Everyone's Universe: Teaching Astronomy in Community Colleges
aa r X i v : . [ phy s i c s . e d - ph ] J u l D R A F T Running head: TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 1Everyone’s Universe: Teaching Astronomy in Community CollegesRica Sirbaugh FrenchDepartment of Physical Sciences, MiraCosta College, One Barnard Drive, Oceanside, CA92056 R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 2AbstractDespite the negative stereotypes still overshadowing community colleges, scores of freshmennationwide are deliberately beginning their college careers at these institutions and thenumbers are increasing more than twice as fast as those of the four-year schools.Approximately 300,000 of these students take introductory astronomy each year as the lastformal exposure to science most of them will ever have, and at least one-third of thesestudents do so at a community or two-year college. The importance of investing in anddevoting resources and training to serve this population – everyone , demographicallyspeaking – cannot be understated. Yet the overwhelming majority of those who do servethis population are lacking in both areas. The community colleges’ heavy emphasis onteaching and student success creates both challenges and opportunities that educatorsmust meet head-on using a variety of methods and innovative strategies, teamwork andfaculty support systems, and clever workarounds. Here, we introduce both the student andfaculty populations, examine the variables affecting both populations, and offer someadvice for those looking to teach introductory astronomy at a community college. Keywords:
Astro 101, astronomy, college, community college, education, educationresearch, faculty, general education, non-science majors, physics, professional development,science, STEM, students, teaching, university R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 3Everyone’s Universe: Teaching Astronomy in Community Colleges
Contents
Abstract Everyone’s Universe: Teaching Astronomy in Community Colleges
Learning Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Why It Matters: Get to Know the Players 6
Enrollments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7The bigger picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Astronomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Who Takes Astro 101? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Everybody . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9The general education population: non-science majors . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Student demographics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Are they ready for college? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Special Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Time [not] spent on campus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Life, family, and culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14No filter, no problem.
Wait! Problem... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Who Teaches Astro 101? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Not astronomers! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16It matters! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Preparation and training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
You Matter: The Job of Community College Faculty [in Astronomy] 22 R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 4Environment, Workload, and Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Compensation and Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Other Part-Time Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Rays of Hope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Autonomy + academic freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Teaching as a profession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Diversity + smaller classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Some Advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Applying + interviewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33You’re in it now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Student evaluations of teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Discipline nuts and bolts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Additional perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Conclusions 39Acknowledgments 40References 41Biographical Sketch 49 R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 5
Introduction
Today’s society propagates some deeply entrenched and widely varying ideas aboutwhat community colleges are and are not. Most folks will readily share their thoughts oneverything from the quality of instruction and how two-year schools differ from four-yearcolleges and universities, to the contrasting student populations and even the qualificationsof faculty and administrators. Let’s face it: it’s hard to argue that there isn’t still alingering stigma attached to teaching, well, almost any subject, at a community college.Even seasoned educators are sometimes not immune to this nor do they always have theright information themselves! It is everyone’s universe and, unsurprisingly, we all haveopinions. Whatever those current opinions are, the data are robust and there is plenty ofevidence to illuminate the true picture. While I have taught both physics and astronomy atlarge four-year institutions, I’ve been at a community college teaching primarily astronomyand the occasional physics or physical science class since 2004. For this writing, I alsoasked colleagues at other community colleges about what they thought should be includedhere. Their insights, whether on hiring practices or teaching the universe to everyone, aresimultaneously predictable and revealing. So let us go straight to the sources, take stock ofthe situation, and have a look through the lenses of some accomplished practitioners. Learning Outcomes
By the end of this chapter, the reader will be able to: • describe the demographics and general characteristics of the population taking Astro101; • articulate the importance of this population and the implications with respect toscience literacy; • compare and contrast the challenges facing community college students with those atthe four-year institutions; R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 6 • assess his/her own level of preparation to teach astronomy, particularly in thecommunity college setting, and explain why it matters who teaches the introductorycourses; • differentiate teaching at a community college from doing so at a four-year college oruniversity; • evaluate his/her own commitment to teaching as a profession; • formulate a plan for his/her professional development; • examine and develop strategies and skills for strengthening job applications andinterviewing for community college faculty positions; and • decide whether teaching at a community college might a good career choice forhim/her. Why It Matters: Get to Know the Players
American community colleges have long been viewed as the “last resort” or even the“land of infinite second chances,” with the negative connotation often referring to bothstudents and faculty. But why? The very nature and design of the junior college systemwas, originally, to (1) provide lower-division general education [to everyone], regardless ofwhether s/he might want to transfer to a four-year institution for more specialized study,and (2) offer technical and vocational training [to everyone] to support our nation’schanging workforce demands (Waggoner et al., 2002). The federal government championedthe public two-year institutions, advocating for the diversification and expansion of theseeducational opportunities for all Americans. Today, the combined system of communitycolleges in the U.S. has evolved into a massive establishment that is now home to the mostaccessible and arguably most teaching-focused arrangement of post-secondary educationalinstitutions in the nation. Indeed, an ever-increasing fraction of all college-bound students R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 7are choosing to take courses at community colleges before transferring to four-yearinstitutions, all while this negative stereotype inexplicably continues to propagate. Theirreasons are myriad and not centered simply on lower costs or the misplaced notion thatclasses at two-year schools aren’t as rigorous. Rather, these students are deliberatelychoosing to enjoy significantly smaller class sizes and more personal attention, a greatersense of community, stronger student support infrastructures, greater availability of generaleducation courses, more flexible schedules, and even geographic convenience.
EnrollmentsThe bigger picture.
Estimates vary but it’s safe to say that between one-thirdand one-half of all undergraduates in the United States spend at least part of theirfreshman year enrolled in a community college (McFarland et al., 2017; Smith, MacGregor,Matthews, & Gabelnick, 2004). The U.S. Department of Education’s National Center forEducational Statistics (NCES) projects enrollments in two-year institutions to grow 21percent between 2015 and 2026, from 6.5 million to 7.8 million while that of the four-yearinstitutions increases by only nine percent to 11.7 million (McFarland et al., 2017). If thatdoesn’t already have your attention, look at the numbers specific to astronomy.
Astronomy.
Tucker (1996) speculated that the majority of all college studentstaking introductory astronomy in the United States probably do so at two-yearinstitutions. In the early 2000s, estimates put the number of students taking introductoryastronomy in the U.S. at approximately 250,000 each year, with 40 to 50 percent of themdoing so at community and other small colleges without astronomy or physics degreeprograms of bachelor’s or higher (Fraknoi, 2001, 2004). Though there is evidence thatslightly more students are now taking introductory astronomy, the fraction that does so ina community college likely remains between one-third and one-half.The American Institute of Physics (AIP) publishes statistics on introductoryastronomy enrollments at institutions granting at least bachelor’s degrees. During the R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 82015-16 academic year there were 750 physics departments (Nicholson & Mulvey, 2017b)and 81 astronomy departments (Nicholson & Mulvey, 2017a), 39 of which are completelyseparate from their physics counterparts while the other 42 are combined physics andastronomy departments. Departments reported “First Term Introductory CourseEnrollments” where they were instructed to include only students taking their first term ofa stand-alone (i.e. not a continuation of a sequence), entry-level course. Those in the 750physics departments included both astronomy and physical science courses because theytypically have a significant astronomy component. Table 1 shows that year’s introductoryastronomy enrollments.Astronomy and combined departments: 54,056Physics departments * : 143,020Total: 197,076Table 1 Introductory astronomy enrollments for 2015-16 compiled from AIP statistics on four-yearastronomy (Nicholson & Mulvey, 2017a) and physics (Nicholson & Mulvey, 2017b)degree-granting institutions. * While these enrollments include both introductory astronomy and physical sciencecourses, they do not include conceptual physics courses, as introductory physicsenrollments are tallied separately in the physics report.The 81 astronomy departments surveyed by AIP are located at institutions alsorepresented in the list of 750 physics departments surveyed. This means the nearly 200,000students in the AIP group represent about 25% of the 3011 four-year colleges anduniversities counted in 2014-15 by NCES (the latest data available at the time of thiswriting; Snyder, de Brey, & Dillow, 2018). We do not currently have information onintroductory astronomy enrollments in the other 75% of four-year institutions (thosewithout astronomy or physics departments).Using data from 2011, AIP estimates that 71% of the two-year institutions offering R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 9physics courses also offered astronomy courses, resulting in approximately 51,000 studentstaking introductory astronomy at those institutions (White & Chu, 2013b). Since, as AIPpoints out, this is nearly equivalent to the 52,000 introductory astronomy enrollments inastronomy degree-granting (four-year) institutions in 2010, it is logical to assume a similarparallel for the 2015-16 data. This adds another 54,000 or so students taking introductoryastronomy at the 1616 community colleges and other two-year institutions counted in theNCES data (Snyder et al., 2018). Note, however, that this figure does not includeenrollments in two-year institutions that offer astronomy but not physics. ThereforeFraknoi’s (2001; 2004) estimates of 100,000 to 125,000 – which are largely derived fromself-reported data from those teaching introductory astronomy at community and othertwo-year colleges – are likely still reasonable.Thus there are at least
10% of incoming freshman every year (Snyder etal., 2018) and, as near as we can tell, 33 to 42 percent of them are taking that introductoryastronomy course (hereafter referred to as “Astro 101”) at a community college.
