Graduation Year

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Degree Granting Department

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

Major Professor

Vonzell Agosto, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Aubrey Huber, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Zorka Karanxha, Ed.D.

Committee Member

Charles Vanover, Ph.D.

Keywords

advocacy, Black male principals, school leadership

Abstract

School turnaround leadership has become a leading strategy to address school underperformance emphasizing rapid and dramatic improvement in a school within the bottom five percent of schools as measured by gains in both mathematics and English Language Arts. However, prevailing turnaround leadership discourse largely centers technical and managerial competencies, often marginalizing leadership practices oriented toward equity, advocacy, and social transformation. This narrowing of leadership is particularly consequential for Black male principals, who are disproportionately assigned to low-performing and turnaround schools and whose leadership practice frequently reflects core elements of transformative leadership.

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore current school turnaround leadership discourse through a transformative leadership framework, exploring its implications for the preparation of Black male principals in Educational Leadership. Despite the critical role Black male principals play in school improvement efforts, the number of Black male principals has declined since Brown v. Board of Education, and Black assistant principals currently are 18% less likely to be promoted relative to White candidates (Bailes & Guthery, 2020). This study positions Black male leadership as central to understanding how turnaround leadership competencies are constructed and enacted. Utilizing Critical Discourse Analysis, this study analyzed key national and state policy documents, leadership frameworks, and practitioner guides that define turnaround leadership. These texts function as authoritative guides shaping principal preparation, evaluation, and professional development. This analysis examined how language within these documents constructs school improvement, leadership effectiveness, and accountability, while revealing embedded assumptions about power, race, equity, and community engagement. Guided by a transformative leadership framework, this study analyzed the presence, absence, and framing of competencies related to advocacy, democratic participation, and social justice, as well as how Black male principals and the contexts in which they most often serve are positioned within turnaround discourse. Findings indicate that current competencies are misaligned to transformative leadership, missing key skills to empower leaders to create environments where all students and their communities are successful. Additionally, these competencies constrain the leadership of Black men by marginalizing or missing their unique culturally responsive approaches and advocacy-oriented leadership, thereby limiting their preparation for the principalship. The implications of this study call for reconceptualized turnaround leadership competencies that prioritize equity, democracy, and advocacy alongside academic achievement. Recommendations are to elevate Black male principal’s and other underrepresented practitioner groups in policy and research related to competence in school improvement. Specifically recommended are longitudinal studies on the impact of transformative leadership in turnaround schools and critically examining the role of educational consultant organizations in shaping turnaround leadership discourse.

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