Hierarchical Governance in Boarding Schools: Shifting Power Dynamics, Culture, & Policy

This dissertation of practice provides insight into the hierarchical governance that takes place in a private college preparatory independent boarding school. The dissertation explores how power dynamics, adult supremacy culture, and policy impact resident students’ ability to communally engage and practice self-agency. Through a mixed-method approach using deep ethnographic frameworks and reflective survey diaries, this research finds that student’s agency often hinges on the role of Directors of Resident Life as dual nurturer and administrator to help mitigate the power dynamics by implementing opportunity structures that foster communal engagement, agency, and collective responsibility.

This study documents the lived experiences of students who were elected to be a part of the founding Resident Hall Council, a youth-led governing group within the dormitory. More specifically, pushing against paternalism and highlighting how transformative youth-adult partnerships can be, the findings herein reveal that when opportunity structures are implemented purposefully, students' sense of belonging, confidence, and communal engagement is increased.

This work asserts that challenging the traditional, adult-based power models allows for a student leadership structure that seeks to dismantle adult supremacy and foster collective responsibility between students and administrators. This dissertation reinforces the intersection between identity, power, leadership, and policy, emphasizing the obligation that institutions have in curating intentionally student-centered boarding communities.