Who Takes Astro 101?Everybody.
Seriously. Arguments about how the Astro 101 populations in thetwo- and four-year institutions are demographically different in significant ways simply donot hold up. Granted, there are some practical considerations that are much moreprevalent in the two-year schools’ populations (addressed later) but those do not impactthe general demographics describing who takes Astro 101.
The general education population: non-science majors.
The U.S. turns outless than 500 astronomy majors each year (Nicholson & Mulvey, 2017a) so it’s prettyobvious that students taking Astro 101 aren’t astronomy majors. Years ago it wasn’t astretch to assume that the overwhelming majority were probably not science majors at all.But now we don’t have to assume; we can show this is definitely the case. Two-thirds or R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 10more of students taking Astro 101 report a major or area of interest in a non-STEM field(Deming & Hufnagel, 2001; Rudolph, Prather, Brissenden, Consiglio, & Gonzaga, 2010).Science majors notwithstanding, these students are the future: they will becomejournalists, healthcare workers, CEOs, tradespeople, politicians, law enforcement officers,humanitarians, attorneys, parents, and fellow citizens.
That introductory astronomy coursecould be the only college-level science course many of these folks will ever take (Partridge &Greenstein, 2003). And – wait for it – they’re also the next generation of K-12 teachers!
As many as 40% of those taking any college-level introductory science course indicatethey plan to become licensed teachers (Lawrenz, Huffman, & Appeldoorn, 2005) and in thestudy by Rudolph et al. (2010), 25% of introductory astronomy students self-identified aseducation majors. Given the numbers, this represents an almost unprecedentedopportunity to help shape our nation’s scientific literacy and attitudes about science andits roles in society for literally generations to come (Fraknoi, 2001; Prather, Rudolph, &Brissenden, 2009; Rudolph et al., 2010). In the words of Rudolph et al. (2010), “...we canthink of our Astro 101 courses as...professional development courses for future teachers.”Indeed, it is perhaps their first professional development experience!If ever there was an argument for elevating a general education science course totop-tier status with the best trained faculty and enormous resources, this might well be it.Our experiences with these people in the introductory astronomy classroom could be theirlast formal encounter with science in their entire lives – no matter where you teach it! Nopressure, right? Our potential for making lasting positive impacts on the voting public,both now and for the foreseeable future is, frankly, staggering.
Student demographics.
One of the most wonderful things about teachingintroductory astronomy anywhere is recognizing that your class is truly a representativecross-section of humans in America (Deming & Hufnagel, 2001; Rudolph et al., 2010).They are of every race and ethnicity and span the range of socioeconomic classes andacademic abilities. Just over 80% come to us through the American public K-12 education R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 11system and about one-third have a parent whose education went beyond high school.Roughly 90% have never taken astronomy before and slightly more women than men takeAstro 101. Rudolph et al. (2010) asked 15 different demographic questions of nearly 2000students enrolled in 69 sections of Astro 101 spread across 31 U.S. institutions. The workof Deming and Hufnagel (2001) derives from 3800 students responding to 12 studentbackground questions in 66 different Astro 101 classes nationwide. Both included all kindsof educational institutions, illustrating that Astro 101 everywhere is a genuine melting potin terms of almost every demographic you can think of.
Are they ready for college?
Apparently not. According to ACT (2017), only37% of 2017’s high school graduates meet the college performance benchmark in scienceand only 41% do so in math. At the time of this writing, the U.S. Department ofEducation (2015) reports even more dismal statistics: 22 and 25 percent, of 12th gradersplace “at or above ‘Proficient’” in science and math, respectively. Perhaps somewhatsurprisingly, it is students’ preparation in high school mathematics – not science (!) –courses that correlates more strongly with success in college science courses (Sadler & Tai,2007). A science course taken in high school will almost always positively impact acollege-level science course in that same discipline , but generally speaking, more highschool science does not translate to better performance in college-level science across theboard. It’s the mathematics preparation that matters most. In fact, the more math coursesand more advanced the math courses taken, the higher the rates of overall collegepersistence and completion (AACC, 2016).ACT (2017) also reports that only 47% of 2017’s high school diplomates read at acollege level while not even two-thirds (61%) meet the college performance benchmark inEnglish. According to the U.S. Department of Education (2015) only 37% of 12th gradersare “at or above ‘Proficient’” in reading and only 27% in writing. Complete CollegeAmerica (2016) indicates that of the students enrolling in two-year colleges for the firsttime, 34% must take remedial courses in English and 52% must do so in math. Combined R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 12with the 12 and 24 percent, respectively, that require remediation in the four-year schools,that is an incredible number of students who are not ready for and cannot take college-levelEnglish or mathematics courses despite being able to enroll in college.
Yet they can enrollin your Astro 101 course!
Because they are introductory general education courses,virtually none of the introductory astronomy courses at any institution have prerequisites.Remember, too, that most two-year institutions are “open enrollment” institutionsmeaning there are no academic entrance requirements. In fact, some students enrolled atcommunity colleges have neither high school diplomas nor GEDs but can still enroll inAstro 101 . While this may sound like a horrific rabbit hole to some, there is actually astrangely bright light at the end of this particular tunnel.Perhaps one of the most surprising – and encouraging – revelations came whenPrather, Rudolph, Brissenden, and Schlingman (2009) showed that all of these students,regardless of the institution type, class size, or their backgrounds, are capable of achievingsimilar learning gains in Astro 101 (note this is part of the same study as the Rudolph etal. 2010 data). For what feels like eons, instructors have argued to the proverbial death –using little to no evidence – that this wasn’t possible, that the four-year institutions have adistinct advantage since their students are “filtered” through academic entrancerequirements. Admittedly, it sounded like a plausible contention. The idea that one couldactually conduct legitimate education research using his or her own students and that thiscould provide the data to either refute or support those claims initially flew completelyunder the radar. But savvy instructors at all kinds of institutions watched, learned,experimented, recorded, tweaked, and reported bits and pieces of what did and didn’t workin their classrooms over the years as learner-centered teaching strategies (see Chapter 1 ofthis volume) became more and more prevalent. Discipline-based education research(DBER) gradually gained traction before quickly becoming all the rage. The notion thateducation research could – and should – inform what we do and how we do it in ourclassrooms, just as our discipline content research informs our science, finally began to take R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 13root. Physics education research (PER) led the way for most of us with astronomyeducation research (AER) soon to follow, finally garnering some game-changing attentionsomewhere in the last ten to fifteen years. (See other chapters in this volume, particularly1, 3, 4, and 9.)And now we have the evidence. They may not all be ready for college-level work, butinteractive learning methods are capable of helping all students, regardless of academicpreparedness or demographics. In fact, Freeman et al. (2014) meta-analyzed over 200studies of various active learning strategies used in a variety of undergraduate STEMcourses and concluded that the techniques appear generally effective across all STEMdisciplines and for all class sizes. Many instructors in the Fraknoi (2004) data evenindicated that they developed a strong sense of pride when “...students of diversebackgrounds and abilities were able to succeed in their astronomy class.” So never fear: athoughtfully designed and well-implemented learner-centered Astro 101 course (see relevantchapters in this volume, e.g. 1-4) has the potential to bring everyone closer together, bothin terms of social constructs and academic performance (Prather, Rudolph, Brissenden, &Schlingman, 2009; Rudolph et al., 2010).
