation. These seven traits are: autodidactic, Africanist, a collaborator, a
communicator, a critical thinker, entrepreneurial and ethical”.
Intellectual Curiosity is Critical
One recruitment story articulated by ALA Administrator #1 was very interesting.
Essentially one of the ALA leaders was at a party and got into a debate with a gentleman
from France, who happened to be a PhD student at the University of Johannesburg.
This gentleman was passionate about the political history of Pan-Africanism and the
ongoing economic decolonization of the Continent. Because this gentleman was a
native French speaker, and ALA had a significant number of students from
francophone Africa, it was determined that he would be a good voice to have on
campus, particularly given that the curriculum at that time didn’t have a great deal
of francophone resources.
Administrator #1 went on to say that,
This gentleman eventually joined the instructional staff at ALA and provided a
powerful motivating force for many of the French-speaking students to engage more
of their Francophone student peers regarding the history of their regions on the
Continent. There was substantial dialogue and debate regarding African leaders who
played an important role in the evolution of Pan Africanist thought such as Patrice
Lumumba (Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Thomas Sankara (Burkina
Faso).

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Thomas Sankara, a Burkinabè military officer, Marxist revolutionary and Pan-
Africanist served as President of Burkina Faso from his coup in 1983 to his assassination in
1987. His domestic policies included famine prevention, agrarian self-sufficiency, land
reform, and suspending rural poll taxes. He also focused on a nationwide literacy campaign
and vaccinating program against meningitis, yellow fever, and measles. He set up Popular
Revolutionary Tribunals to prosecute public officials charged with political crimes and
corruption, considering such elements of the state counterrevolutionaries. This led to
criticism by Amnesty International for human rights violations, including extrajudicial
executions and arbitrary detentions of political opponents.
Sankara’s revolutionary programs for African self-reliance made him an icon to
many of Africa's poor, and Sankara remained popular with a considerable majority of his
country's citizens, though some of his policies alienated elements of the former ruling class,
including the tribal leaders — and the governments of France and its ally Côte de Ivoire
(Keita, 2015). “The French ALA instructor received significant latitude to develop the
resources and reading materials to support the implementation of this curriculum developed
around leaders such as President Sankara. The critique of Sankara’s polarizing, but popular
policies generated much debate,” said Administrator #1. However, Administrator #1 also
stated, “The instructor, like many other ALA instructors, didn’t participate in or attend a
specific course on this subject matter. It was his passion and intellectual curiosity that drove
him to develop compelling and interesting course material and content to engage students”.
This ALA instructors’ story was similar to many others, shared by Administrator #1.
There was general agreement from instructors, administrators, and ALA leadership
study participants that while ALA leadership has supported and still supports professional
development, ALA does not do a very good job of structured professional development.

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Structured professional development is defined as group or targeted subject-matter training.
There is a professional development fund allocated in the annual budget for instructors each
year. Instructors are welcome to apply for funding to attend a training course or workshop.
Figure 3 below underscores the point that of the 15 interview participants that directly
impacted or influenced instruction, (instructors, founders, and administrators responsible
for instruction) all 15 (100%) believed ALA was very supportive of professional
development. Nevertheless, of these 15 interviewees, only 4 or 15 (27%) believed ALA did
a good job of structured professional development programming, and 14 of 15 (93%)
believed that ALA professional development offerings needed improvement.
Figure 3
Professional Development at ALA

Instructor Development
Each term students complete an anonymous survey for every instructor and course
they have recently completed. There are questions that inquire about a particular
instructor’s alignment to teaching and learning principles. Other types of questions ask: Did
the instructor provide timely feedback on assessments? Did the instructor utilize a variety
2 2
1
2
8 8
2
7
5 5
1
5
# OF INTERVIEWEES SUPPORTIVE OF PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
STRUCTURED PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT NEEDS
IMPROVEMENT
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Founders Instructors Administrators

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of tools to engage the class?, What impact did the instructor have on the students learning
experience? Did the student learn what they expected to learn? and Did the instructor
engage students utilizing the seven traits (e.g. autodidactic, Africanist, a collaborator, a
communicator, a critical thinker, entrepreneurial and ethical), that ALA students should
understand and master by the time they graduate?
ALA administers instructor surveys that are predominately used to provide
developmental feedback to instructors to assist them in modifying or adjusting course
content and delivery mechanisms to enhance the student-learning experience. “The surveys
are not designed to put instructors in a defensive posture in regard to their students” stated
Instructor #1. Nonetheless he did share that on occasion, the surveys have been utilized to
identify instructors with significant course delivery and classroom management
“deficiencies ... Ideally if an instructor had significant issues, this would have been
identified well before the end of term survey,” Instructor #1 concluded.
Unit Planning and Peer Observation
Instructor #2 explained that the teaching learning pedagogy practice team developed
a unit plan framework. This was followed by a series of professional development
workshops to solicit feedback from the instructional staff to fine-tune the structure. Unit
plan templates are now the basis for each course. Once the unit plans are developed, then
the assessment strategy, sequencing, and ultimate course objectives can be articulated.
“Ideally the head of each department will sit with each instructor in their department to
review the unit plan and potentially make suggestions on how to strengthen the unit plan,”
added Instructor #1.
According to Instructor #1, ALA has an open-door policy, where any instructor can
visit and sit in on any of their peers’ courses. Peer observation is now built into the ALA

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culture, and it is done in groups of three, where the three instructors rotate observations
amongst themselves. There were also times where ALA mandated that instructors must
visit and observe a certain number of courses per semester and per year. The initial
assumption by ALA administrators was that this helped to improve instructional practices.
However, the leadership team at ALA determined that, even though there was a evaluative
rubric, the observations became a “chore” as opposed to “value add” and was seen as a
burden by instructors, given the already rigorous teaching schedule that many instructors
managed on a weekly basis.
Performance Management
In addition to the professional development and learning opportunities that
instructors and administrators find most useful, ALA also implemented an incentive
program linked to ALA’s performance management framework. Each school year,
instructors set objectives with their administrative faculty leader. These objectives are
tracked, reviewed, and assessed throughout and at the end of the academic period.
Instructors are held accountable with the expectation to meet and ideally exceed the agreed
upon objectives. Annual financial bonuses and salary increases for the ensuing year are
partially driven by these performance metrics. The challenge according to Instructor #1, is
that “there are clearly pockets of excellence in practice where students are engaged and
we’re deeply appreciative to have this instructor at ALA. ... Unfortunately, I can walk into
another classroom and be very disappointed. The instructor is struggling, students are
bored, students are struggling, and parents are calling me”. Instructor #1 went on to say that
he recognizes there are different teaching styles, approaches, and cultures. There are
moments of mediocrity or sometimes levels below that.

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What can ALA do systematically to assist those instructors? What can ALA do to
move those instructors along or at times out of ALA? These are questions that leadership
ponders. Admittedly ALA historically has been slow to move these underperforming
instructors out of ALA. “It’s one of our Achilles heels, but as the school matures, we have
to be honest with ourselves and take responsibility for making these difficult decisions to
ensure that we have the right people in place, although this is still one of our greatest
challenges.” shared Instructor #1. “Teaching pedagogy is part science, which is the
structure we talk about. But then there is the art of teaching. Getting this right. Finding this
balance. These are the things that keep me awake at night,” summarized Instructor #1.
Certifications and Mentorship
Professionals on the African Continent, like many other places throughout the world
consciously seek training and professional development that offer certifications upon the
completion of a specific training. While ALA annually budgets and supports instructors,
administrators, and other ALA professionals desire to pursue certificates, the actual return
on investment is minimal for ALA as an institution. The single most impactful professional
development at ALA comes from mentorship. Mentorship at ALA is essentially partnering
a new ALA instructor with an ALA veteran instructor. “The mentor provides direction,
curriculum development support, and classroom management techniques.” Administrator
#1 added.
Benchmarking Other Institutions
ALA administrators and instructional staff have periodically visited various other
secondary school programs and universities to research and investigate additional
operational models, structures, and centers of excellence. Benchmarking is one of the
organizational objectives this year. “We were asked to benchmark other programs to

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improve our feedback muscle. Who is best in class?”, explained Instructor #1. This applied
to the admissions team, fundraising team, those engaged with safeguarding health and
wellness. In 2023, leadership team members have been visiting secondary schools,
universities, and peer institution board schools. The first trip was to Hilton College, shared
Instructor #1. Hilton College, more commonly referred to as Hilton, is a South African
private boarding school for boys, with 590 students, located near the town of Hilton in the
KwaZulu-Natal Midlands and is situated on a 1,762-hectare estate that includes a 550-
hectare wildlife reserve, according to the Hilton homepage on their website.
“Some of our key takeaways from visiting Hilton that we discussed, included
adopting policy-related aspects to close some administrative gaps. There were no specific
structures,” shared Instructor #2. Nevertheless, there was a fundamental thought the visiting
ALA administrators collectively had. They pondered, if they wanted African Leadership
Academy to be an institution that lasts, ALA must evolve, grow, and develop.
Learning, Innovating and Leading for Impact
Administrator #1 went in depth and shared the following insights. “In recent years,
ALA has worked to transform itself into a “learning, innovating, and leading” institution.
He mentioned the importance of books such as Schools that Learn: A Fifth Discipline Field
book for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares About Education, by Peter Senge
and Improving the Instructional Core by Richard Elmore.” Senge (2012) postulates that in
a learning organization, the “component technologies” are the five disciplines: personal
mastery, mental models, building shared vision, team learning, and systems thinking.
Administrator #1 further shared, “for ALA, Senge provides a framework for thinking about
continuous improvement, whereas Elmore’s framework focuses on how to raise the
standards of learning in a school”. Each of these frameworks further addresses the second

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research question for this study, “What professional development and learning
opportunities do instructors and administrators find most useful in supporting them to
implement the mission and vision of ALA?”
While ALA does not require a teaching credential or teaching qualification to be
considered for employment, there is a baseline level of knowledge and learning. This
baseline is not as high for some instructors as opposed to others. Consequently, the future
of professional development at ALA, is an environment where everyone is a learner. This
includes students, teachers, in addition to administrators. For the instructional staff
explicitly, the same administrator #1 believed, “teachers need to be a scholar of two things;
1) a specific discipline that they convey to their students, and 2) pedagogy, the method and
practice of teaching”. This renewed focus has changed the way ALA conducts performance
management for instructors he went on to say.
A senior leader (Administrator #1) revealed that ALA has migrated from setting
objectives, which were reviewed mid-year and end-of-year, to a more “impact-focused
model”, where a desired impact on students to achieve a certain percentage of mastery of a
topic or skill is articulated. This impact progress is evaluated monthly, which allows for
corrective action or a modified approach to achieve the desired impact. Therefore, the
instructor’s professional development is now an on-going conversation with their manager
or supervisor, where discussions are conducted related to tools and techniques that
instructors can implement to improve student outcomes and improve classroom practices
daily. This new process also allows the Head of Department (HoD) of each academic area
to prepare more valuable and impactful professional development opportunities for their
direct reports and can also potentially be scaled to serve a larger number of faculty

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members. Additionally, this larger cohort of faculty learners can better facilitate the sharing
of best practices and strategies to overcome certain challenges.
Summary
According to my findings, instructors and administrators believe that subject matter
expertise, structured unit planning, targeted group training, and mentorship are very useful
in supporting their efforts to implement the mission and vision of ALA. All the instructors
and administrators (100%) believed that ALA was very supportive of professional
development; however, the vast majority agree (93%) that ALA professional development
needs improvement. The importance of intellectual curiosity and striving to become a
“learning, innovating, and leading” institution is critical to the long-term success of ALA,
as Administrator #1 shared.
RESEARCH QUESTION #3: How are ALA instructors and administrators supported to
develop disruptive curriculum and programs centered on a purpose-driven Pan-African
Afrocentric education?
Finding 3: ALA Instructors and Administrators are Supported and Empowered with
Resources, the Ability to Use Different Instructional Methods, the Creativity to Use
Outside Materials, and the Flexibility to Develop Disruptive Curriculum and
Programs Centered on a Purpose-Driven Pan-African Afrocentric Education.
The ALA Curriculum
The third research question, “How are ALA instructors and administrators
supported to develop disruptive curriculum and programs centered on a purpose-driven
Pan-African Afrocentric education?” addresses the foundation and evolution of ALA’s
innovative and “disruptive” curriculum development process. Initially African Leadership
Academy wanted to develop an International Baccalaureate academic program (IB),

