Getting to Know Ed.L.D. Marshal Gislaine Ngounou

As Gislaine Ngounou, Ed.L.D.’14, graduated from HGSE this past week with the honor of being named marshal by her classmates, she is reminded of how far she has come, yet also of how far she has to go.

Growing up in Cameroon, where she watched her mother work seven days a week to ensure that she and her siblings had opportunities including an education, Ngounou developed a deep appreciation for the field. She came to the United States at age 16 to continue her own schooling, and eventually to pursue education as a career.

“I have a responsibility to ensure that little Black girls and boys, and all children whose futures are uncertain or threatened by the disparities in our education systems, know that they too are special and have adults fighting on their behalf. So that their own dreams and their parent’s hopes for their education and future can be made manifest in all the ways possible,” she says.

The realities Ngounou saw for teachers, administrators, families, and students working in education painted a bleak picture of the future, one in which despite all the hard work a certain feeling of powerlessness about policies and practices remained. She enrolled in the Ed School’s Ed.L.D. Program to expand her influence and learn better ways to organize change in the system.

“You learn all this theory while you’re on campus,” says Ngounou of her first two years in the Ed.L.D. Program. “And it sounds good.” But her residency this past year with Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Maryland forced her to ask and keep asking: “How do I apply this theory in a meaningful way?”

Ngounou’s work with MCPS focused on improving teamwork at the senior leadership level. First, she interviewed the district’s top leaders about their teams’ relationships and processes to get an idea of the whole system. Then, she analyzed her findings to define areas that needed improvement, often returning to a questions posed by her supervisor, Superintendent of Schools Josh Starr, Ed.M.’98, Ed.D.’01.

In her work with the district’s senior leaders, Ngounou used the data she gathered to create new processes and work plans, often focusing on collaboration and communication. She conducted follow-up interviews with administrators, asking them how the new processes were working.

Although Ngounou’s capstone project focused on her study of teamwork, her residency has included other projects and on-the-job learning. She has participated in dozens of school visits with Starr and other district leaders, and worked with teams dedicated to redesigning MCPS’s middle schools and engaging the community in the life of the district.

“I have had a very rewarding learning experience at my residency site in Montgomery County Public Schools,” Ngounou says. “What I know for sure is that this culminating residency year has shed some light on things I believe will be part of my life’s work for years to come.”

Among those lessons learned are operationalizing adult learning/development and adaptive leadership by simultaneously attending to the personal and professional development of the people at all levels of the organization; creating and sustaining conditions and support mechanisms for effective teamwork and collaboration to occur; and redefining community engagement in ways that value families and communities and engage them as true and equal partners who possess funds of knowledge. “[These] must be instrumental in the definition of the challenges we seek to alleviate, as well as in the development and implementation of the solutions,” she says.

Ngounou is now exploring her next steps and also reflecting on the time at HGSE.

“As a woman of color entering the Ed.L.D. Program, I needed the support of fellow peers and a few faculty members who shared and understood my experiences to finally understand and believe that I too belonged in this ivory tower. While I have just received a doctorate degree in education leadership, I also like to think that perhaps more importantly, I have also received a degree in audacity, truth and love,” she says.  “I depart ready to exercise the audacity to speak truth to powers and principalities in our education systems, as I have learned and have had to challenge myself to do while here at HGSE. I believe that for me, the biggest transformation has been that of the self.