Special Considerations
Along with these interesting and refreshingly diverse perspectives comes a set ofspecial considerations that, while certainly not absent from the four-year institutions’populations, are a way of life for the students taking courses at two-year institutions.While all institutions suffer with a contingent of enrollees consistently unprepared for classmeetings, those with teaching experience in community colleges know that for theirstudents, it is these practical considerations, rather than laziness, that are most often theculprits. How much do you hold their hands? How much do you hold them responsible for?Is it really our responsibility to “meet them in the middle” as so many administrators keeppreaching? An instructor’s empathy and sense of compassion wage never-ending battles R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 14with the need for structure, rules, and deadlines. So the culture of the two-year schoolmorphs to adapt. You can read about it, hear about it, and even witness it yourself whenyou visit another instructor’s class. But until you’ve been in front of those students yourselfand interacted with them class after class as their instructor, you don’t really know thataudience. Until you’ve experienced it firsthand and dealt with their specific kinds of issues,you don’t truly understand it (C. Hirano, personal communication, March 20, 2018).
Time [not] spent on campus.
While three-quarters of students at four-yearinstitutions are enrolled full-time, only about one-third of community college studentsattend full-time (AACC, 2018; Snyder et al., 2018). An estimated 28% of two-yearinstitutions are residential campuses (AACC, 2018) but most of us teaching Astro 101 at“traditional” community colleges are not doing so at a residential institution. Numerouscommunity college faculty (myself included) anecdotally cite the combination of anoverwhelmingly part-time student population with a non-residential campus as the primaryreason that few students avail themselves of the numerous support systems in place, fromindividual instructors’ office hours and help sessions to the typically robust tutoring,testing, counseling, and other support services offered. These students simply do not spendany more time on campus than they have to and it’s almost certainly a function of theother demands for their time. It isn’t that they refuse to devote more time to their studies;they usually feel they have no choice and are forced to sacrifice school and study time tomeet life’s other demands.
Life, family, and culture.
A big part of every college student’s life is trying tofigure out a reasonable school-work-life balance. But the average age of community collegestudents is 28 (AACC, 2018) so it’s a safe bet that more of these students are alreadydealing with the responsibilities of raising families of their own. Most of them are holdingdown either full-time jobs or multiple part-time jobs and nearly one-fifth of communitycollege students are single parents (AACC, 2018). The various forms of “life happens,” e.g.childcare snafus, car troubles, sick kids, getting called in to work unexpectedly, etc., are a R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 15never-ending struggle among this population. The older “non-traditional” students, whomay be working on second careers or coming back for the degree they never finished as atwenty-something, are not immune either as they are often juggling life’s hang-ups whilecaring for aging parents and helping support their own college-age children.Don’t forget, too, that compared to most four-year institutions, community collegesoften have larger fractions of students who are first generation college students, veteransreintegrating into civilian life, and previously incarcerated individuals striving for a freshstart. There are also more instances of two-year schools located in regions with muchnarrower and very specific demographics such as tribal colleges or campuses in areasexperiencing critical economical distress where most residents are below the local povertylevel. All of these students bring different cultural norms and sets of circumstances withthem to school each day. Figuring out how to embrace it all and turn the challenges intostrengths and opportunities is one of the hallmarks of teaching both Astro 101 andteaching at a community college.
No filter, no problem.
Wait! Problem...
Students at four-year institutions are“filtered,” having jumped through a tedious series of admissions hoops that includesminimum academic achievement standards. In short, they know how to be students. Thatsaid, their study habits aren’t necessarily any better than those of the “unfiltered masses”at the community college. Rereading, highlighting or underlining, and “taking notes” [read:“copying”] are still the default study tactics despite years of research indicating thesemethods are largely ineffective (Roediger, 2013). We must guide all of our students,regardless of academic ability or preparedness level, through the kinds of activities that areshown to actually facilitate real learning (e.g Chapters 1-3 in this volume).The fact that many community college students generally do not know how to bestudents, turns out, is a pretty big deal. The Filtered Ones have amassed and refined a setof skills that many students in the two-year schools have not. They know what it means to R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 16set a schedule, organize tasks, acknowledge deadlines, manage their time, and seek out helpwith respect to their studies – and this is very different from employing those same tasks inother aspects of life. Whether they are good at it or not is an entirely different proposition.The point is they are at least aware that these skills are essential to their academic success.Most students in community colleges either don’t yet have this skill set or have notpracticed most of it in recent history so it is long forgotten. Again, they can sometimesmanage other aspects of their lives well enough with the analogous skills. But addacademic studies into the mix and things can go sideways pretty quickly.We end up helping them learn the intricacies of post-secondary education, navigatethe bureaucracies that we and our administrations put in place, and re-teaching those samelife skills as they apply to education. So much so that these curiously-named “high-impactpractices” now form the basis for many courses, orientations, and entire engagementprograms developed and implemented in many community colleges across the nation(CCSE, 2013). Now we just have to make these programs and courses integrated, requiredcomponents of the community college experience. To a college student, “optional”translates to “not gonna happen,” so in order to make a difference, engaging communitycollege students must be a deliberate and focused effort. While much of this is out of thehands of most astronomy instructors (such as first year experience and orientationprograms), others such as tutoring, learning communities, supplemental instruction,experiential learning, and early intervention (ref. Chapters 1 and 2 in this volume) can beeffectively integrated into our introductory astronomy curriculum.
Who Teaches Astro 101?Not astronomers!