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according to Founder #2. However, after multiple meetings it became apparent that the IB
program was not going to be flexible enough to incorporate the ALA foundational
components of African Studies, entrepreneurship, and leadership. “While the IB leaders
were excited about the ALA vision, the International Baccalaureate academic program did
not offer an African Studies option”, stated Founder #2.
The ALA leadership were willing to work with the IB leaders to jointly create an
African Studies option; however, apparently the International Baccalaureate had just
completed a large growth phase by 2008 and they were trying to “consolidate and focus”,
shared Founder #2. Each of the ALA founders who shared the early days of ALA
mentioned that they were very disappointed and a bit displeased by the IB leaders. “Not
only did the IB program not have an African Studies curriculum nor African content, but
they also didn’t appear interested in developing curriculum to serve the 1 billion inhabitants
of the African Continent at that time”, reflected Founder #2. In 2023, the African Continent
had a population of 1.4 billion, and is projected to grow to nearly 2.5 billion in 2050, and
will swell to 4.2 billion inhabitants in 2100, representing nearly 40% of the total global
population in 2100, according to United Nations and Statista estimates (Statista, 2022).
The outcome of the International Baccalaureate discussions, during the early days of
ALA meant that the initial and subsequent instructors at ALA were empowered and
supported by leadership to develop a disruptive curriculum centered on a purpose-driven
Pan-African Afrocentric education, according to Founders #1 and #2. The curriculum
included significant course development on African Studies, entrepreneurship, and
leadership. Additionally, recognizing the importance of attracting the students who
otherwise might have attended a European or USA boarding school, ALA added O and A

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Level courses in natural sciences, humanities and languages, and mathematics to “prepare
students to secure examination certificates,” according to Founder #1.
The O and A level courses are the secondary and pre-university credentials in
England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The O Levels, or Ordinary Levels, typically
represent a total of 11 years of study and mark the end of the secondary education cycle.
According to the British Council, A Levels are similar to the American Advanced
Placement courses which are themselves equivalent to first-year courses of the United
States four-year bachelor's degrees, (British Council, 2023). Regardless of whether the
course is designed and curated by ALA faculty or programmed by the British Council, the
seven learning traits still apply (e.g. autodidactic, Africanist, a collaborator, a
communicator, a critical thinker, entrepreneurial and ethical). Figure 3 below shows the
balanced structure of the ALA curriculum.
Figure 4
African Leadership Academy Curriculum overview

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Figure 5 below highlights the unanimity eight (8) out of 8 (100%) of instructors believe that
ALA leadership and the five (5) out of 7 (71%) of administrators who oversee instructional
staff or implement instructions programming, feel supported to use different instructional
methods, feel supported to use outside materials, and feel supported to update the
curriculum as necessary.
Figure 5
Leadership Support of Instructors.

Internal Designed Courses vs. Cambridge A-Levels
The Core courses at ALA (African Studies, Entrepreneurial Leadership, and Writing
& Rhetoric), are designed and delivered completely by ALA instructors. The courses
aligned to the Cambridge A-Level syllabus have predefined content, assessment objectives,
and a suggested pace that should be followed to prepare students for the assessments and
exams. For the internally designed courses, there is a desired body of knowledge that ALA
wants students to realize upon completion of the two-year ALA curated curriculum.
Instructors therefore need to work in reverse from the second-year electives to determine
what body of knowledge the first-year students need to absorb and ideally master, to be
2
2 2 2
8
8 8 8
7
5 5 5
# OF INTERVIEWEES SUPPORTED TO USE DIFFERENT
INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS
SUPPORTED TO USE OUTSIDE
MATERIALS
SUPPORTED TO UPDATE
CURRICULUM
SUPPORT TO DEVELOPMENT DISRUPTIVE CURRICULUM
Founders Instructors Administrators

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prepared for the second-year elective courses. At the academic department level, there is
collective discussion regarding content goals, objectives, and shared content rubrics,
nevertheless, each instructor has their preferred assessment tools. Instructor #1 shared that,
these varied assessments at times have created situations whereby even though the rubric is
the same, the level of student skill or knowledge acquisition has been inconsistent. ALA
leadership continues to support and urge instructors to be creative and “entrepreneurial” in
delivering compelling course content, but admittedly, “there is a difficult balance between
instructor autonomy and desired student mastery,” articulated Administrator #1. For this
reason, ALA leadership encourages departments to meet on a regular basis to develop
shared planning tools and learning objectives. This collaboration, if executed properly,
assists in achieving alignment throughout the academic departments, believed multiple
instructors and administrators.
African Studies
Instructor #2, who is one of the leaders in the African Studies department, shared
that the fundamental approach with the African studies courses at ALA began with the
history of African Studies as a discipline. Who was it created by and what was it created to
serve? The purpose was to encourage students to be suspicious of the information received
and to challenge the status quo, while simultaneously developing the skill to formulate an
argument and support it with evidence. This recognized that historically education in most
respects is some form of “indoctrination.” Instructor #2 stated that “developing independent
and liberated African thinkers is essential to establishing an authentic commitment to the
Continent grounded in a unique experience.” Therefore, the third research question to this
study, “How are instructors supported to develop disruptive curriculum centered on a
purpose-driven Pan-African Afrocentric education?” is critical in analyzing the pedagogical

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approach to the teaching of the African studies courses at ALA. Looking at African Studies
through the lenses of sovereignty and political establishments has historically been
universalized through Eurocentric views. Thinking about their identities beyond
colonization is essential, as colonization seems to be at the center of scholarship for most
students. “ALA is bringing students into research by helping them to understand the merits
and implications of studying deep African histories,” according to Instructor #2.
Instructor #2 went in depth by sharing that initially African Studies was structured
as a long historical investigation going back to ancient or prehistoric time. This included
Mali, ancient Egypt, Southern African civilizations, in addition to Jared Diamond’s
arguments about geography, latitude, and longitude.
Jared Diamond's theory that some regions developed more rapidly and were able to
expand and conquer much of the world because the natural resources available to
them along with their climate and geography, gave them an early advantage. The
three major elements that separate the haves from the have nots are guns, germs, and
steel (Diamond, 1998).
Instructor #2 followed by saying, “in time, the African Studies courses at ALA took
too much of a historical view of Africa and history felt too dominant, therefore the course
evolved into a more interdisciplinary approach.” There is a sense at ALA that the balance is
still not ideal, but there is constant debate, discussion, and efforts to adjust the balance.
Today, in the first year of African Studies, students are exposed to a multidisciplinary
survey of issues of African concern, past, present, and future. There is substantial
intentionality grounding students in the artifacts that speak to their leadership,
understanding of the African continent, its opportunities, and challenges. The foundational
course is generally thinking about their identities as Africans of diverse backgrounds. This

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includes ethnic diversity, regional diversity, cultural diversity, language diversity, as well
as socioeconomic diversity, among other issues.
Instructors are empowered and engaged to create resources, case studies, and equip
students to conduct their own research and investigations. The goal is to ensure that stories
and experiences are drawn from a variety of contexts. During the second-year students
choose electives that may include a film course, a resources course, or a philosophy class
(ALA, 2022). Instructors endeavor to present an investigation that is relevant for all African
contexts. ALA Administrator #1, who began in the African Studies department added, “the
fundamental objective throughout the investigation of African studies or the curricular
manifestation upon Africanism is actually critique and critical thinking”. He went on to say
that “you may not be able to name 15-Ancient African Civilizations, but you should have a
sophisticated understanding of what are the theories around how civilization develops.
What are the theories around Africa’s placement in relation to the rest of the world in terms
of human development?”
Instructor #2 mentioned that Francophone African writers such as Leopold Sedar
Senghor produced a significant amount of literature and poetry that explored the concept of
negritude. An important critique of Senghor and some of the other Francophone writers was
that they were not speaking to the needs of Africa. As African scholars, they want to be
objective in the way that they address African issues and navigate the study of Africa.
Instructor #2 mentioned scholars like Ali Mazrui from Kenya, who researched and studied
the triple heritage of Africa in 1986 by writing and hosting The Africans: A Triple
Heritage, a nine-part series that aired on public television. It was originally broadcast by
the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and later shown on Public Broadcasting
Station (PBS) in the United States. The series portrayed Africa as having been defined by

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the interplay of Indigenous, Islamic and Western influences. Mazrui had acquired his
perspectives by growing up speaking Swahili, practicing Islam, and attending an English-
speaking school in Mombasa, Kenya. His books and his hundreds of scholarly articles
explored topics like African politics, international political culture, political Islam, and
globalization. Mazrui was for many years a professor at the University of Michigan, as well
as Binghamton University, State University of New York. Mazrui passed away in 2014
(NYT, 2014).
ALA instruction regarding the African Diaspora, like the foundational African
studies courses, has evolved. Each year, there are approximately eight African Studies
electives, and students must choose two. There used to be a course offered that specifically
covered the topic of the African Diaspora tracing cultural, historical, and economic
relationships between Africa and Africans elsewhere or people of African descent in the
world. Additionally, the seminal readings (discussed in detail later in this chapter), which is
conducted three times per year, read texts on various themes. There are several authors of
African descent in the syllabus who are American, from the Diaspora, or from other parts
of the world, who may not necessarily be of African descent according to Instructor #2.
To encapsulate the perspective of African studies at ALA, Instructor #2
communicated, “African studies begins with questioning your individual identity, then
explores your community identity, and encourages students to think about the question of
what does it take to harness all of these identities to foster a community of common
interest.” The African Studies courses make a conscious decision to move beyond
colonialism and explore much deeper historical issues, shared an instructional leader in the
African Studies department. He went on to say, “Our ultimate objective is to stretch
students’ ability to become critical thinkers”. It's a lot in the first year in terms of exploring

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how the Continent evolved. Nevertheless, if you now understand African historiography
and the priorities in the production of African knowledge, then ALA can question and
address how the African Continent moves forward. By the third term, ALA does mostly
policy analysis, because they want to respond to contemporary African issues that students
have learned about and addressed through the first three terms. Eventually the students
work and studies culminates with the networks. African Leadership Academy has six
network sectors. The networks are industry-specific clusters that address some of the
largest opportunities and challenges that the African Continent faces. These sectors include
health care, infrastructure, agribusiness, the arts, governance, and education.
As an example, an ALA student can choose education as their network of practice.
That student will study the African education sector from prehistoric time to the present
day. They attempt to sort out a particular issue about a specific education system. The
student would look at African education systems through different periods. This includes
the post-independence period, which is called the age of Developmentalism, when there
was drive and motivation to develop countries throughout the Continent. Africa was
flourishing, during the mid-1960s through the 1970s. The African nation state used its
power to try and create cohesion within these new colonial curves. The typical questions
posed to students researching the education “network” could include: How did the
education system feature in that age of developmentalism? What was education like? What
were the policies that were put in place, and how did these policies advance over time?
What do you see as existing challenges with those policies? Are there opportunities for
policy recommendations within this educational space? Shared Instructor#2, “This is how
opportunities, issues and challenges are addressed at ALA”. It’s not just historically
looking at issues and exploring African historiography. There are student efforts to respond

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to the real challenges and investigate the multitude of opportunities that exist on the
Continent today. The student now has established directionally where they want to go,
according to Instructor #2.
The next course of action is: how does the faculty work with students to ensure that
the faculty are aware of the major issues in a particular sector? The faculty members guide
students and connect these students with members of the extensive ALA ecosystem
consisting of alumni, university partners, corporate partners, NGO’s, and entrepreneurs
throughout the globe. These stakeholders assist ALA students implement and realize their
personal vision for how they plan to positively impact the African Continent. This is the
power of the ALA network structure, and these are the types of conscious, purpose-driven
entrepreneurial leaders that ALA is training for the future of Africa, communicated
Instructor #1.
Entrepreneurial Leadership
Entrepreneurship at African Leadership Academy is at the very core structure of
ALA. If African Studies is the heart and soul of the ALA body, then entrepreneurship is the
skeletal structure and framework of African Leadership Academy. The third research
question: “how are ALA instructors and administrators supported to develop disruptive
curriculum and programs centered on a purpose-driven Pan-African Afrocentric
education?” applies to the entrepreneurial leadership (EL) program as well. Similar to
African Studies, the design and development of a disruptive, engaging, and compelling
curriculum is essential to the ALA learning experience. According to Instructor #3, who is
one of the faculty leaders in the Entrepreneurship program, there are eight faculty
instructors tasked with ensuring that students leave ALA with not only a passion for being
agents of change, but these students also will have the skills and networks to implement the

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change they want to see in their respective communities and countries. All instructors who
teach entrepreneurship at ALA began in the Entrepreneurial Leadership Center, where they
learned about the African continent and ALA’s design thinking model.
The ALA design thinking model is framed around a concept called “BUILD”
(Believe, Understand, Invent, Listen, and Deliver). “Purpose” is the belief aspect of BUILD
and is very inspirational. Instructor #3 shared that
BUILD is basically saying that I have the power to enact long-lasting change, but
how do you go about it? We have this very, very high dependence on whatever it is
that we're doing being human centered, meaning, we're producing things for humans
and we're dealing with humans, so there's a high sense of empathy that leads into the
understand phase of BUILD.
The first-year entrepreneurial course syllabus focuses on conceptual frameworks
that challenge assumptions and introduce new ideas in both areas of study, skills that are
elemental to successful leaders and entrepreneurs, values reinforcement, and personal
growth through leadership coaching, (ALA, 2022). ALA receives a diverse group of
students each year, and in order to ground them and get a sense of where they are mentally,
what experiences they’ve had, ALA gets to know their sense of purpose. The first module
in the entrepreneurial curriculum is called “purpose” and it’s basically framed around
addressing a series of questions. Instructor #3 stated these questions include:
· What skills do students possess?
· What are they passionate about?
· What interest might they have?
· What is the big impact project they might already be working on?
· What is their cause?

