Towards Root Cause Inquiry: A Case Study for the Equity Advisory Panel (EAP)Thomas, Heather (2024) Towards Root Cause Inquiry: A Case Study for the Equity Advisory Panel (EAP). Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. (Unpublished)
AbstractThis qualitative oral history and archival analysis presented as a case study investigates the relationship between a community-based educational coalition in the Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) and its Afrocentric recommendations to a school district in Pittsburgh centered around Black student wellness. The research questions were: How did the leadership and guidance of Afrocentric Black women contribute to the Equity Advisory Panel's (EAP) Afrocentric recommendations in the Pittsburgh Public Schools? What were the social, political, and economic situations that informed the education justice movement in Pittsburgh? And, why did the EAP propose that Afrocentric professional experts in Black/African history and African psychology address equity efforts through schooling in Pittsburgh? This case study locates and engages the varied Afrocentric demonstrations of root cause analysis to explore connections between oral histories and the education justice movement in Pittsburgh. The framework of this study is two-dimensional, engaging African Womanism and Knarrative's situational precepts through the optics of African-centered principles, referencing the Nguzo Saba and Sankofa. The frameworks focused on archives and interviews centered around my time in the Pittsburgh Public Schools from 2014 to 2024. They examined the issues of inequities impacting Black students using root cause study and inquiry to retell the story of the Original Advocates for African American Students (The Advocates) and their appointed Equity Advisory Panel. Semi-structured interviews were central to the case study representing the study's signature oral history. Categorization of the education justice movement in Pittsburgh analyzed and reviewed through root cause analysis were: (1) The Association of Black Psychologists (ABPSi) Communiversity Proposal, (2) ABPSi's Clearing the Way for Black Children to Flourish, (3) the 2006 Conciliation Agreement, (4) the 2012 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), (5) the 2015 MOU, (6) Afrocentric Infusion Project, (7) ABPSi's Year 1 and 2 Executive Reports. Participants expressed the significance of the Black Studies Movement (BSM) as influential and an exemplar of the range of epistemologies intrinsic to choosing intentional trainers endowed with a range of proficiencies to keep Black children in the school district accounted for and protected while engaging strategies that allowed the group to exercise lateral thinking and strategizing. Share
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