No kidding. According to Fraknoi (2004) only 23% ofintroductory astronomy instructors in community colleges have degrees in astronomy andincluding the four-year schools barely raises that figure to 25%. Fraknoi (2004) and Tucker(1996) show that most introductory astronomy instructors have their degrees in physics R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 17(you might be one!). But before you hand-wave that away as perfectly acceptable, considerit from this perspective. The enrollment data at the beginning of this chapter show that48% of students taking Astro 101 do so in a pure physics department and another 40 to 50percent take the course in a department that does not offer a degree in either physics orastronomy. This means that
88% to 98% of these students are taking introductoryastronomy with instructors who, themselves, very likely have little to no formal training inastronomy . If your own degree is in physics ask yourself this, “How muchastronomy-specific content did I get while fulfilling my physics degree requirements?” Ifyou’ve ever been one of these instructors – you’ve taught introductory astronomy with onlya cursory prior exposure to it – how would you answer this next question (be honest!):“Knowing what you now do, would you say you were truly qualified to teach astronomy ?”Answers ranging from a rather unconvincing “sure” and an uneasy “not really” to aresounding “definitely not!” are common from instructors in the professional developmentworkshops I’ve co-facilitated . Having a degree in physics myself I can say that my answerto the first question would have been “virtually none,” had I not enrolled in an“unnecessary” Astro 101 course simply to maintain full-time enrollment status one term. Asubsequent degree in astronomy made all the difference for me personally but had itinstead been in physics, I’m sure my answer to the second question would have been“definitely not!”To be clear, no one is questioning whether a physicist is capable of teachingastronomy. There is little doubt he or she most certainly is, obviously having more thanadequate academic preparation in the necessary physics. The question is whether thosewithout any experience in the astronomy content should be doing so given the enormousimplications of the introductory astronomy survey course (see “The general education One of the more snarky (and terrifying) analogies sounds something like this. “Oh, by the way...yourhelicopter pilot has no real training in rotor-wing aircraft. No, no, it’s okay. Really. She’s more than qualifiedto fly fixed-wing aircraft. You know, airplanes ? And that’s enough. There’s no need for special training justbecause it’s a different type of aircraft.” R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 18population: non-science majors”). The state of California thinks so. So does the AmericanAssociation of Physics Teachers (AAPT) – even while many of those very instructors see itldifferently.Those who have taught introductory astronomy know that it is much more than thebasic phenomena of Newton’s laws, gravity, light, and optics we all learned in “pure”physics courses. But the state of California considers physics and astronomy to beessentially the same thing, a single “discipline” or “area.” The discipline is labelled“Physics/Astronomy” and in order to teach either subject at a community college inCalifornia, one must meet the following minimum qualifications: “Master’s in physics,astronomy, or astrophysics OR Bachelor’s in physics or astronomy AND Master’s inengineering, mathematics, meteorology, or geophysics OR the equivalent” (Woodyard &Levy, 2017). The “equivalent” loophole gives individual colleges and districts some leewayin determining what is appropriate for their courses since it allows for things likeprofessional experience commensurate with an earned degree or degree titles that don’texactly match (not kidding here) any of those in the list. For example, unless the school ordistrict has local governance policies in place that allow variations in degree titles, anapplicant with a bachelor’s in astronomy and master’s in “engineering physics” does notmeet the minimum qualifications and therefore must go through the equivalency process.Typically, an interdisciplinary faculty committee considers equivalency applicants verycarefully, examining their academic preparation and professional experience closely beforemaking a recommendation that is passed up the administrative chain, subject to furtherscrutiny and recommendations. Some other states have similar such minimumqualifications or variations on them, making it easy to recognize a qualifying combinationof degrees that could exclude astronomy-specific content entirely. A few such examples arespecifically called out in the Fraknoi (2004) survey comments, highlighting both this issueand that of a general sense of isolation (discussed in later sections).“One instructor with a master’s degree in math wrote, ‘I actually taught two R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 19semesters of astronomy without ever taking an astronomy course myself!’(Whether this is a good or bad thing for the world is left as an exercise to thereader).”“I wish I had someone to ask questions of. I am a physicist, not an astronomer.”“I am always in need of advice...since I have a PhD in psychology and not thephysical sciences.”In the early 2000s this quandary surfaced enough times both in inquiries fromadministrators and in the accreditation proceedings of two-year colleges across the nationthat the Executive Officer of the AAPT at the time issued a statement (Khoury, 2004)citing two main lines of evidence to support the position. Specifically (1) “Theintroductory astronomy course is a ‘science literacy’ course, designed to present a broadbackground in the subject typically to non-science-oriented students and not for futureastronomy ‘majors,’” and (2) the basics are “all topics included in a physics teacher’sbackground” because of the “strong overlap...in the curriculum and skills required in thetwo areas” and as evidenced by the number of universities with unified departments ofphysics and astronomy. Some time later, the AAPT Executive Board endorsed and posteda subsequent statement (AAPT, n.d.) supporting an “emphatic ‘
Yes ’” in response to thequestion, “Does a degree in physics qualify a person to teach introductory astronomy atthe collegiate level?” The Board’s position rests on three tenets: “...the nature of thecurriculum in the two fields of physics and astronomy...on common practice regarding howintroductory astronomy is offered across the United States; and...on the role of theintroductory astronomy class in the college curriculum.” Though this statement largelyreconstitutes the article written by the former Executive Officer, the Board does go a bitbeyond these superficial arguments by pointedly calling out practical experience (such asworking in a planetarium, participating in research, and attending workshops offered byprofessional societies) as a “sufficient” qualifier. It also includes the AAPT Space ScienceCommittee’s recommendation to evaluate potential candidates by examining both one’s R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 20broad course preparation and relevant work experience.While all this sounds well and good, the evidence clearly shows that the argument forAstro 101 being an introductory course that serves “non-science-oriented students” (see“The general education population: non-science majors”) supports the position in diametricopposition to the one claimed. Indeed, a case could be made that the data argue even morestrongly for astronomy instructors to be trained not only in the astronomy-specific content,but also in pedagogy and particularly communicating science to non-scientists!Additionally, the argument about significant overlap in curriculum appears to be, at best, ahighly variable function of an institution’s program design, and at worst, simply false.Curiously, the American Astronomical Society (AAS) seemingly has no officialposition on the matter. However, in a 2016 report authored by the AAS Education TaskForce the dilemma is specifically called out: “The AAS needs to be mindful of the fact thatmost Astro 101 instructors are not research scientists in astronomy and may lack theability to teach – or at least be uncomfortable with teaching – some Astro 101 topics”(Brickhouse et al., 2016).
It matters! It does matter who teaches introductory astronomy. The CCSE (2014)reports that roughly 58% of all courses at community colleges are taught by part-timefaculty. Though there are notable exceptions, most part-time faculty have few ties to agiven institution and can be less invested in the undertaking. (There is some evidence tosuggest this may be more the fault of the institutions themselves rather than theinstructors; more on this later.) The connection between Astro 101 and whatever comesnext for these students is important – and hinges critically on the experience with thatinstructor , a point that the Chronicle of Higher Education very recently saw fit to call out(Supiano, 2018). Regardless of whether the instructor is full-time or part time, if thestudents have a bad experience, it can initiate a butterfly effect. Most notably, (1)community college students taking remedial courses from part-time faculty are less likely topersist to the next course, (2) students taking introductory STEM courses from R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 21non-tenure-track faculty in the four-year schools are 1.5% more likely to switch to anon-STEM field, and (3) the greater the percentage of non-tenure-track faculty teaching atthe four-year schools, the less likely students are to graduate (Supiano, 2018). Rememberhow many students take Astro 101? Remember how that course could be their lastexperience ever with formal science? Remember who they are and what they represent?(See “The general education population: non-science majors.”) And while it is true that wehave few STEM majors in our Astro 101 classes, the propensity of such a course to drawbright, undecided students into such fields is not at all negligible.
Preparation and training.
The Physics vs. Astronomy HeavyweightChampionship aside, most instructors are generally well-educated with 94% of communitycollege instructors having advanced degrees (Fraknoi, 2004): 31% have doctorates and 63%have master’s degrees. The 93% of four-year college instructors with advance degreesincludes 76% doctorates and 17% master’s degrees. All this education, yet a large fractionof STEM graduate students receive no formal training whatsoever in pedagogy or virtuallyany aspect of teaching or mentoring before stepping into a classroom – which most of uswill do at least once during our careers whether we want to or not. Nearly all AASmembers who responded to the Brickhouse et al. (2016) Education Task Force’s survey(93%) indicated that they teach (or have taught) at least one class of some kind andalmost three-quarters of respondents teach Astro 101. Approximately one-third ofrespondents said they received no training whatsoever with regard to teaching and almost70% indicated no training in mentorship of any kind.So what is the aspiring astronomy instructor to do? Professional societies such as theAAS and Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) regularly offer opportunities to learnabout both mentoring and teaching practices, often with reduced registration fees forcommunity college and other local educators. The AAPT is exclusively focused on teachingand the Center for Astronomy Education (CAE) is dedicated specifically to improving theteaching and learning of introductory astronomy, Earth, and space science. (More on R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 22professional development later.)