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ALA wants to get a holistic perspective of who the student is and what is it that they
may want to do throughout their journey at ALA and beyond? “Then we put them on a
treadmill, and they can run at their own pace...then we tweak the speed until they get
comfortable with the environment, and follow up with applying the BUILD principles”,
shared Instructor #3. The first year culminates in the Original Idea for Development
Incubator where students bring to market ideas for change that align with their passions and
skills (ALA, 2022).
The Entrepreneurial Leadership (EL) program at ALA is designed to develop the
interpersonal and leadership skills that are essential for future agents of positive change.
Through the Entrepreneurial Leadership program, students enhance the mind-set, approach,
and skills necessary to be entrepreneurial leaders on the African continent and beyond. The
syllabus includes a variety of teaching methods, including team-based design challenges,
guest speakers, minilectures, simulations and games, case studies, and experiential learning
(ALA, 2022). During their second year, students run a for-profit or non-profit venture on
the ALA campus in teams of five to seven students through the Student Enterprise
Program. This program allows ALA’s young student leaders to put the first-year curriculum
into practice by simulating real-life business scenarios. Students manage and lead their
teams, reporting annually to boards of directors composed of working professionals, and
present their budgets to an Investment Committee to execute a project that has direct impact
on the ALA community (ALA, 2022).
Instructor #3 stated, “we base all our learning on rubrics, set objectives, and aims
that have been drafted by the EL Department”. When it comes to understand in the design
thinking process, what ALA relies on mostly is questions such as, are you establishing and
setting the right interview questions and observations in the context of immersion? It is a

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form of active research, so there's desktop research that's done followed by research on the
ground observation. Synthesizing all that information and identifying the actual need before
a student even starts designing a solution is essential. Instructor #3 added, “we've been able
to scaffold the curriculum as the students come in, they understand BUILD, then they are
ready to articulate their purpose”. The output of purpose is what ALA calls a trajectory
map. The trajectory map outlines what the students seek to achieve throughout their two
years at the ALA.
Once students have produced their trajectory map, the students move into another
module, which will potentially answer the question, which is called an individual, (ALA,
2022). This is the original idea for the development process, where students seek to solve a
need in their home community. Instructor #3 affirmed, “we want them to start impacting
their home communities first. Hopefully if the opportunity to expand is possible, we've seen
some students go back into their hometown and grow their concept beyond their home
communities”. ALA encourages students to scale their ventures to expand their potential
for impact African-Continent wide, if possible.
Students are only at ALA for the two-year diploma program; however, they are
encouraged to maintain life-long engagement, which is managed by other administrative
departments called “networks” and “alumni engagement” shared Administrator #5. These
departments track the progress of ALA alumni to and through university and into their
professional careers. Alumni have access to the Young Entrepreneurs Fund, which is a
resource for seed capital and advisory to support alumni ventures. There are certain
requirements to access these funds that include monitoring and periodic evaluations. Ideally
these alumni ventures address the six sectors (e.g., infrastructure, agribusiness, health,
governance, the arts, and education) that have been identified as the primary challenges of

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the African continent. ALA has articulated and presented these sector challenges and the
subsequent venture opportunities that they can create for ALA students and alumni.
Leveraging entrepreneurship and the multitude of resources that ALA stakeholders
can provide, is central to the foundation and existence of the African Leadership Academy.
“Developing, cultivating, and supporting the next generation of African leaders to
positively lead and impact the African Continent and become lasting agents of change is
why ALA was created”, shared Founder #1. To date, as of May 2023, ALA students have
created 212 on-campus student operated enterprises, 202 young entrepreneurs have been
recognized and awarded funding, and a total of $6 million has been invested in ALA
alumni ventures, according to ALA internal tracking data.
While there has been some success with alumni venturing, ALA would like to
increase the number of ventures and the scale of the ventures. The Entrepreneurial
Leadership (EL) team recognizes that some students arrive at ALA with well-developed
entrepreneurial skills. The EL team therefore helps these advanced students better
understand structures, operational execution, and the concept of being a job creator or
hiring entity. The EL team also consciously promotes “ethical entrepreneurship”
throughout the program, where the team highlights the importance and impact of
developing an ethical venture with value-based leadership. Entrepreneurship is structured
as a multidisciplinary program, where the training and skills enriched in African Studies
(global affairs and policy awareness) and Writing and Rhetoric (research, communication,
and critical thinking skills), assist with developing a holistic young entrepreneur. Shared
Instructor #3, “our dream would be for every student to graduate from ALA and launch a
venture during or after their university studies”. However, ALA realizes that many students
have very different interests that are pulling them back and forth in addition to potential

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familial needs within their homes and communities. Many of the ALA students come from
disadvantaged communities and they need to address immediate solutions and/or work
careers to assist their families, so focusing on an entrepreneurial venture may be very
difficult for them.
According to ALA Administrator #5, “staff work diligently to track graduates and to
follow what they’re doing in terms of entrepreneurial ventures”. There have been a few
successful venture stories started by ALA alumni that include a Kenyan-based battery-
powered eco-friendly motorbike venture, a Fintech startup, and a Cape town, South Africa-
based venture that manufactures drones to deliver medical supplies to remote areas on the
African Continent. Additionally, there are also ALA alumni developing social impact
projects addressing women’s healthcare and reproductive health among others. Instructor
#3 commented that “it’s important for ALA students while they’re on-campus to develop
not just their entrepreneurial skills, but also their professional network of supporters to
serve as advisory board members”. These advisory members provide consultation as well
as encouragement, which can potentially increase the likelihood that the ALA graduates
pursue their entrepreneurial aspirations upon completion of their formal academic studies.
Writing and Rhetoric/Research
The third and final core courses developed exclusively by ALA faculty are the
Writing and Rhetoric courses. The core premise is that writing promotes critical thinking.
Regardless of their career path, future leaders need to be complex, creative, and reflective
thinkers who can ably communicate their ideas to others, therefore, the course is
compulsory for all students. “The curriculum is uniquely Pan-African, exposing students to
past and present voices, as ALA instructors look to develop the future voices of the African
continent”, stated Instructor #1. The course develops the skills of critical thinking, reading,

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writing, listening, speaking, inquiry and research. The instructors seek to empower young
leaders to communicate their ideas, advocate for change, and use their voice to make an
impact throughout the world (ALA, 2022).
Independent research helps students to develop their critical thinking and analytical
abilities, presentation skills and learn to collaborate with other researchers. Instructor #2
added, “independent research courses are offered as second-year elective courses at ALA
and teach students to fully analyze and interpret journal-level writing allowing them to
become experts in a particular field that aligns with their interests”. Courses offered
include: Scientific Research, Humanities Research and Creative Research. Previous
research projects conducted include: HIV/Aids and Quantum Computing as part of the
Scientific Research course, and Socialism in Tanzania, and Mobile and Digital Media in
African Presidential Campaigns as part of the Humanities Research Course. The Creative
Research course forms part of the Creative Arts Department and requires students to
research a specific area of interest and produce projects or presentations that show their
development, exploration, and experience. The presentation includes carefully selected and
edited material for a high-quality presentation, which responds to a clearly formulated
question based on the topic of interest (ALA, 2022).
Seminal Readings
Administrator #1 and Instructor #1 both shared that one of the opportunities for
ALA to significantly build and reinforce critical thinking skills, ethical perspectives, as well
as build institutional culture is the Seminal Reading program. Administrator #1 specifically
stated that, “the Seminal readings are not only an important aspect to implementing the
ALA curriculum, but the readings have also served as a significant institutional bonding
experience”. The seminal reading initiative reinforces the first and third research questions:

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What is the mission and vision of African Leadership Academy and how does a purpose-
driven Pan-African centered education influence the institutional culture and pedagogy for
instructors and administrators? and How are ALA instructors and administrators supported
to develop disruptive curriculum and programs centered on a purpose-driven Pan-African
Afrocentric education?
For three to four days each semester, classes are suspended, and the entire campus
engages in a series of readings and discussions around big texts and big ideas.
Administrator #1 explained, “there are standard fixed texts such as Nelson Mandela’s
speech from the dock in the Rivonia Trial in which he said he was prepared to die for a
democratic, non-racial South Africa.” In the Rivonia Trial of April 1964, Mr. Mandela
chose, instead of testifying, to make a speech from the dock and proceeded to speak for
more than four hours. His speech, which was made at the beginning of the defense case,
ended with the words:
During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I
have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I
have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live
together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live
for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.
Another standard text that ALA includes in the seminal readings is Steven Biko’s,
Definition of Black Consciousness (1971). In Apartheid South Africa, Black consciousness
aimed to unite citizens under the main cause of their oppression. Instructor #1 admitted that
“in the early days of ALA, there was a propensity to read deceased European
philosophers”. Since then, ALA has consciously “Africanized” the texts to include more

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Africans, more women, and more texts from throughout the African Diaspora. During the
data collection and interviewing phase of this study in April 2023, I, as the principal
investigator, had the opportunity to participate in one of the Seminal Readings directly. It
was truly an awe-inspiring and humbling experience. The level of depth and critical thought
articulated by the young ALA scholars was impressive, and simultaneously expected, given
the training that students receive at the African Leadership Academy.
A and O Levels
The ALA leadership shared the importance of working with the British Council
helps students prepared for university admissions. Students also select a combination of
higher-level courses from the IGSCE, AS or A Levels that can include courses from the
natural sciences, the humanities & languages and commerce. Additionally, there is a
continuation program for the online Computer Programming courses. Students who have
expressed interest and who are capable, can pursue higher added challenges through
research in the sciences, the humanities, or creative Arts, commented Instructor #1. African
Leadership Academy also offers expanded course options via the Global Online Academy
(GOA)—a platform through which students from selected leading schools from around the
world can cross enroll in courses led by faculty from each other’s schools. ALA is the only
African member of GOA (ALA, 2022).
Summary
Based upon my findings, ALA instructors and administrators are empowered with
resources, the ability to use different instructional methods, the creativity to use outside
materials, and the flexibility to develop disruptive curriculum and engaging programing
centered on a purpose-driven Pan-African Afrocentric education. The ability to creatively
develop the foundational courses of African Studies, Entrepreneurship, and Writing &

