Issues in educational innovation for an urban Black Baptist Church-based school.

摘要

Harmony Baptist Church, a historical religious institution, established Renaissance Academy (elementary school) in September 1960 as an alternative to public school education. This case study examines the development and institution of a new organizational form at Renaissance Academy and the way it shaped the implementation of the restructuring design and educational policies.; The primary area of investigation was the school. The research question, succinctly stated, is how to reform a church-based school into an independent economically viable educational institution. My purpose and problem statement focus on the social structure of the church-based school and how it influenced the restructuring effort. Thus, the case study attempts to determine the relationship between the social structure of the school and the restructuring policies and events that emanated at Renaissance Academy. This qualitative case study employed participant observation, direct observation, interviews, surveys, documentation, archival records, physical artifacts, and secondary data reviews as the research tools.; It describes the processes by which certain informants maintained autonomy or accommodated to the traditional authority at Renaissance Academy and the effect the social order had on the resolution of financial and educational issues and the attainment of policy outputs. The cultural process of change involved the becoming, decaying, and ultimate renewal of the traditional organizational structure. The dominant operational ideology of Renaissance Academy was initially obscured but eventually revitalized. The symbols that once brilliantly manifested central values and organizational goals slowly dwindled as the organizational members searched for alternative means of power and control. Some ideologies were replaced by new visions, and others were simply cast into oblivion as the collective organizational memory was found anew. The school had the choice of continuing to support the patterns of the past or beginning to participate in the wave of the future.; This ethnographic study documented the restructuring process and the impact it has on their educational model. Therefore, this study is a viable resource for other church-based schools interested in restructuring and establishing an identity separate from the larger church.