You Matter: The Job of Community College Faculty [in Astronomy]Environment, Workload, and Resources
In the two-year schools (and even many smaller liberal arts and teaching-focusedfour-year institutions), astronomy is one of many disciplines in a multi-disciplinedepartment. The most common unit is a variation of a physical sciences department thatincludes disciplines such as physics, geology, earth science, oceanography, and physicalscience. It is not unusual for chemistry to be included and even things like geography andmeteorology are surprisingly common. A full-time astronomy instructor is almost certainlythe only astronomer in the department and, more often than you’d think, also the onlyphysicist. In fact, it’s usually the other way around: teaching physics comes first with theastronomy following later, sometimes by choice but sometimes because s/he was asked totake it on. In some cases, one is hired specifically as a full-time astronomy instructor buteither way, it is typical for the faculty member to teach more than just astronomy. Physicsand physical science are probably most common.The AIP has only recently added astronomy teaching to their survey of physicsfaculty in two-year colleges so longitudinal comparisons aren’t yet possible. It’s also notpossible to disentangle the astronomy data from the physics data but it is still painfullyclear that astronomers and physicists at these institutions are relatively isolated. Sixtypercent of surveyed departments had either no or only a single full-time faculty memberteaching astronomy and/or physics (White & Chu, 2013a) and those lone full-timers arealso the folks most likely to be teaching courses in additional disciplines. It’s also now clearthat a substantial number of those teaching astronomy at two-year colleges are part-timefaculty. The part-timers, however, are much more likely to teach only astronomy andphysics classes with only about 20% of them teaching other subjects (White & Chu, 2013a).Full-time instructors can face several challenges that stem from being the lone R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 23discipline expert in a multi-discipline department. Duties that are normally within thepurview of a department chair often fall to that lone faculty member if the chair lacks thenecessary discipline-specific expertise. It is of course reasonable to expect discipline facultyto, as part of their regular responsibilities, handle occasional issues and advocate for theirparticular programs and students as necessary. But if all of the administrative business forthat discipline eventually ends up on the plate of the lone discipline expert who is not thedepartment chair, this is no longer a non-negligible component of one’s workload.Occasionally the faculty member may receive some compensation in recognition of theseadditional duties, perhaps along the lines of a “lead instructor” or other similardesignation, but most often they do not. When there are not a large number of astronomyclasses or students, this may not warrant too much concern. If, on the other hand, theprogram is larger, has more than a few classes, many students, and several part-timefaculty to supervise, the “workload creep” can be substantial.In contrast to most four-year institutions, many community colleges have little or noinstructional support, e.g. lab prep assistants or equipment managers. Though there areexceptions, a lone full-time instructor in the discipline is often responsible for everything,from purchasing equipment and supplies to maintaining that equipment and any associatedfacilities (e.g. computer lab, observing site, etc.). While it is no longer uncommon to haveaccess to a computer lab, a community college with an actual observatory or planetarium isstill an exception. Usually, there are binoculars and/or portable telescopes that must belugged back and forth between their storage area and a makeshift observing site. Moreadvanced equipment isn’t all that common and is normally seen only at larger institutionswith the even more rare advanced classes and corresponding budgets.Unless you teach at one of those large institutions with the rare complementarybudget, money will be tight. Data from Fraknoi (2004) show the average annual budget forastronomy programs (not including physics) in community colleges to be around $940 andincluding all the surveyed institutions only raises this figure to $1127. My own program’s R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 24budget is right in line with these figures and colleagues elsewhere report similarly. Keep inmind that this amount is usually meant to encompass everything needed to keep theprogram running, from replacing equipment to photocopying costs for all classes.There is little to no money for conference travel and professional development isfrequently limited to in-house workshops and seminars on more universal content likediversity and equity issues, institutional procedures, statewide initiatives, and high-impactpractices. Professional development for those teaching astronomy is very specialized solocal opportunities are generally rare. Though professional societies sometimes offer grantsor reduced fees to community college instructors, a significant travel distance is almostalways involved so it is frequently cost-prohibitive. Note, too, that if you are the onlyastronomer, finding qualified employees that meet the legal requirements to substitute inthe classes you’ll have to miss is often a sticky subject with department chairs, deans, andother administrators. On a more positive note, more and more external resources havebeen devoted over the past decade or so to building a robust community of astronomyeducation professionals, resources, and opportunities so it is gradually becoming easier totranscend isolation and budget limitations (Waller & Slater, 2011).There are virtually no resources or support for personal research and, frankly, no timeto do it anyway. This is okay since virtually no two-year institutions have an expectationthat you maintain a research program – or ever publish again, for that matter. In practice,the labors of love do still occur. Motivated instructors will maintain ties with collaboratorselsewhere and sometimes find the time to squeeze in projects that matter to them.A full-time faculty member at a two-year institution teaches, on average, theequivalent of five three-credit courses per semester, every semester. Of course exact loadsvary across institutions but so do the courses and their credit values. For many though, afull-time teaching load is the equivalent of 15 credits where each one credit is a “package”of one 50-minute classroom hour and one hour of prep work and grading per week. Thus afull load means 30 hours of instructional time each week: 15 contact hours in class and 15 R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 25hours outside of class. Using a 40-hour work week model (I know, don’t laugh – more onthat later), the remaining ten hours is comprised of additional student contact time andinstitutional service duties. At my institution the expected breakdown is five “studenthours” and five hours of “collegial governance” duties. Those five weekly student contacthours must include at least two hours of regularly scheduled drop-in office hours while therest of the time is spent on things like responding to students’ emails and phone calls,taking additional student meetings, and advising. The remaining five “governance” hoursare consumed by various committee meetings (departmental, institutional, and/or district),the work for those committees, and any other duties in service of the institution.Community colleges in particular are big on the concept of “collegial governance”though that has become somewhat of a buzz-phrase in recent years, coming to mean manydifferent things to many different people at many different institutions (go ahead – I dareyou to Google it...). Generally speaking, this refers to the practice in which allconstituencies participate in a policy of shared governance, each contributing regularly andmeaningfully to the functioning and oversight of both the big things (like institution-widepolicies and procedures) and the smaller day-to-day operations (like how your departmenthandles prerequisite challenges). As one might expect, the implementations of such amodel vary extensively across the nation but as a rule, all full-time faculty at pretty muchany institution are expected to participate at some level and it is even written into the jobdescription. Part-time faculty typically have no such obligation to participate but moreand more schools and districts are beginning to offer such opportunities, some withaccompanying pay, in order to help foster a sense of community and encourage part-timersto become more involved and invested in their institution.Most of us are all too aware that the 40-hour work week is basically a unicorn –fantastically elusive and ultimately, a mythical creature. For community college instructorsthe killer is almost always the time spent grading. If you end up doing all or even most ofthe discipline’s administrative and support duties, it’s even worse. There are, of course, no R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 26graduate students so no teaching assistants. And the nature of the two-year school meansthat any suitable undergraduates you might try to recruit and train aren’t likely to stickaround long enough for it to be worth the effort. Even if they did, how will you pay them?