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Rhetoric has been transformative for instructors and administrators. Additionally, the ALA
design thinking model, trajectory maps and other frameworks have been very useful to
structure innovative learning models and disruptive curriculum. For instructors and
administrators, ALA has not only been professionally challenging and rewarding, but they
also truly believe they are positively impacting and developing the next generation of
Africa’s leaders in a meaningful way.
Emerging Themes
There were various topics and areas of discussion that emerged throughout several
of the interviews with the stakeholder participants that were not part of the original research
questions related to mission, vision, professional development, and curriculum;
nevertheless, many of these areas or “emerging themes” were and continue to be critical to
the development and reinforcement of leadership, Pan-African culture, as well as the ALA
operational model. The topics and areas that were repeated by multiple stakeholders
included: building and maintaining school culture; student recruitment; outside of the
classroom dynamics (e.g., residential halls and sports, extracurricular activities); parental
interaction; transition to university (applying to university); post-ALA engagement (e.g.,
networks, alumni, early career success); and sound fiscal management.
Building and Maintaining School Culture
School culture is the tangible conglutinate component of African Leadership
Academy that connects and binds ALA values, beliefs, purpose, classroom experiences and
community together. Each of the three research questions driving this qualitative study
have aspects of organizational culture explicitly and implicitly embedded in their wording.
All 17 stakeholder in-depth interviewees (100%) believed that building, maintaining, and
reinforcing the African Leadership Academy school culture was critical to ensure short and

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long-term successful outcomes for ALA, its current students, alumni, staff, and faculty
(staffulty). From the residence halls, classrooms, dining halls, extracurricular activities, and
administrative offices, the ALA culture is strengthened daily. One of the school leaders
(Administrator #1) began in the classroom as a teaching fellow, teaching African studies,
while simultaneously living in the dorms. He initially planned to attend law school, and left
ALA. He however returned to ALA because “he did not expect to be as captivated by being
part of an intentional community”, he confessed. Similar stories were repeated throughout
the interview and data collection process. Countless administrators, instructors and staff
members live, breath and embody the cultural spirit and promise that is the African
Leadership Academy.
One of the strongest ways that ALA instructors and administrators experience
communication from ALA leadership regarding the mission and vision of a purpose-driven
Pan-African Afrocentric education is that the ALA leadership demonstrates their
commitment through their daily actions, activities and decision making. This reinforces the
culture if ALA senior leadership eat in the dining hall with students, live in the residence
halls, and dedicate time during their day to teach a course or lead a seminal reading
discussion, then instructors can see and experience the commitment and dedication of the
leadership team every day. This makes it much easier for new, returning, or recently
promoted staffulty to endorse the mission and vision of ALA. Administrator #2
commented,
My primary role is to live and model the ALA vision and values. I encourage
everybody to do so. If I live the six values we espouse, (e.g., integrity, compassion,
excellence, curiosity, diversity, and humility), then that needs to be reflected in who

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I am, how I engage and what I do. If I do that first and foremost, then asking young
people to do what they must do for themselves, becomes a lot easier.
Student Recruitment
For African Leadership Academy, finding the ideal students who have the potential
to thrive in the ALA environment and culture can be very challenging. Nonetheless,
recruiting the right students is critical to executing the mission and long-term vision of
ALA, which is developing future leaders for the African Continent. Administrator #4
constantly ponders, “How do you identify passion for Africa? We used to say it's passion
for your community or passion for your country that ultimately will translate into passion
for the African Continent. We try to tie that passion into the ownership, the courage, and
the perseverance that you have”. Ultimately, ALA is a place where brilliant minds and
brilliant individuals in different fields will work together, nevertheless, everyone will come
to ALA for a different reason.
Most of the students perform well academically because they believe that they need
to be academically ready to succeed. If the students face adversity, they must have the
determination and courage to succeed. Not every student will build a windmill, not every
student will have a brilliant story, but ALA does want the top academic performers to
attend ALA. ALA wants the top science student, ALA wants the top artist student, and
ALA wants the top student that has demonstrated a passionate interest in diplomacy and
international relations for Africa. Each of these students is ideally driven by purpose and is
connected to the mission and vision of ALA.
Identifying and recruiting talented students throughout the African Continent has
evolved throughout the years for ALA. While the process is not foolproof, ALA does have
a standard criterion that is used to select each class. The criteria includes: a minimum age

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of 16, maximum age of 19 at matriculation to ALA (the average student is typically 17-18
years old); academic readiness (can the student cope with the rigorous academic
environment at ALA?); does the student have the courage and perseverance to be an actual
“change maker”?; and how would a student navigate interdependence and can they
interrelate with others?
Most of ALA lead generation is done through social media and the internet. The
enrollment management team then follows up and contacts the students directly to inform
them about ALA, the various programs offered, then encourages them to apply to one of
the programs if they are eligible. ALA receives approximately 2,000 applications each year
for its Two-year diploma program. Of these applications, ALA will select 300-400 finalists
that will be interviewed, and only 130 students will be admitted in a typical year, which is
approximately a 7% admission rate. The limited number of beds in the dormitories are one
of the factors that limit enrollment, in addition to high per pupil operating costs.
ALA receives the highest percentage of students from English-speaking countries.
There is a small percentage of Lusophone (Portuguese) speaking students every year. It can
range from one to two, to as many as four, but sometimes there are zero students from
Lusophone countries. ALA typically has roughly one-third (1/3) of its students from
francophone Africa. Each country is allocated a certain number of finalists (usually 1-4 per
country). “The anglophone countries generally give us the highest quality of applicants”,
stated Administrator #4. Over the years Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco, Egypt, and Ethiopia
account for the highest volume of applications, with the top two countries being Nigeria
and Kenya. See Figure 6 below.

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Figure 6
European Languages Spoken throughout Africa

One final note of importance, regarding recruitment, is that admissions to ALA is
needs blind. The financial status of students is not taken into consideration before a
decision is made. ALA looks for the potential in each student. African Leadership
Academy is an investment in the potential that the students have once the admissions
screening team decides on who is admitted and who is not. The award for financial aid is
according to how much a family can afford to contribute. The cost of having one student
per year is approximately $32,000 USD per year, or for two years nearly $64,000 USD. “If
you get admitted on merit and we conduct the assessment, we see that you can pay the full
fee, we will require you to pay the full fee. If you can pay 50%, you pay 50%, if you can
only pay 20%, you pay 20%”, shared Administrator #4.

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Residential Program and Student Life
African Leadership Academy is a two-year residential diploma program. Once
students arrive on campus, they rarely leave the campus during the semester after their
daily classes, unless they’re participating in sports, extra-curricular activities or conducting
off-campus research. The campus is essentially a self-contained academic and living
ecosystem, where the students interact and have access to administrators, faculty, and staff
members 24 hours per day. Administrator #2 stated, “you know all these children for me
are my children. I haven’t biologically given birth to all of them, but there is a certain level
of respect and attention that I would give to them as I equally would to my own children”.
As mentioned previously, several instructors and administrators live amongst the students
in the residence halls, and similar to Administrator #2, many staffulty consider students
“extended family”, shared Instructor #5. There are approximately 15 adults (3 staff
members and 12 teachers from the classroom) who live in the dorms and help students
along their journey of understanding some of the challenges of life. Therefore, there is no
break between the student experience in the classroom and outside the classroom.
Students are organized into “advisory families'', which are typically 15-20 students. As a
general practice, ALA pairs a first-year student with a second-year roommate from a
different region of the Continent. The residence halls have various rituals that practice and
model the ALA idea of culture, such as celebrations of Pan-Africanism and what it means
to celebrate Afrocentricity. One of the rituals is the African leader of the week or biweekly
so students get to profile different individuals from their countries and speak to their
milestones, accolades, and significance to share out with the rest of the group. One week
it's a Togolese, the next week it's a Moroccan singer. Additionally, whenever there is a
national day or an Independence Day for a specific country in assembly, the students of that

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country get to present their countries. “Diversity and cultural bridges are built and extended
on a daily basis”, shared Instructor #5.
The residential program is typically segmented into four areas: the dormitories, the
sports program, the clubs and societies, and student government. Each of these areas are
personal growth and leadership development opportunities outside of the classroom. Each
of these areas provide students an opportunity to experiment or apply the different tools that
they learn in the classroom. The role of the adult is to guide the students, give them trust to
“fail forward”. Students are at ALA to learn and are given the room to fail. Now, that said,
adults have to know when to step in and assist when necessary.
Some instructors and administrators understand what it means to give the students
enough rope to learn, but also know at what point the rope becomes dangerous. Student life
and culture at ALA is guided by the same core values (e.g., integrity, curiosity, humility,
compassion, diversity, and excellence). Understanding the importance of these values and
living them out on a day-to-day basis is fundamental. “The experience of living day-to-day
also equalizes so the shared challenges, the shared understanding, and the time spent in the
classroom bonds students”, added Instructor #5.
Sports and Recreation
Sports and recreation are incorporated into the fabric of African Leadership
Academy extracurricular activities. The extracurricular programs offer substantial learning
and leadership opportunities, which supplement leadership training in the classroom. Sports
participation at ALA is not compulsory. “I wish it was compulsory because it would make
life easier. Especially in selecting the teams and holding students accountable”, stated
Instructor #6. You don't need sports to be admitted to ALA. Of the 220 students enrolled at

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ALA, approximately 50% either play in the core sports (e.g., netball, volleyball, and
football (soccer)) or participate in recreational activities.
Physical activity is encouraged, so either students play in the core sports or
participate in recreational activities that students can do on their own time. Students use the
gym facilities, running, biking, and one student even began teaching a Zumba class, which
was a great leadership and learning experience for that student. Due to the academic rigor
of the institution, ALA does not participate in sports leagues, because the time constraints
are limiting. As a result, ALA typically will participate in local school to school “friendly”
matches or regional tournaments from time to time. “Students have asked for more
consistency with outside programming competition, but ALA leadership feels that it's
unrealistic to commit to a league schedule”, mentioned Instructor #6.
Last year, ALA had two students who wanted to go into sports management. They
frequently sought opportunities to develop those skills with sports at ALA. “I know one of
the students was heavy into coaching, and even though we had a head coach, the student
acted/served as a quasi-assistant coach” shared Instructor #6. These opportunities were
great platforms to develop and build leadership skills. The sports world is a great way to
develop and test leadership qualities. On the sports field your mental, emotional, and
physical self is challenged. When considering the ALA mission, the focus should be more
on the emotional side to see how a student reacts positively or negatively on the sports
field. Managing these reactions can assist in developing a student’s emotional intelligence.
As a former collegiate athlete, I believe that if students were to fully realize and
appreciate the advantage of being part of a sports team, they would constantly strengthen
their leadership skills through sports participation. Also of great importance is that students

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are dealing with their peers in a very demanding and fast-paced environment, it's a great
way to see how people respond and react under pressure. All these experiences I believe fit
into the “purpose” of ALA and developing the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders.
If students could have various leadership experiences by participating in sports
during their time at ALA, and if they reflect on those struggles and what they had to do to
make it a success, those would be invaluable lessons that could be applied to future
struggles, and they would have developed the confidence to overcome these struggles.
“How to think under pressure? How to maintain your composure even though things are
not going your way? I think sports players are great role models in achieving that,” stated
Instructor #6. Perhaps you can learn some of these skills in the classroom when you are
having a debate, but on a sports field in a highly emotionally charged situation, that is
where students learn self-mastery and self-control.
Parental Involvement
Parents at African Leadership Academy are encouraged to engage and get involved
throughout and beyond their children’s matriculation at ALA. Parents are a critical pillar to
the ALA’s three-legged stool to support the development of children (along with ALA
instructors and ALA policies). ALA has a parents’ network, which is a parent support
group that has 40 to 50 participants that meet monthly representing 15 or so nationalities.
ALA recognizes it has a small team and cannot deliver the depth and breadth of services on
its own. Because of the ALA mission and the impact it wants to see on the African
Continent, parents can be very useful. Many of them have their own companies or lead
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ALA is looking for access to jobs, internships, and referrals. If a student has or had
a good experience at ALA, ALA encourages parents to share with their friends and
networks. Nonetheless, Administrator #2 shared, “if you give parents too much oxygen to
come at you, they will. Therefore, I was equally very clear about boundaries and where
parents could and couldn’t go once we established the parent’s network”.
“Parents need to support their children and their teachers will tell them where and
how you need to support their children,” added Administrator #2.
Because of the experiences that ALA students have on campus, students are
articulate, creative, and critical thinkers. This makes them ideal people to hire for an
internship. The students run small businesses on campus, so they can model their
entrepreneurial traits and experiences throughout the academic year. Parents have the
opportunity to engage with each other by sharing their contact information and networking
with each other outside of ALA. Many parents come from homogenous societies where
they engage with very few people outside of their home countries. They see 40 to 50
diverse people monthly. If they have issues, they’re dealing with, independent of ALA,
they have an extended network of peers to call who may be dealing with similar issues in
their respective companies and countries. Administrator #2 concluded with,
This is something I would consider my life’s work and something I want to do daily
in schools as well. If school leaders understand and if parents understand, the
potential that we collectively have to create and develop a powerful generation of
young people is incredible.... We would hardly have all the problems and challenges
in schools that we face daily if we were more engaged as school leaders.

