Composing a canonical narrative of Black African immigrant school leaders in the United States

This study gives voice and visibility to Black African immigrant school leaders and provides them with a platform to describe and make sense of their lived experiences through the construction of their narratives from a marginalized standpoint. Using narrative inquiry, thirteen narrators were identified and interviewed through in-depth open-ended questions. Initial interview times varied from one to two hours, and all participants had at least one follow-up conversation. This study produced a radiography of their souls and outlined six thematic constructs that seeded the development of their canonical narratives. The discussion elicited an alignment between the findings and the literature consulted and indicated recommendations for research, policy, and practice.