(You read about your budget a few paragraphs ago, right?) So grading? Yeah, that’sprobably all you. No matter how many students you have. The trade-off is that you canget to know your students much better and tailor your instruction to address issues you’dotherwise miss if you had a grader. That said, it is almost always the bulk of yourworkload. But there actually may be a couple of possibilities for enlisting the help ofqualified undergraduates. Just don’t count on mining the astronomy club – there probablyisn’t one . Nevertheless, if you’re willing to put forth the time and effort, there may besome reasonable prospects.If a student receives federal or state financial aid, he or she might be eligible forwork-study funds. If the school does any type of astronomy outreach (like star parties)there is often an argument to be made for hiring a student worker. If there aren’t enoughoutreach hours to justify the position, see if combining it with a few hours of teachingassistant duties might work. It doesn’t have to be all about grading either; you might beable to get a lab or observing assistant out of it. Education majors might be interestedbecause they want to be teachers. Psychology and other social science majors might justbe interested in observing other humans’ behaviors and interactions. STEM majors mightprefer grading astronomy homework or being your lab assistant to answering phones orbeing a receptionist in a front office elsewhere on campus. Others might simply be soproud of their own success in your course that your acknowledgment of it and offer to workas a teaching assistant becomes a life-changing point of encouragement for them. Youprobably need to go through your school’s career center or student employment office for Only 20% of all respondents in the Fraknoi (2004) study reported having an amateur astronomy groupof some kind at their institution. What fraction are in just the two-year schools is unknown but it must beexceedingly small since the number of available students and transient nature of the population causes highturnover rates, making it difficult for such a group to persist. R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 27more information on those possibilities. Reach out to the staff in that office. Even if theiroffice can’t help, they might be able to brainstorm other potential solutions. If none of thatpresents a feasible option, look for the more creative workarounds.Practically all two-year schools have some type of formal course that students canenroll in to earn college credit for internships and/or discipline-related work experience.This can take many forms and is certainly not limited to students wanting to “doastronomy” as a career (see the examples in the previous paragraph). The only realhiccups with this plan are likely to be those caused by the fact that the student has toenroll in and pay for an additional credit course. Depending on the individual student’ssituation, there may be problems with credit limitations or number of work hours allowedand even financial aid ramifications. Talk with the student and if necessary, getappropriate career, academic, and/or financial aid counselors involved in that conversation.Another possibility might be service learning credit. If the school has a program forstudents to earn service learning credits there may be a way for this to qualify. Noteveryone understands just how valuable experience like this can be on a resume or CV andhow it often goes far beyond the astronomy content or the seemingly superficial notion ofassigning grades. Gather the facts, think it through, and promote it appropriately.Whatever the case, don’t be shy about advocating for the student and the work itself.Leave no stone unturned. Talk with your department chair and dean, too. Even if itdoesn’t pan out, you’re probably no worse off than when you started, the student(s) willnever forget that you tried , and you might have gleaned information that helps youformulate a better plan for making the case next time. Each individual student’s situationis different but who knows? You might end up learning what you need to develop a pilotprogram that could evolve into a more formal and sustainable solution. R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 28
Compensation and Benefits
As one might expect, two-year college instructors are generally paid less than theircounterparts at the four-year institutions. But like any field, there are exceptions to therule and they most often occur in geographic regions with high property taxes and costs ofliving. Many two-year institutions make use of the “industry standard” academic rankingstructure for full-time instructors but a few – like my own – do not. In these cases, the paystructure is frequently based on only two factors: one’s level of educational preparation(highest degree and any additional credits) and number of years of classroom teachingexperience. Of course variations exist, particularly if the institution implements anacademic rank and reward structure. There are procedures in place for advancing on thesalary schedule should you later earn additional credits and/or another degree. Sometimesthere are fringe benefits to be had such as tuition reimbursement. But...do your homework!You wouldn’t want to be denied advancement on the salary schedule because thatinstitution has a policy stating that credits paid for by that institution cannot then be usedfor advancement on their own salary schedule.It is also not uncommon for full-time faculty to take on overload teachingassignments. There are various reasons for this, not the least of which is simply to make upfor a deficit in income. The pay for teaching overload classes as a salaried employee alsovaries considerably across institutions. Some calculate an hourly rate based on one’sfull-time compensation, meaning you get paid nearly the same for an overload classassignment as you do for a regular class assignment. Other institutions default to thepart-time salary schedule (see below) for any overload assignments, usually meaning thatpay is substantially less. And, as one might imagine, overload assignments can impactone’s retirement and leave balances. They even occasionally come with additionalresponsibilities if that college attaches institutional service or professional developmentobligations to the number of teaching hours one takes on in a term.The salary schedule for part-time faculty usually has a similar structure to account R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 29for the same variables (educational preparation and teaching experience). The biggestdifference is in the dollar amounts. Part-timers are often paid substantially less than theirfull-time counterparts ( surprise! ). While full-time positions are almost always fullybenefitted positions, the benefits afforded to part-time faculty vary wildly from school toschool. Some do offer full benefits packages including insurances, sick leave, paid officehours, and the like, but those are the exception and not the rule. Others offer nothing:you’re paid an hourly wage for only the time you spend in class or perhaps a stipend perclass per term based on the number of credits and that’s it. Anything else is up to you.
Other Part-Time Challenges
Like many other job markets, full-time faculty positions are greatly outnumbered bypart-time ones. Part-time instructors are frequently called “adjunct professors” (though myown institutional culture maintains that term has a negative connotation in that it impliesinferior worth or otherwise devalues the individual in comparison to a full-time instructor).Many part-time faculty have “regular” jobs elsewhere (industry and research positions inparticular are prevalent among part-time faculty in STEM fields) and choose to teach oneor more courses, often in the evenings after a full work day, because they love teaching.Countless others, however, stitch together the equivalent of a full-time position by teachingseveral classes spread across multiple institutions each term. In California these folks areknown as the “freeway fliers” because they spend so much time on the road travelingbetween schools (“freeway faculty” and “roads scholars” are popular monikers in otherregions). It is not uncommon for freeway fliers to teach six or seven classes per term (acolleague of mine once taught nine classes in a single semester and still occasionally teachesas many as eight!), all while trying to keep straight the policies, procedures, and deadlinesfor their different institutions.While full-time faculty at two-year institutions do have dedicated office space theyoften must share it with others and in some cases the “office” is actually a cubicle. R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 30Part-timers, unfortunately, don’t usually fare even that well. Sometimes the rareunattended office is available for first-come, first-served transient use; sometimes there is adesignated workspace with supplies; sometimes there’s nothing. If it were only aboutholding office hours for students there actually wouldn’t be that big of a problem. It is nowcommonplace for faculty to do so in more inviting spaces, those more conducive to studentinteraction and collaborative learning. Designated spaces in student services areas,libraries, STEM centers, cafeterias and other places where students typically hang out –even outdoor spaces – are becoming very popular now for holding office hours and helpsessions. But that still leaves most part-timers – the majority of teaching faculty – withoutany private or even semi-private workspace. “My office is the trunk of my car” is acommon [not-so-much-a-]joke among part-time faculty everywhere.
Rays of Hope
If all of this has left you a bit depressed let me assure you that despite the challenges,many of us genuinely love teaching in community colleges and wouldn’t have it any otherway. There are so many reasons! Here’s just a few. Autonomy + academic freedom.
Sure, isolation can sometimes be a problem ifyou are a single-faculty discipline, but the upside is the number of degrees of freedom youhave in virtually all other aspects of the position. The amount of red tape you can cutthrough is nothing short of a miracle in some cases. For example, you often control themoney. How, when, and on what your spend your budget are decisions that you make,subject to perhaps a supervisory signature that, depending upon your supervisor’s ordean’s management style, can sometimes be nearly hassle-free. What textbook should youuse? Or should you even use one? Again, all you if you’re a single-faculty discipline. Andthough there isn’t always significant time to devote to research, the lack of “publish orperish” pressure in a two-year college environment means that you’re “free” to work onwhatever you want whenever you want! R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 31Did you know you can teach almost whatever you want in an introductory generaleducation course? Yes, you do have to pay attention to certain guidelines and make sureyour course outline of record aligns with articulation and transfer agreements. Yet mostdon’t even realize that there is a tremendous amount of academic freedom possible, evenwithin institutional or state guidelines and introductory astronomy might just be the mostflexible course in the universe (pun intended)!The beauty of the introductory survey course is that it is rarely, if ever, a prerequisitefor anything else, except perhaps the first of a two-course intro sequence (and even thenyou have two courses with n − Astro 101 is that course: generally a single-term “one-off” that majors orminors take only infrequently. So this version is broad enough that there’s a lot of leewayfor the instructor to pick and choose what fills in the gaps between the expected largerconcepts. Near the beginning of his article on “Teaching at a Community College: SomePersonal Observations,” Ball (2010) provides an excellent description of this realization andhow it manifested in his own adjustment to it teaching introductory history courses.Partridge and Greenstein (2003) beautifully describe both the context and what it meansspecifically for an Astro 101 course. In fact, section 2.3 of that seminal work became thebasis for what many astronomy educators now refer to as “the ‘goals’ document”distributed by the AAS for many years.
Teaching as a profession.