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University Guidance
The African Leadership Academy is tasked with developing the next generation of
leaders for the African Continent. Specifically, ALA helps students to: 1) define their
individual purpose; 2) provide them with the necessary tools to then go a step further and
identify the pathway that's needed for them to attain or achieve that particular purpose that's
been established; and 3) gain a sense of identity as an African to be motivated to return to
the African continent by the age 25. The University Guidance team’s purpose is to work
with ALA students to help them define and map out their postsecondary pathways. ALA
often send students out into the world, all regions from Japan to the United States. The
hope is that students will gain skills and competencies that they can then come back to
effect change in Africa, aligned to the purpose that they've defined during their two-year
journey at ALA.
Subject selection
When students enter ALA in their first year, they go through a process of subject
selection. The University Guidance team works in collaboration with the academic support
team to help students select courses that align with their purpose and future career
aspirations, and from that point they have a very critical conversation about what the
relationship is between their purpose and their proposed career. Oftentimes a student will
define their purpose as helping people, but that purpose is then strictly linked to a particular
type of career that’s been programmed into their psyche from a young age, many times by
their parents or their community. Instructor #4 commented, “Students believe you need to
be a banker. You need to be a doctor. You need to be this or that. However, sometimes their
purpose can be achieved through grassroots work, through activism, or through public
office”. It's not something that students would critically think about prior to ALA; however,

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when it comes to selecting subjects and what that would mean for their futures at ALA and
beyond, that’s when those types of conversations begin with the University Guidance team.
Students who sometimes come in and have aspirations of becoming doctors, but
then they may not do well on the assessments to get into a chemistry class, which is a
requirement. ALA ask students to reflect honestly on their competencies, their purpose and
how they can still achieve their purpose through a different career pathway and one of the
mantras that the University Guidance team uses is for students “to be open to exploring and
rediscovering themselves at ALA”, according to Instructor #4.
Parental Enlightenment
ALA has a parent education program when it comes to university pathways. The
University Guidance team hosts a webinar every Saturday during the school year, walking
parents through the application process. Not only the application process in terms of what
they need to do on an application, but rather the ALA ethos, approach, and philosophy
around international higher education. They map everything from trends to exploring
universities, even on the African continent. While parents hope that their children will
attend “prestigious universities” in the USA predominantly, or maybe in Europe, there
appears to be a disdain for universities on the African continent. Therefore, the University
Guidance team conduct sessions where university representatives from leading institutions
on the African Continent present to parents what their programs are like. Parents are
encouraged to conduct additional research as if they are going through an application
process, so that they understand the quality of education that exists on the Continent and
why for certain professions it might be best to study on the Continent versus studying
abroad.

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Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
Given the theme around Afrocentricity, Instructor #4 shared that “every year we
have a number of students applying to HBCUs”. However, unfortunately funding for
HBCUs is hard to come by, so often ALA has students who are admitted to institutions
such as Howard University, but they cannot afford to enroll. Even if they receive financial
aid, they're still looking at a $25,000 USD gap in funding in some instances. For the types
of students that ALA supports and teaches, large funding gaps might not be a viable option.
In addition, ALA had a partnership with Morehouse College through the Oprah Winfrey
Scholarship, but even then, in order to be eligible for the Oprah Winfrey Scholarship,
families need to have $25,000. Therefore, a very small number of students at ALA can
afford that, so funding has been the major barrier to increasing the flow for ALA students
to HBCU’s.
Part of the University Guidance team role is to strategically build more university
partnerships, as they have seen a growing number of students who are interested in HBCUs.
“It's now a matter of making the time to connect with the Provosts or Vice Presidents of
admissions to find out what opportunities are available for international students given the
previously mentioned financial restrictions that many of our students at ALA encounter”,
commented Instructor #4. The last point with University Guidance is that ALA does have
substantial partnerships with organizations or foundations like the MasterCard Foundation,
who are making a huge investment in higher education on the African continent. Many
ALA students are tapping into those opportunities.
Networks and Early Career Pathways
Once students from African Leadership Academy graduate, they become part of an
extensive global community of alumni, stakeholders, and supporters of ALA.

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Administrator #5 explained the comprehensive nature of the networks division of ALA.
The network division has eight (8) sub-companies inside. Once students leave ALA, they
become alumni and they form part of the alumni engagement initiatives. ALA has a
supportive team called “university support”, which helps them with their initial transition
and helps them prepare for a new world. They can connect with students all the time and
make sure that they have enough support and resources socially, educationally, and at times
financially. The Networks team makes sure to encourage ALA alumni to engage with
university programming and their local campus communities. Two of the alumni network
team members are based in the USA. They traverse the United States visiting ALA student
alumni all over the USA.
Many ALA alumni have never been outside of the African Continent, and therefore
through their university years they get these opportunities to go to universities across the
world, whether it is in the USA, Europe, and even some in the Middle East. “When you
come from a continent where everybody else looks like you and you are the majority, it's a
very different experience to becoming a “minority”, commented Administrator #5. Through
the previously mentioned relationship with the MasterCard Foundation, ALA formed the
MasterCard Foundation Scholars program. With this initiative, various partner universities
prioritize ALA students' applications and ensure timely review of admissions decisions.
Once a student is accepted, the university partners work with the ALA office to assist the
students prepare to attend university.
The Africa Careers Network (ACN) is another company within the networks
division. ACN focuses on the career development of ALA alumni, once students leave
ALA. The ACN team focuses on preparing students for their first jobs and careers. They
assist alumni prepare cover letters and Curriculum Vitae (CV’s) to summarize their work

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history, education, and skills. ACN also assist with interview preparation and job
opportunities research. Once they secure the job, ACN serves as an on-going resource.
Administrator #5 shared that, ACN has established employer partner organizations across
the world. ACN focuses mainly with opportunities on the African Continent because
ultimately, ALA wants all the students to come back to Africa and have good prospects of
growing their careers on their home continent. This is still a work in progress. ACN has
grown its network to nearly 1,200 employer partners throughout the globe. This includes
employer partners in the USA, Europe, and basically wherever ALA students are located.
Initially, ACN used to support students and engage them based on the geographical
area of their hometowns; however, ACN realized it was more effective to organize and
structure around the same sectors related to Africa’s greatest challenges (e.g., education,
infrastructure, the arts, governance, agribusiness, and health) the sectors that students use in
the ALA academic programs. ACN established a web portal where ALA alumni can review
job postings and access a substantial amount of career development content. This includes
watching videos on a variety of professional and career development skills. When students
leave ALA, they immediately become part of the ALA community forever.
Unfortunately, there is a disconnect in some respects between the two-year diploma
program alumni and the Networks division. Historically, the Networks team has limited
interaction with current students. They only interact with the students typically once a year.
“We are responsible for the relationship once they leave, but by the time they leave the
program, they don't know us”, shared Administrator #5. Students apparently have ALA
fatigue upon completion of the program because it's such an intense program. They want to
take a break their first year away from ALA. However, it's really difficult for the ACN

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team to re-engage students once they disconnect. Only roughly 25% are generally very
responsive, unfortunately, that means that 75% are not, according to Administrator #5.
ALA needs to develop newer programming that is interesting, exciting, and relevant
for alumni to remain engaged. ALA needs to find better ways to engage the current
instructors and integrate what the network team does and build it into the curriculum.
“There's a lot of ways that we can integrate our work into the curriculum”, commented
Administrator #5. This could include inviting employers to the ALA campus and hosting
various career activities and workshops. The networks division is large with close to 20
professionals, some based outside of South Africa, such as Kenya. The network team feels
strongly that their work training the next generation of leaders for Africa, will have a
lasting impact for the entire African Continent, and that their work in integral to the entire
ALA ecosystem.
Strategic and Sound Fiscal Management
African Leadership Academy requires substantial investment, resources, disciplined
budgeting protocols, and timely financial reporting, to execute its various programs
efficiently. Based on my findings, the finance team serves a critical role in supporting
academy leadership and instructors to make informed strategic decisions. The fiduciary role
of the team is to make sure that the resources that ALA receives from philanthropic
sources, student tuition, and program fees are accounted for properly.
ALA is broadly categorized into four programs: Two-year Diploma program,
Entrepreneurship programs (Anzisha Prize), Networks, and Global Programs. ALA
operates the additional nondiploma programs to generate cash flow, utilize the facilities,
and idle staffulty (staff and faculty) mostly during the summer months (June to August)

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when the regular Diploma Program semester is not in session, although ALA does host the
Model African Union in March typically offsite at a local hotel. Student tuition and fees do
not generate enough funds to cover the cost of running the Two-year Diploma Program,
therefore ALA does substantial fundraising.
Student fees only contribute approximately 20% of the cost of running the Diploma
program, according to Administrator #6. The rest come from philanthropic income and the
surpluses from the other programs ALA operates. Anzisha and Networks are generally
funded by grants, which cover nearly 99% of all activities. The finance team is responsible
for ensuring that the various departments don’t overspend once budgets are approved. They
produce monthly statements and variance reports to “course correct” if necessary “so ALA
doesn’t end the fiscal year with a deficit”, commented Administrator #7.
Infrastructure and facilities at ALA are guided by a number of Board of Directors
committees. The grounds and building committee is in charge of capital projects. The
Campus Master Plan (CMP) is a five-year strategic plan that outlines long-term
infrastructure investments. The ALA endowment fund is still very young, so it hasn’t begun
to produce significant investment income to support capital projects. Eventually, the board
made the strategic decision to borrow funds. The loan is a US dollar denominated loan,
whose cost of capital was 50% cheaper than borrowing locally, shared Administrator #6.
Sound financial management is required to secure and manage the resources
necessary to execute on African Leadership Academy’s vision and mission. Attracting and
retaining high-quality administrators and instructors, providing the necessary facilities
infrastructure, and having available funding to enhance the program experiences is essential
to recruiting some of the best and brightest students from across the African Continent

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Summary of Findings
My collective findings highlight the fact that there are several areas that contribute
to the success of African Leadership Academy, in addition to leadership support for
instructors and administrators, to implement the mission and vision, instructor and
administrator professional development, and support for disruptive curriculum and
programming. Critical areas such as building and maintaining school culture, student
recruitment, parental engagement, residence hall culture, sports leadership, university
guidance, alumni networks, and sound fiscal management are essential. Sustained success
of African Leadership Academy and its mission to develop the next generation of purpose-
driven Pan-African young leaders is contingent upon several factors, including a dedicated
team of professionals who share similar goals and objectives inside and outside of the
classroom.

