Date of Award

Spring 5-15-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Educational Studies

First Advisor

Dr. Valerie Shinas

Second Advisor

Dr. Patricia Crain de Galarce

Third Advisor

Dr. Johnny Cole

Abstract

This dissertation examines Black Excellence as a historically grounded, culturally situated, and politically consequential construct in K–12 education. Using constructivist grounded theory and a critical analytic lens informed by Black Feminist Thought, BlackCrit, Critical Race Theory, and Decolonial Theory, this study examines how Black Excellence is defined, enacted, and protected by Black educators, school leaders, and district-level administrators working within racially stratified and ableist educational systems. Drawing on in-depth interviews and constant comparative analysis, the findings conceptualize Black Excellence not merely as academic achievement, but as a relational, cultural, and political practice sustained through what this study theorizes as Protective Enactment. Emerging as the core category, Protective Enactment refers to deliberate, strategic, and culturally grounded actions through which Black educators preserve Black dignity, humanity, intellectual brilliance, and possibility within institutional contexts structured by Racism by Design. The resulting Protective Enactment Theory of Black Excellence positions protection as foundational rather than incidental, operates across relationships, instruction, and discipline to generate belonging, joy, critical consciousness, and sustained excellence. These enactments disrupt punitive and exclusionary practices, affirm Black identity and cultural knowledge, and provide instructional safeguards against deficit-based interpretations of Black ability. Particular attention is given to Black students positioned at the margins of normative achievement, including those navigating giftedness and disability simultaneously, whose brilliance is often obscured by racialized identification and disciplinary practices. By centering participants' lived experiences, this empirically grounded theory reframes Black Excellence as a collective, protective, and liberatory praxis essential to educational transformation. This study advances a justice-oriented and asset-based framework for educational equity and offers theoretical and practical implications for educators, policymakers, and researchers committed to designing environments in which Black students are not merely included but fully affirmed, protected, and sustained.

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