You can now – and without reservation – explicitlyacknowledge your commitment to becoming a teaching professional. Communities ofexcellence in teaching practices exist; seek them out – not only in astronomy and STEMfields in general, but also in other disciplines. There may be one or more groups on campusor even a center for teaching excellence or some other such entity. Commit to and immerseyourself in the culture of teaching as a profession. Know that your colleagues andadministrators at two-year schools expect this of you, often unlike the culture at a lot of R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 32four-year institutions. You were immersed in the research culture when you were ingraduate school. Become immersed in the education research culture now as a teachingprofessional.With the emphasis on DBER in recent years, many colleges are renewing theircommitments to teaching excellence and throwing resources behind them. It isn’t just lipservice anymore to have a department chair, dean, and/or VP that claims to supporteducational innovations and new technologies. This means you could have even morefreedom in the classroom to try new things and still have support even if it doesn’t go wellthe first time. Many institutions are receiving various state and federal funds to supportthings like additional “basic skills” initiatives, developing more multidisciplinary learningcommunities, and even supporting STEM resource centers. Periodic conversations withadministrators, initially supportive or not, can have them putting their money where theirmouths are more often than you’d think.This could also mean more money for professional development opportunities. It’sprobably obvious by now that lack of time is a significant hindrance to meaningfulprofessional development. But it is also the case that many community colleges require acertain number of professional development hours of their faculty. These obligations arefrequently based on the size of one’s teaching load and can be met in a variety of ways.Activities ranging from the usual workshops, seminars, and conferences to simply readingdiscipline journals and education blogs, and even developing new materials for your coursescould satisfy the requirements. Guidelines for what does and does not count as“legitimate” professional development can vary widely among the community colleges somake sure you connect with your college’s professional development coordinator orequivalent before you devote a lot of time that you probably definitely don’t have toactivities that may or may not count. Then adopt the “multiple birds with one stone”mindset: work smarter, not harder. R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 33
Diversity + smaller classes.
The magnificent diversity of our students combinedwith the smaller class sizes (Fraknoi, 2004) frequently lends itself to some unbelievablyamazing and bizarre (in a good way) class discussions that go virtually unmatched in mostother introductory science classes. Remember, you are one of the Filtered Ones and it’sactually worse than that – you are in a STEM field – so interacting with this Astro 101population is good for you. As my colleague Philip Blanco emphasized, “...it’s different[teaching introductory astronomy] from what you’re probably used to...you probably didn’tget [this] in grad school...so many different kinds of people. It’s so much fun seeing how thedifferent mindsets and personalities interact with the information!” (personalcommunication, March 21, 2018). It isn’t all that unusual for faculty to ruminate on theirony of having a frustrating day at work only to realize that we actually look forward tothe Astro 101 classes precisely because of this invigorating potential.
Some AdviceApplying + interviewing.
Before applying for a full-time position at acommunity college, take the time to do your homework. The two-year schools certainlyaren’t for everyone so how could you know? Take a read through these articles by RobJenkins, a frequent and popular author on the topic of teaching in community colleges.One gives a good summary of why you should bother to apply (Jenkins, 2014), another is aversion of, “community colleges might not be for you if...” (Jenkins, 2015), and the latest,Jenkins (2018), discusses why you shouldn’t let “prestige bias” prevent you from applyingto teach at a community college.If you decide to take the plunge and apply, research that institution/district andmake sure the culture seems inviting to you, like a place you could call home. Nearly allthe advertised positions will be ridiculously oversubscribed so do what it takes to giveyourself an edge and rise above the crowd. Justin Zackal (2014) has some advice for thosewith little teaching experience in his article, “Becoming a Community College Professor.” R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 34It’s a good idea to play up any leadership positions you’ve previously held, particularlythose with a focus on teamwork and community-building. Potential employers want to seethat you can motivate folks and nurture a culture of open-mindedness and sharedknowledge while still being appropriately authoritative and meeting deadlines. Help themunderstand that your experience training and leading others has some analogs withfacilitating learning in a college classroom. Partnerships and collaborations with othercompanies and educational institutions and especially outreach experience akin to informaleducation are also important components. Have you taken any courses in education, even ifinformal and in a more casual, online environment? Have you read up on developing apersonal teaching philosophy? Do you read any newsletters, blogs, or journals on educationor teaching? If so, highlight them in ways that help selection committees understand thatyou are serious about becoming a professional educator.If you are fortunate enough to get an interview, know what to expect. Given whatought to be seemingly endless variations in the process, it was a little surprising to read inGreen and Ciez-Volz (2010) just how similar their description of what it should include isto what actually happens at my own institution. Everyone invited for an interviewprobably looks like a fantastic teacher and competitive candidate on paper – that’s whythey got interviews.
What makes you stand out?
Are you connected to teachingcommunities in your field? Have you done community service or outreach? Hiring afull-time faculty member is a huge investment for that institution. They’re going to wantthe whole package. If you’re not truly competitive at all those levels, you might lose out.And, most importantly, recognize that even if you ultimately get the position, it’s becausethe selection committee thought “this person shows great promise,” not “this person is anawesome finished product” (D. Loranz, personal communication, March 21, 2018).If you’re interviewing for a part-time position, virtually all of this stuff still applies.Colleges want faculty who are invested in the profession and the best interests of thestudents, and who are prepared to make a commitment to their institution. Even if there is R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 35less competition for the position(s), the ones for whom the profession is part of theiridentity will rise to the top.
You’re in it now.
Congratulations, you got the job! If it’s a full-time positionremember you may be the only astronomer. You’re probably responsible for all thingsastronomical at your institution, from course and program development and managementto budgets; from recruiting and supervising part-time faculty to starting or maintaining anoutreach program; from advocating for facilities and resources to handling inquiries fromcommunity members (“I saw this really strange light in the sky last night and it movedreally weird. What was it?” or “I found this cool-looking rock in my backyard and it’s gotto be a meteorite! Can you verify it for me?”). Juggling all this in combination with yourteaching load and institutional responsibilities can be overwhelming at times. It’simportant to avoid burnout and especially if you’re new at it, avoid the “teaching trap”(Rockquemore, 2015). Have a good support structure in place. Cultivating productiverelationships with your colleagues in related disciplines is one way to help combat a senseof isolation. It’s also good for your own professional development: visit each other’s classesand schedule regular times to meet up and discuss teaching techniques, the latest research,or new learning technologies. Even the occasional discussion about campus politics, thelatest administrative decisions, or just a good old-fashioned bout of commiseration isnecessary to keep you grounded and sane. In some cases, it might also mean you have“backup” – others who might be willing and able to help you divide and conquerparticularly burdensome duties in a pinch.Know your craft and take it seriously. A stand-out candidate for a full-time positionemphasized this importance in an interview, “I can have even more of an impact here. Ifyou’re good here then they [the students] get even more out of it because the ones comingthrough the...four-year school with the crazy entrance requirements, they’ll do well anyway.But here, you really have to have your teaching and learning craft down.” (D. Loranz,personal communication, March 20, 2018).
We spend nearly 100% of our time doing what a R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 36 lot of faculty at four-year institutions try to get out of: teaching.
Immersion into thisculture of teaching as a profession isn’t something that just happens. You must bedeliberate about it. It isn’t hard, but you do have to make the effort. Start small, byjoining a listserv or reading a blog.If you are a part-timer, look to the experienced ones. Seek them out at yourinstitution(s) and have the important discussions. Consult with the full-timers and ifgatherings of all the discipline or department faculty aren’t a regular thing, see if you canchange that. There are more opportunities to flex your teaching muscles than you mayrealize (Shropshire, 2017). For example, simply visiting each other’s classes and havingpost-observation discussions can lead to some amazing changes, some small and otherstransformational.Whether full- or part-time, there are resources for these types of exchanges already inplace at most schools. Seek them out and avail yourself of the opportunities. Seek out theastronomers at other schools in your area. Don’t be afraid to reach out; they might be justas keen to connect as you but couldn’t bring themselves to attempt first contact. Resourceslike CAE’s Yahoo group “Astrolrner” or your local chapter of AAPT may be able to helpconnect you with astronomy and physics educators in your geographic region if you havetrouble searching on your own.
Student evaluations of teaching.