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Chapter Five: Discussion
This qualitative research study focused on African Leadership Academy (ALA), an
award-winning Pan-African secondary school located in the suburbs of Johannesburg,
South Africa. The objective was to learn about the institutional mission, vision, culture,
leadership, instructional methodologies, instructor and administrative professional
development, and the design of disruptive curriculum and programming at ALA. Several
emerging themes related to institutional culture, administrative services, student
recruitment, student as well as alumni engagement, and ALA’s approach to fiscal
management were also learned. Ultimately these learnings will be applied to develop a
network of high-quality secondary schools serving Afro-Colombian students in the Pacific
region of Colombia, in South America.
African Leadership Academy (ALA) operates a two-year diploma program in
addition to shorter-term Africa-centric entrepreneurial and leadership programs. All the
programs are targeted to develop Africa’s next generation of leaders. ALA provides their
students with a sense of purpose and entrepreneurial training to positivity address some of
the major challenges on the African Continent (e.g., healthcare, infrastructure, education,
governance, agribusiness, and the arts). The participant stakeholders for this study were the
founders, school leaders, administrators, and instructors at ALA. A total of 17 interviewees
participated in the study. Semi-structured interviews ranged in time from 45-minutes to 75-
minutes and all but two of the interviews were conducted in-person on ALA’s campus in
South Africa between March 31
st
and April 14
th
, 2023. Two of the interviews were not
recorded via audio, but detailed written notes were taken. The audio files from in-person
interviews were uploaded and transcribed by the Microsoft Word Transcribe feature, which
converts audio directly to text. The remaining interviews were recorded using the Zoom

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Video Conference application and then transcribed also using the Microsoft Word
transcribe feature. I used pseudonyms for all participants for confidentiality and privacy
purposes.
This chapter aims to respond to the research questions and discuss findings
contextualizing implications and opportunities for Afro-Colombian communities. These
communities collectively represent 25% (13 million) of Colombia’s 52 million inhabitants,
but disproportionally represent 75% of those living in poverty (World Bank, 2018). Using
Bronk’s theory of Purpose Driven Youth Development as the conceptual framework, this
chapter will discuss potential solutions that will address the inequitable access to quality
education for Afro-Colombian communities. Finally, this chapter will propose specific
recommendations and implementation strategies for Colombia, that are also applicable
throughout the world where similar conditions exist, recognizing the limitations of the
study, and identifying ideas for future research.
Discussion of Key Findings
ALA’s philosophy of Pan-African Afrocentricity, purpose, creative problem
solving, and entrepreneurship, resonates with the needs of equitable secondary education
for Afro-Colombian children. Understanding how educators and administrators embody the
vision and mission of a schools’ educational philosophy, how instructors and administrators
incorporate Afrocentricity within their curriculum and administrative responsibilities
respectively, and how instructors and administrators continuously expand their skills, can
all have a profound impact on Colombia’s education system, particularly for Afro-
Colombian youth.
Afro-Colombian students rarely have had access to an equitable quality education.
Colombia’s education philosophy and policies have followed an “equity or excellence”

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model (Lee, et al., 2014), where limited resources were distributed to a targeted “talented”
few, at the expense of the majority of the Colombian populace (OECD, 2012). The results
of these policies have had a particularly inequitable impact on communities of African
descent. In 2025, the Colombian Ministerio de Educación Nacional (MEN) will mandate
that secondary education be compulsory in dense urban areas, and in 2030, the rural areas
as well. The current professional development systems, curriculum and physical
infrastructure is inadequate to support this pending new policy from the Ministerio de
Educación Nacional (MEN, 2023).
Instructor and administrator growth and professional development are critical
components of a high-performing education system. These systems have multiple
components, not just a single policy. A significant increase in investment for instructor and
administrative training in the Pacific region of Colombia is vital to the development of
world class academies. An education professional’s ability to stay relevant with respect to
the latest pedagogy, techniques, and technologies, can have a profound impact on efficient
operations and the learning outcomes for students. Afrocentric themes can assist an
instructor to connect with their students of African descent. African Leadership Academy’s
best practices for instructor training and administrator learning development with their
focus on Afrocentricity will be extremely helpful in applying these learnings to a high-
quality Afrocentric education in Colombia.
Application of Purpose-Driven Youth Development Model in Colombia
Afro-Colombian communities continue to be marginalized and have very little
confidence that intellectuals and politicians have their best interest at heart. There is a
general lack of hope and purpose. This has affected education in urban and rural areas.
Bronk’s research analyzes how the development of noble purpose is developed over time.

145
Her research focuses on how commitment is initiated, sustained, increased, and changed
over time. The results revealed that exemplars made commitments early in life (Bronk,
2011). Consistent with African Leadership Academy’s mission to train the next generation
of conscious and purposeful leaders committed to addressing the shorter and long-term
challenges and development needs of the African Continent (e.g., healthcare, infrastructure,
education, governance, agribusiness, and the arts), communities of African descent in
Colombia can develop similar purpose-driven strategies for their communities.
Colombia, like most emerging economies in Latin America, faces challenges similar
to the African Continent. According to Bloomberg economists the most pressing challenges
in Latin America in 2023 are slower economic growth, inflation, poverty, political turmoil,
and job recovery, (Bloomberg, 2023). These challenges are more the effects of
symptomatic issues such as education, governance, value-added agribusiness,
infrastructure, and healthcare. Zapata-Cantu and González in their article, Challenges for
Innovation and Sustainable Development in Latin America: The Significance of Institutions
and Human Capital, (Zapata-Cantu & González, 2021), highlight that Latin American
countries will continue to face nutrition and sanitary problems, poverty, lower-quality
education, and economic modernization challenges. In this context, leveraging innovative
opportunities will become a crucial factor in determining their success. Further, the article
states that today’s innovation is highly dependent on the interplay between the external
environment: economic, political, and governmental conditions as well as the internal:
business configuration, resources, capabilities, and financial support. Innovation must play
a crucial role in the transition toward sustainability. Additionally, mission-oriented policies
emanated from the public sector, which focuses on society’s solution-specific problems

146
requiring the participation of different players to solve them (Zapata-Cantu & González,
2021).
Developing a purpose-driven Afrocentric education curriculum leveraging
disruptive innovative entrepreneurial training to positivity address these challenges in Afro-
Colombian communities can have a profound impact on these communities and throughout
Colombia as a whole. Afrocentric education is an education directed on keeping the ethno-
cultural identity of a person by familiarization with native language, history, and culture
simultaneously with values of world-culture development, (Darling-Hammond & Rothman,
2015). This Afrocentric education will prepare Afro-Colombian students for competitive
tertiary educational opportunities, gainful career possibilities, and higher quality of life
options for themselves and their families. Although there are uncertainties linked with
specific estimates, it is evident that gains from improved learning outcomes will be
translated towards significant economic output for Colombia and the South American sub-
region (OECD, 2011).
The hope is that the history and stories of Afro-Colombians as well as other leaders
will inspire the current and future generations of Afro-Colombian students. This inspiration
can encourage students to pursue impactful innovative initiatives, address the shorter and
long-term challenges and development needs of their communities for the students to
become positive agents of change. Bronk’s research suggests that a noble purpose in life is
interrelated with optimal human development. Psychological researchers have recognized
noble purpose as a development asset, an important component of human flourishing
(Seligman, 2002). Other researchers have identified that purpose correlates to several
positive psychological outcomes. These include happiness, resiliency, subjective well-
being, positive affect, and life satisfaction (Bronk, 2010). Understanding the implications of

147
purpose-driven pedagogy and curriculum will allow Colombian policy makers, educational
practitioners, leaders, instructors, parents, and other adults concerned with the well-being of
students to be more successful at nurturing a noble sense of purpose throughout Afro-
Colombian communities.
Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, is a combination of philosophical,
political, and educational theory. Freire outlines a theory of oppression and the source of
liberation. In Freire's view, the key to liberation is the awakening of critical awareness and
the thinking process in the individual (Freire, 1993). This is particularly relevant for
Colombia as Freire’s research centers on conditions throughout Latin America. Therefore, a
disruptive innovative approach to secondary education is essential to prepare Colombian
students of African descent for a more prosperous future in the 21
st
century. A
transformative education grounded in Afrocentric education, purpose, critical thinking,
entrepreneurship, leadership, and digital skills will be the necessary foundation for these
students to prepare to be agents of change (Darling-Hammond & Rothman, 2015).
If Colombia fails to solve this issue of relevant quality access to education for all its
citizens, especially for Afro-Colombian populations, Colombia will eventually experience a
decline in productivity and lower quality of living. The world is rapidly becoming a
different place, and the challenges to individuals and societies imposed by globalization
and modernization are widely acknowledged. Those equipped with 21
st
Century purpose-
driven high-level skills are seeing unprecedented career and life opportunities, while those
without adequate foundational skills, whether individuals or countries, are confronting the
specter of declining standards of living (UNESCO 2019).

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Implications for Colombian Policy Makers, Institutional Leaders, and Practitioners
Policymakers and organizational leaders are responsible for ensuring that future
leaders can address regional and global challenges with innovative entrepreneurial solutions
and the belief in the “power of one”, meaning that one person can make an impactful
difference. The data gathered from this study hold implications for Colombian education
practitioners, policymakers, institutional leaders, foundations, funders, and disruptive
global entrepreneurs. This research offered new perspectives evaluating program structures,
effectiveness of innovative Afrocentric education curriculum design, instructor and
administrator professional development, the importance of building institutional culture,
and developing learning institutions.
This study also identified several useful practices and entrepreneurial initiatives for
education practitioners, which can aid and influence the success of purpose-driven cultural
centered institutions. Education practitioners can encourage their academies and institutions
to proactively engage in the development of disruptive curriculum, institutional learning,
enhanced professional development, Pan-regional programming, entrepreneurial initiatives,
and sound fiscal practices. For policy makers, institutional leaders, and practitioners,
ALA’s guiding principles are an excellent model and starting point for any organization.
These principles set the foundation from which everything is developed and supported. The
African Leadership Academy’s five guiding principles (beliefs) guide and influence the
organization on a daily basis.
These principles adapted for a Colombian context are:
1. Address the underlying causes of problems: treat root causes, not
symptoms, to create lasting positive change in Colombia.

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2. The Power of One: Individuals catalyze the actions of large groups and
transform societies.
3. The Power of Youth: Young people can dream big, take action, and
become agents of change.
4. The Need for Pan-South American Cooperation: Collaboration will
stimulate growth and development across Central and South America.
5. Entrepreneurship is key for growth: Look beyond existing constraints
and pursue innovative opportunities to create and sustain value.
These foundational beliefs can guide and empower policy makers, institutional
leaders, and practitioners to develop creative educational initiatives and practices to
improve the effectiveness as well as impact in communities of African descent in
Colombia.
Recommendations for Colombia, Afro-Diasporic, and Other Communities
Based on Insights from ALA
Recommendation 1: Articulate a Clear Mission and Vision that Can Develop and
Influence Institutional Culture and Pedagogy
Articulating a clear mission and vision for Afro-Colombian communities is
essential. A purpose-driven vision centered on innovative disruptive Afrocentric education
can influence an institutions’ culture and pedagogy. The operationalization of consistent
pedagogical practices can reinforce a culture that encourage leadership, administrators, and
instructors to model the principles and values of this culture in their daily activities,
behaviors, and actions. By applying Bronk’s theories of purpose-driven youth leadership to
train the next generation of leaders throughout Colombia, instructors and administrators can

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constantly engage policy makers, institutional leaders, and practitioners to support purpose-
driven regional education initiatives (Bronk, 2011; Flores & Palacios, 2018).
Strategies and actions: Institutionalize Activities and Practices
The strategies and actions to institutionalize activities and practices can include, but
not be limited to: developing strategic purpose-driven Afrocentric education programming
into sectors responsible for educational policy, reconciling the conflict between national
standardization educational models and Afrocentric educational policies, and providing
seminars and workshops to build capacity for policy makers, institutions leaders, and
practitioners, and offering on-going support and resources leveraging digital platforms and
tools. Implementing Recommendation #1 will require resources such as the development of
policy briefs, learning materials and digital modules. These resources can be deployed
through the hosting of quarterly seminars and workshops, with annual reviews and updates.
Consistent commitment from policy makers, institutional leaders, and practitioners to build
their internal capacity to address inconsistent national policies that conflict with the
implementation of purpose-driven Afrocentric educational policies will be necessary.
Recommendation 2: Structure Value-added Professional Development and On-going
Learning Opportunities for Administrative Staff and Instructors
Instructors and administrators serving Afro-Colombian communities are
undertrained, under-resourced, and overwhelmed (OCED, 2018). The instructional and
administrative team significantly influences the implementation of the core values and
pedagogy of an institution. The instructor and administrative staff typically represents
nearly 70% of an annual school budget. Therefore, any disruption or significant staff
turnover can negatively impact cashflows and the stability of the learning environment.

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Investing in the instructional and administrative team is essential. This can build loyalty
and continuity between the staff and administrative team (Flores & Palacios, 2018).
Strategies and actions: Administrator and Instructor Professional Development
Program
Developing robust group-based administrator and instructor-targeted professional
development programs can be very valuable to the individuals and the institution. Unit
planning frameworks, subject-matter expertise guides, and peer-observation initiatives to
support consistent professional development tools has proven to be extremely useful to
provide structure for educational professionals. Additionally, the funding of certification
programs and advanced degree opportunities for instructors and administrators at local,
regional, and international institutions has been an effective incentive to increase retention
of education professionals. The resource requirements include the need to identify and
secure public and private funding to support professional development initiatives.
The professional development program can be implemented during the summer and
winter breaks, with on-going support throughout the academic calendar year. Some of the
constraints and challenges include funding resources and commitment from the
organization’s leadership team. Additionally, the ability for instructional leaders to build
professional development modules and dedicated time periods into daily and weekly
schedules will be challenging given the intensity of a typical academic week. Including
professional development into performance evaluations and compensation packages, can be
difficult. Nevertheless, to the extent value-added professional development can be
incorporated into performance evaluations, this can increase the adoption of a robust
professional development program.

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Recommendation 3: Develop a High-quality Innovative Disruptive Curriculum
Centered on Purpose Driven Afrocentric Education and Entrepreneurial Leadership
Developing a purpose-driven and relevant curriculum that addresses 21
st
Century
opportunities, entrepreneurial leadership, and digital skills is paramount. As Colombian
institutions serving Afro-Colombian communities evolve, the curriculum needs to evolve as
well. Project-based learning, case studies, and research projects that encourage critical
thinking and group interaction are necessary. Having an instructional and administrative
team that is “intellectually curious”, will increase the likelihood that instructors will
advance the pedagogy in their respective areas of focus. The world is a dynamic place and
to stay relevant and current there should be constant review of the curriculum and literature
to prepare students to adapt and become creative problem solvers addressing current,
regional and global challenges.
Strategies and actions: Develop Curriculum Based on Values, Beliefs, and Needs of
Community
Forming an academic advisory team of content and curriculum development
specialists with expertise in the history and culture of the African Diaspora will be the first
group tasked to develop targeted curriculum. Additionally, developing curriculum modules
to support critical thinking, interpersonal communication, and creative learning provides
targeted and structured learning. Further, designing entrepreneurial learning modules and
initiatives to support solution-oriented problem-solving skills can develop students to
become problem solvers for their respective communities. Working with industry
professionals to develop compelling, innovative, and timely curriculum modules will help
instructors and students to stay relevant as industry needs evolve.

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The resource requirements to support the development of high-quality curriculum
includes adequate budget allocation to support curriculum development, academic
consultants, and site visits to benchmark best in class institutions. Curriculum updates, on-
going research, and capacity building should take place on an annual basis. Some of the
constraints and challenges include the ability to translate research into useful classroom
materials and exercises. Also, allowing adequate time for instructors to collaborate and
prepare compelling materials is essential.
Recommendation 4: Develop Secondary Institutions into Learning Organizations that
Constantly Evolve and Adapt to Changes in the Global Academic Landscape.
Institutions, pedagogy, and the science of learning will continuously evolve. It is
imperative that educators evolve, as well. This includes organizational management
practices, measurements of performance, leadership development, and various frameworks
for leading change initiatives. Successful institutions tend to bask in their success and not
be as innovative. The leadership of institutions serving Afro-Colombian students must
recognize the importance of keeping pace with innovation, best practices, and exemplars in
the field.
Strategies and Actions: Importance of Innovation
Staying abreast of innovation thinking by subscribing to journals, current literature
in education, management science, and the pedagogy of learning is useful. Additionally,
joining and participating in associations and organizations that research, discuss and
dialogue ideas related to innovation and design thinking can ensure that an institution is
exposed to the latest information in a particular field or area. Finally, developing an
innovation “scorecard” to track innovation throughout the organization from academic to
administrative functions will assist the organization track their progress against pre-

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determined metrics. Funds to support memberships, subscriptions, and attend conferences
will be a necessary resource requirement. Monthly engagement with innovative and
pedological learning organizations will help to model exemplars in the targeted areas. Some
of the constraints and challenges include ensuring that the funding support and dedicated
time to engage in innovative learning practices is allocated and valued by the organization.
Recommendation 5: Identify Key Stakeholders/Champions (e.g., educators, university
partners, government officials, corporations, and potential funders)
The ALA model is very resource intensive and costly to maintain. In Colombia, the
resources to offer the level of service, support to instructors, administrators, students, and
alumni engagement initiatives is significant, particularly at the public-school level. In
general, cultivating key local and international stakeholders to fund a high-quality service
offering can be extremely difficult, particularly in historically underfunded communities.
Adequate funding is critical to maintaining and expanding the instructional team,
administrators, and upgrading the physical infrastructure of a learning facility. This
recommendation is necessary to expand and diversify the stakeholder base to ensure
continuity and continuous funding support for significant educational initiative.
Strategies to Secure Funding Stakeholders
There are multiple strategies and actions that can be taken to design and implement
a comprehensive stakeholder funding strategy. Determining short (one-three years) and
long-term (five-ten year) organizational financial needs, goals and objectives is critical.
Identifying existing public and private resources targeted for the communities of focus is
essential. Researching potential local, regional, and international grant funding institutions
committed to the growth and development of targeted communities can be very impactful.

155
Developing a sustainable funding model with diversified resources from public and
private resources can reduce the burden or strain on any one source of funding. Allocating
sufficient funds to maximize the appropriate investments, designing compelling marketing
materials, purchasing contact marketing enterprise software, and leveraging social media
content to support marketing efforts, are all useful tools to execute a robust funding
strategy. Monthly, quarterly, annual, and possibly multiyear on-going stakeholder
engagement, with periodic “friend raisers” and fundraising events can build and sustain
support over time. Constraints and challenges include managing the stakeholder landscape.
The ability to support existing and identify new sources of funding as the academic model
continues to grow and expand is critical.
Recommendation 6: Investigate the Feasibility of Developing Public-Private
Partnerships.
There is a crucial need to consider other viable strategies to finance the development
of high-quality schools in targeted areas, particularly in underserved Afro-Colombian
communities. Public schools in underserved areas are typically grossly underfunded, which
impacts instructional quality, professional development, scarcity of resources, and poor
infrastructure. ALA is a private school with access to various sources of funding (e.g.,
program fees, school tuition, grants, and donations). Unfortunately, the philanthropic
communities throughout Latin America are not very strong. Developing public-private
partnerships with the local Ministry of Education and private operators of schools can be a
viable way to fund and accelerate the development of equitable educational options in
underserved communities.
Colegios en Concesión in Colombia are designed to be high-quality schools that are
privately managed and publicly funded to support poor students in specific areas. This

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program has become a well-known and relatively high-profile education reform for
Colombia and has been promoted by the World Bank and Inter-American Development
Bank. While the CECs program initially begin in Bogota, the model has expanded to other
parts of the country. Many other countries may have similar programs, such as Charter
Schools in the United States of America. If an operator is incorporated as a nonprofit entity,
has prior experience, and demonstrates “academic excellence” there is a higher probability
of securing a public-private partnership. Many “charter school” concepts globally are now
built in municipalities with low economic indicators, underserved populations, and a
shortage of quality schools.
Securing the license to operate Colegios en Concesión focused on Afrocentric
education and communities of Afro-Colombian descent will be challenging. Even though
the model has been extremely successful with strong student outcomes, teachers and other
labor unions are threatened, and therefore pressure elected officials to not expand the
program. Public-Private “charter schools” will allow for jointly developing curriculum and
education materials, shared professional development, and implementation of various pilot
programs (Edwards, Jr., et al., 2017).
Strategies and actions: Form Public-Private Working Groups
It is important to understand and outline the application process and the various
requirements. Identifying an initial leadership team with consultants and the professional
service providers needed to complete a public-private application is crucial. Developing a
strategic list of elected official stakeholders at the local, department (state), and national
levels to support an application is essential. Mobilizing local communities and the private
sector in the targeted areas where the academies will be located is also critical. The funding
required to support the development of the public-private academy application is

157
significant. This will include funding for the working group, consultants, service providers,
marketing materials, social media campaigns, application fees, and printing costs.
The timeline to develop a complete application can depend upon several factors
including political will, the availability of funds, and the ability to mobilize local
communities. Consequently, the political and community engagement process must begin
immediately. Significant opposition and challenges can come from labor unions, elected
officials, and potentially government agencies.
Limitations of the Study
This study has various potential limitations. The study only interviewed founders,
instructors, and administrators, but did not consider current students, alumni, parents,
funders, employers, or university partners. Additionally, the study results were collected by
one field researcher, limiting the depth and breadth of data collected during interviews. The
presence of at least one additional researcher would enhance the entire interview process.
Finally, evaluating instructor and administrator performance was difficult without employer
work performance evaluations and student course evaluations. The research conclusions
were drawn based on individual experiences.
Implications for Future Research
Future researchers who seek to understand the effectiveness of African Leadership
Academy or similar programs should also consider the views and perspectives of current
students, parents, institutional leaders, alumni, and other stakeholders. These additional
stakeholders are critically important in shaping a student's learning experience.
Recognizing the experiences of these additional stakeholders will expand the scope of
understanding.

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Furthermore, this study was limited by the lack of a comprehensive survey, formal field
observations, and artifacts document review. Additionally, this study focused on one
specific Pan-African institution; extending research to include additional institutions
(private and public) would enhance the understanding of the factors present in this study
and if they were consistent with other Pan-African institutions. Finally, applying learnings
to other countries in Central and South America with large populations of African descent
such as Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, and Brazil would undoubtedly yield some interesting
and compelling information.
Conclusion
This qualitative research study identified multiple factors that have contributed to
the success of African Leadership Academy. This includes a shared vision and mission, a
cohesive culture rooted in a purpose-driven Pan-African Afrocentric education, a disruptive
approach to curriculum design, a solution-oriented entrepreneurial mindset, and strong
fiscal management. While a consistent professional development model has yet to be
identified at ALA, the importance of intellectual curiosity for members of the staffulty
(staff and faculty) is necessary. Nevertheless, without continuous visionary leadership
from the Board of Directors and ALA’s collective ability to adapt to a constantly changing
global education and economic environment, ALA’s business model will be very difficult
to sustain. The ability for African Leadership Academy to mobilize the human, financial,
and social capital from all its stakeholders is indispensable.
African Leadership Academy senior leaders want to transform ALA into a
“learning, innovating and leading institution”. Benchmarking best in class global
educational operators speaks to the ALA leaders understanding of the necessity to adapt,
operate more efficiently, and innovate at every opportunity is critical to their longevity. The

159
five disciplines: personal mastery, mental models, building shared vision, team learning,
and systems thinking that Peter Senge postulates as the “component technologies” in his
book, Schools that Learn: A Fifth Discipline Field book for Educators, Parents, and
Everyone Who Cares About Education (2012) aligns with ALA’s leadership evolving
philosophy. Improving the Instructional Core by Richard Elmore (2008), provides another
framework on how to raise the standards of learning in schools. Both frameworks were
referenced by ALA senior leadership during the data collection process as exemplars to
study and understand.
The ALA mission and vision provides the guiding foundation, while the ALA
culture provides the collective bonds to connect the entire ALA interdependent ecosystem.
The student recruitment process is not separate from the academic program, which is
predicated on attracting the best and brightest students from throughout the African
Continent. The high-quality course design and instruction is designed to challenge and push
students beyond their academic comfort zones. The ALA alumni networks transition and
mid-career support initiatives are essential to support ALA alumni staying on and/or
returning to the African Continent after university to take on leadership roles throughout
the Continent. Identifying, training, and supporting the next generation of ethical purpose-
driven Pan-African, Afrocentric, entrepreneurial leaders, is essential to the future growth
and development of the African Continent.
Learning from the African Leadership Academy model and pedagogical approach to
leadership development has been extremely beneficial. Replicating the ALA model exactly
as it’s been implemented on the African Continent will be incredibly challenging in
Colombia. Nonetheless, there are several elements of the ALA model that can absolutely
be adapted elsewhere. In the Pacific region of Colombia for instance, establishing a

160
secondary school academy network that has a shared vision and mission, a cohesive culture
rooted in a purpose-driven Afro-centric education, a disruptive innovative approach to
curriculum design, and a solution-oriented entrepreneurial mindset is attainable. Identifying
and training the instructional staff, recruiting the optimal students, and solving the financial
sustainability rubric, will assuredly be more arduous, but not insurmountable.
Bronk’s research identified how powerful purpose can be. This includes happiness,
resiliency, subjective well-being, positive affect, and life satisfaction, in addition to how
noble purpose is developed over time. It is this purpose and conviction, that I am convinced
will drive the Afro-Colombian community to continue to seek solutions to improve their
families, communities, and country. Despite centuries of marginalization, disinvestment,
and disenfranchisement, Afro-Colombian communities continue to seek opportunity,
respect, and equitable access to high-quality education. Although there is a distance of
nearly 11,000 kilometers (6,800 miles) and over 500 years since the first Africans arrived in
the territory that today is known as the Republic of Colombia, the struggle to educate and
train the next generation of Afro-Colombian leaders, is ironically very similar to the fight
for Pan-African leadership development on the African Continent.
Whether the next generation of ethical young student leaders are located on the
African Continent or based in the Latin American sub-region, their training and
development will be similar. Students and young adults that are rooted in Pan-African or
Afrocentric education, driven by purpose, and trained to use entrepreneurial creativity to
solve regional and global challenges, will be well positioned to lead in the 21
st
century.
There are 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The ALA focus on
addressing Africa’s challenges of infrastructure, health, education, governance,
agribusiness, and the arts, is consistent with many of the UN Goals. These challenges exist

161
throughout the African Diaspora, including Colombia, as well as emerging economies in
general.
A disruptive innovative approach to secondary education is essential to prepare
Colombian students of African descent for a more prosperous future in the 21
st
century.
Regardless of if a student pursues an entrepreneurial venture, vocational program and/or
tertiary education immediately following secondary school, future career aspirations in a
knowledge-based economy requires substantial preparation. Understanding how educators
and administrators embody the vision and mission of a schools’ purpose-driven educational
philosophy, how instructors and administrators incorporate Afrocentric education within
their curriculum and administrative responsibilities, respectively, and how instructors and
administrators continuously expand their skills, can all have a profound impact on a
students’ education and their ability to learn.
Quality teaching and skilled administrators are critical components of a student’s
formal education and will be essential in preparing Afro-Colombian students to be future
agents of change. Agents of change grounded in Afrocentricity, strong ethics, creative
problem-solving skills, entrepreneurial leadership, and purpose. Many of the Afro-
Colombian youth with these skills can leverage the power of one. These agents of change
can potentially catalyze the actions of large groups and transform societies one community
at a time.

162
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Appendix A: Interview Protocol
Introduction

Study Title: FROM the AFRICAN CONTINENT TO COLOMBIA:
A CASE STUDY OF AFRICAN LEADERSHIP ACADEMY AND
DEVELOPING A NEW GENERATION OF PURPOSE DRIVEN
AFRO-COLOMBIAN AGENTS OF CHANGE

PI Name: T.L. Omowale Crenshaw

Interview Protocol- Educators

I. Introduction
Thank you for agreeing to participate in my study. I truly appreciate the time that
you have set aside to answer my questions. As I mentioned in our previous
correspondence, the interview portion of our call should take between 30 minutes to
45 minutes, does that still work for you?

Before we get started, I want to provide you with an overview of my study and
answer any questions you might have about participating in this interview. I am a
doctoral student at the University of Southern California and am conducting a study
to more deeply understand best perceived practices for Afrocentric Pan African
purpose-driven education at ALA. I am particularly interested in understanding how
the founder’s initial vision and current administrators guide and support the
instructors implementation strategies. I am interviewing multiple educators who
teach across a variety of disciplines to learn more about this and am collecting
relevant documents from them as it relates to this topic and their work in the
classroom.

Please be assured that I am strictly wearing the hat of researcher. The information
that you will share with me today will be informational in nature to educators. This
interview is also confidential. What that means is that your name will not be shared
with anyone outside of the research team in connection to the perspective you
provide.
The data for this study will be compiled into a final report. While I may use some of
what you say as direct quotes, none of the data will be directly attributed to you, as I
will use a pseudonym to protect your confidentiality. I am happy to provide you
with a copy of my final paper if you are interested.

As stated in the Study Information Sheet I shared with you, I will keep the data in a
password protected computer and all data will be destroyed after 5 years.

175
Might you have any questions about the study before we get started? I am planning
to record this call on Zoom. The purpose of the recording is to best capture your
thoughts and perspectives and will not be shared with anyone outside the research
team. May I have your permission to record our conversation?

II. Setting the Stage
I’d like to start by asking you some background questions about you and your
experience with African Leadership Academy.
1. Please tell me about your background in education.
a. How did you become interested in the field of education?
b. How long have you worked in the field?
c. What roles or positions have you held?
d. How long have you worked at ALA?
2. What subject(s) do you currently teach or areas that you lead?
a. Tell me about your current role in school.
3. Please tell me about your background or any special training you have had as it
relates to Pan African Education and/or purpose-driven education.
a. Is there anything else you would like to share about your background as it
relates to Pan African Education and/or purpose-driven education?
4. Please tell me about how you define Pan Africanism and purpose-driven education?
a. How did you develop this definition?
5. Which examples of Pan Africanism and purpose-driven education do you teach in
your course?
a. At what point in your curriculum do you teach about the history of the
African Continent and contributions of Africans throughout the African
Diaspora, if at all? i.e., time of academic year, unit or lesson, etc.

176
6. What theory or pedagogical approach informs your instructional practice to Pan
Africanism and purpose-driven education, if at all?
7. What kind of impact do you believe Pan Africanism and purpose-driven education
can have on students?
a. Do you see any limitations or possibilities when applying this approach in
your classroom or your administrative function?
III. Heart of the Interview
I’d like to start by asking you about your instructional practices as they relate to
Pan Africanism and the contributions of Africans in history particular prior to
colonialism. Additionally, how do you teach about importance of purpose to
encourage and motivate your students. How do ALA instructors experience
communication from ALA leadership regarding the mission and vision of a
purpose-driven Pan-African Afrocentric education?
8. Please tell me about how do you see relevance of Pan Africanism history in the
ALA curriculum?
a. Please describe any limitations and possibilities you have experienced, if at
all.
9. Tell me about the factors that inform your instruction on Pan Africanism?
(Suggested topics to expand on include, but are not limited to: Ancient African
Civilizations, leaders of African independence movements throughout the
Continent?, African scientists?, African educators?, African entrepreneurs? The
geopolitics of Africa?, Frameworks/Standards? Demographic population of the
school community?
a. Do you feel any limitations or possibilities as a result of these factors?

177
10. How is purpose-driven education encouraged at your school, if at all?
a. Provide a specific example if possible.
b. Ideally, what impact on school environment would the promotion of purpose
and the development of the unification of the African continent have ?
11. Tell me about how you prepare to teach about Pan-Africanism and purpose in your
courses?
12. What professional development and learning opportunities do you find most useful
in supporting instructors to implement the mission and vision of ALA related to
Afrocentricity and purpose?
a. Please describe any professional learning opportunities you have attended,
as they relate to Pan-Africanism history and purpose-driven education, if
any?
b. How did you hear about this professional learning opportunity?
c. What were some reasons you decided to attend?
d. What are your thoughts about the quality of this training? What do you think
were the strengths? Weaknesses?
13. How are instructors supported to develop disruptive curriculum centered on a
purpose-driven Pan-African Afrocentric education?
14. Please describe any informal support you received in the last year related to Pan
African education, if any?
a. Who provided this support?
b. Think about a recent informal conversation in which you felt supported as an
administrator or instructor to deliver information and/or instruction on Pan
Africanism. Describe that conversation.

178
15. Please describe an example of a lesson you have instructed on Pan Africanism, if at
all.
a. Tell me about the sources you have used with students in the classroom as
part of your instruction, if any?
b. Provide an example of the primary and/or secondary sources you use if
possible.
c. How did you come by these sources?
16. Describe one meaningful or challenging experience you have had when teaching
about the Pan Africanism, if at all.
a. Share how you were able to overcome any difficulties, if at all.
17. What do you feel is missing from the current resources or professional learning
opportunities available that would help you be more effective in teaching about Pan
Africanism, specifically the importance, if at all?
a. What do you feel can make the difference to support your instructional
practice?
18. What multimedia resources are available for instructors to utilize in the
implementation of the curriculum, if at all??
19. What role can technology infrastructure play to assist instructors in the
implementation of the ALA curriculum?
20. What impact does Pan-Africanism and purpose-driven instruction have on students,
if at all, on the completion of their final reach projects?
IV. Closing Question:

179
What other insight would you like to share with educators who are interested in delivering
information and instruction on Pan Africanism and purpose-driven education that we might
not have covered yet today, if any?
V. Closing Comments:
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with me today! I really appreciate your time
and willingness to share. Everything that you have shared will be so helpful for my study.
If I find myself with a follow-up question, can I contact you, and if so, is email ok? Again,
thank you for participating in my study. As a thank you, please accept this xxxx gift card as
a small token of my appreciation.
VI. Post interview summary and reflection
[ADD shortly after each interview]

180
Appendix B: Study Information Sheet

Information Sheet
University of Southern California
Rossier School of Education
3470 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA, 90089

FROM the AFRICAN CONTINENT TO COLOMBIA: A CASE STUDY OF
AFRICAN LEADERSHIP ACADEMY AND DEVELOPING A NEW
GENERATION OF PURPOSE DRIVEN AFRO-COLOMBIAN AGENTS OF
CHANGE

You are invited to participate in a study to help the researcher better understand how education
leaders at African Leadership Academy (ALA) design and develop curriculum as well as
encourage and motivate the ALA students to be purpose driven Pan-African conscious youth.
Participation is voluntary with further information below.

Purpose of the Study
The objective is to understand how African Leadership Academy (ALA) implements instructor
training, professional learning, and supports how instructors incorporate their purpose-driven
Pan-African organizational mission and culture throughout their curriculum design and
implementation. The insights and application of this study will be critical to the design,
instructor professional development plan and implementation strategies to develop high-quality
learning academies in Colombia serving Afro-Colombian youth.

Participant Involvement
If you agree to be in this study, you will agree to participate in a one-to-one conversation with
the researcher. It will take approximately 45-minutes or more of discussion.

Confidentiality
Information gathered during this research study will only be used for this study. It will not be
shared with other researchers. Any identifying information obtained in connection with this
research will remain confidential. Your responses will be coded with a pseudonym and
maintained separately from the published research. Only two people will have direct access to
the completed video transcript. Authorized representatives from the following organizations
may review the data for the purpose of monitoring or managing the conduct of this study:

181
● USC Rossier School of Education, Faculty
● USC Rossier School of Education, Doctoral Student

Investigator Contact Information

Principal Investigator, T.L. OMOWALE CRENSHAW, via email at tc55476@usc.edu or
Faculty Advisor, RUTH H. CHUNG, at RCHUNG@USC.EDU.

IRB Contact Information
University of Southern California Institutional Review Board 1640 Marengo Street, Suite 700,
Los Angeles, CA 90033-9269. Phone (323) 442-0114 or email IRB@USC.EDU.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract This qualitative research study focused on African Leadership Academy (ALA), an award-winning Pan-African secondary school located in the suburbs of Johannesburg, South Africa. ALA provides their students with a sense of purpose and entrepreneurial training to positively address some of the major challenges on the African Continent (e.g., healthcare, infrastructure, education, governance, agribusiness, and the arts). The objective of the study was to learn about the ALA institutional mission, vision, culture, leadership, instructional methodologies, professional development, and their innovative curriculum. Ultimately, these learnings will be applied to develop a network of high-quality secondary schools serving Afro-Colombian students located in the Pacific region of Colombia, where most communities of African descent reside.

Dr. Kendall Bronk’s Noble Purpose-Driven Youth Development was the theoretical framework utilized for this study. The participant stakeholders for this study were ALA founders, school leaders, administrators, and instructors. A total of 17 in-depth interviews were conducted. My collective findings revealed that several areas contribute to the success of ALA. A shared vision based on five principles that define and impact ALA’s institutional culture. Ninety-three % of interview respondents believe that professional development can be improved. Instructors and administrators believe subject matter expertise, structured unit planning and intellectual curiosity are essential for an effective professional development program. One hundred % of instructors and 71% of administrators feel supported to use different instructional methods and outside materials to develop disruptive innovative curricula. Several emerging themes including student recruitment, parental involvement, alumni engagement, and sound fiscal management contribute to ALA’s success.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Crenshaw, Thomas LaRon Omowale (author)

Core Title From the African continent to Colombia: a Case study of African Leadership Academy and developing a new generation of purpose driven Afro-Colombian agents of change

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Global Executive

Degree Conferral Date 2023-08

Publication Date 09/07/2023

Defense Date 09/06/2023

Publisher Los Angeles, California (original), University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Afrocentric education,Afrocentricity,Afro-Colombia,disruptive curriculum,ethno-education,from Africa to Colombia,OAI-PMH Harvest,Pacific region,purpose-driven education.

Format theses (aat)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Chung, Ruth H. (committee chair), Kidd Telemaque, Curtis (committee member), Maddox, Anthony B. (committee member), Robison, Mark P. (committee member)

Creator Email crenshaw.colombia@gmail.com,tc55476@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC113303425

Unique identifier UC113303425

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Legacy Identifier etd-CrenshawTh-12327

Document Type Dissertation

Format theses (aat)

Rights Crenshaw, Thomas LaRon Omowale

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Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA

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