I know, I know; I can practically hear youreyeballs rolling. As a rule, students’ evaluations of instructors and their teaching methodsare inherently flawed and there are mountains of research on this (Boring, Ottoboni, &Stark, 2016; Kelsky, 2018; Leef, 2014; Stark & Freishtat, 2014; and additional references atFrench, 2017). In addition to the “expected” biases, the issue of whether the students areeven qualified to judge “good” teaching is a common complaint among instructors. Candidthoughts like the following embody the frustrations of Astro 101 instructors everywherewho are just waiting for the other shoe to drop.Aren’t these surveys really just sampling students’ emotions, weighing their R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 37feelings about what they think they need against their internalized expectationsof what “learning” science is? Faculty end up frustrated and can waste a lot oftime and energy explaining to administrators (and even colleagues in otherdisciplines!) what astronomy really is and constantly justifying what they do inthe classroom. Jobs and careers could be on the line here so faculty can feelreal pressure to “dumb down” a course and relax expectations, sacrificingpedagogy and genuine learning just to get better student evaluations (I.Stojimirovic, personal communication, March 23, 2018).If this sounds harsh or unreasonable, consider the kinds of questions found on yourlast round of student surveys and the context – or lack thereof – in which they wereanswered. Not only is it an almost certainty that every class in every subject surveyed onthat campus got exactly the same questions, but the students’ interpretation of thosequestions is also highly problematic. Students are not trained in pedagogy, classroommanagement, or evidence-based teaching practices and, frankly, their study “skills” aremarkedly ineffective (Roediger, 2013), particularly since most of them equate memorizationand recall with learning. Most students have never heard of Bloom’s taxonomy (Heer,2012, and references therein); have you?
Let’s face it: negative emotions are much morepowerful motivators than positive ones, unfortunately. And if we’re being honest, mosthumans consistently resist making objective decisions, particularly in the face of directevidence showing their preconceived notions are either incorrect or at least strongly biasedby their feelings and emotions (Kolbert, 2017). Yet the power we give them, in addition tothe weight these surveys carry in our tenure reviews and evaluation cycles is, more oftenthan not, rather disproportionate.That doesn’t mean that these student surveys are totally useless (you could try datamining the written comments for any meaningful morsels). But it does mean you shouldprepare accordingly. There are things you can do to reduce bias and get meaningfulfeedback. For example, the Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID) (Anonymous, R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 38n.d.) is an evidence-based feedback mechanism conducted as focus groups that, at someinstitutions, can be utilized in place of – or at least in addition to – student surveys. Myown institution’s SGID implementation (MiraCosta College Professional Growth andEvaluation Committee, 2015) has been very effective in helping me and my colleaguescombat some of the frustration, biases, and futility of student surveys and I cannotrecommend the process highly enough. Invest the time and effort. Your job is basically100% teaching now so student evaluations and feedback will be a core component of yourtenure review or evaluation cycle each time.
Discipline nuts and bolts.
The word “astronomy” is conspicuously absent fromthe
AAPT Guidelines for Two-Year College Physics Programs (Waggoner et al., 2002), itbeing mentioned only five times in 35 pages. And though a few parts are now a bit dated,it’s still a recommended read for all astronomy, physics, and even physical scienceinstructors, particularly if you are involved in activities like program reviews andadvocating for resources, limits on class size, etc. If your department chair and/or dean arenot themselves physicists or astronomers it’s definitely worth asking them to read throughit as well. (The appendices include a brief history of two-year colleges in the United Statesand a summary of the various missions of such institutions and so are excellent for anyonelooking for quick, entry-level exposures to these topics.)
Additional perspectives.
Regarding a more general, discipline-independentperspective, there are numerous writings on what it’s like to be a faculty member at acommunity college. One of the classic references is that of Grubb et al. (1999) though basedon my own experiences and those of several colleagues over the past 10+ years, I wouldargue that the situation isn’t nearly as glum as presented there. To be fair, the perspectivethat budgets are growing ever tighter and administrators are still making illogical decisionsbased on dollars and “butts in seats” hasn’t changed all that much. But there has been anoticeable positive culture shift over the past decade or so and I suspect the proliferation ofDBER during this time period, particularly in the STEM fields, is largely responsible. R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 39Indeed, many now sing our praises while cheerleading for graduate students andadvisors everywhere to not discount job prospects at community colleges (Ball, 2010;Jenkins, 2014, 2018). So if you’re considering it, or just wondering whether it may be foryou, you may want to spend some time reading through the following articles and thosecited in “Applying + interviewing.”Scott (2015) says it like it is, diplomatically calling out the elitist attitudes thatcontribute to Ph.D.s ignoring the community colleges as potential employers. Though notfor everyone, he is right to argue that overlooking them may cause you to “miss out onsome of the most gratifying and rewarding work in higher education.” Although focused onthe humanities, Arteaga (2016) gives some striking examples of why “Ph.D.s (andAdvisors) Shouldn’t Overlook Community Colleges” while highlighting emerging partnerinitiatives between two- and four-year schools. Even if there isn’t a formal partnership likeany of these in place at your institution, the information in this essay could be helpful forinitiating mentorships. In an older piece, Olmstead (2001) describes how teaching at acommunity college became the best thing that ever happened to her. And finally, abroader, more up-to-date encapsulation of how community colleges have evolved over theyears and what the future might hold for us can be found in the excerpt by Gill (2016)posted on the Tomorrow’s Professor website.
Conclusions
No matter if you teach part-time or full-time, teaching in a community college is anadventure all its own. In teaching astronomy at a community college, your students will befolks of all ages (from high school to post-retirement) with all levels of education and fromall backgrounds with an impressive range of experiences under their belts. You’ll probablyhelp these students more than you expect to at first, and in ways you might not haveanticipated. The challenges and returns are both somewhat surprising and worth it. Theexperiences in a community college Astro 101 course can be some of the most delightfully R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 40bizarre and refreshing of your career and there are few places like it where you canexperience so many facets of humanity simultaneously.Whether you are completely new to teaching or transitioning from teaching at adifferent type of institution, come with an open mind and an appetite for professionaldevelopment. Recognize that your community college colleagues expect you to take yourcraft very seriously and want to help you succeed in it. Expect to spend nearly all of yourtime working on your courses, grading, and learning about pedagogy, curriculumdevelopment, and institutional service through multiple avenues such as serving oncommittees, visiting and engaging with other professors about each others’ teaching, andparticipating in professional development opportunities. If you are coming to a communitycollege via a more typical “academic” pathway (Ph.D. → postdoc → position at a 4-yearinstitution), understand that you will (even if a bit unwittingly at first) trade the “publishor perish” motto for an overwhelming sense of commitment to, and desire to do right by,your students. You will join a cohort of professionals who share this mentality, revere thisresponsibility, and are eager to help each other – and our students – navigate this journey.It is, after all, everyone’s universe... Acknowledgments
Special thanks go to a cohort of extraordinary professionals at MiraCosta College andcountless colleagues everywhere who have helped this community college instructor tobetter understand her role and develop her craft. Contributing to this work in particularare Philip Blanco, Conrad Hirano, Daniel Loranz, Irena Stojimirovic, the part-time facultyof the MiraCosta College Astronomy Program, and the generous participants in CAE’sSouthwest Regional Teaching Exchange held annually at MiraCosta College since 2010. R A F T TEACHING IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES 41ReferencesAAPT Board of Directors. (n.d.).
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Biographical Sketch
Rica Sirbaugh French is a Professor of Astronomy and Physics and directs theAstronomy Program at MiraCosta College. She spent years researching star clusters andplanetary nebulae before realizing she preferred other targets: non-science majors and theirinstructors. With collaborators at the Center for Astronomy Education (CAE) she is partof the nation’s largest college-level astronomy education research initiative and facilitatesprofessional development experiences for educators nationwide. She has served on theboard of the North County Higher Education Alliance, managed a professionaldevelopment program for the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, andmaintains resources for faculty at https://tiny.cc/rfrenchfacultyshare . A member ofthe American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), the Astronomical Society of thePacific (ASP), and the International Astronomical Union (IAU), she is also an Agent andCareer Advisor with the American Astronomical Society (AAS) having served on theirAstronomy Education Board, as a panelist for the Committee on Employment, and acolumnist for the education newsletter
Spark .Originally from Tennessee, Rica and her husband still take their motorcycles to thetrack, love pro football, and watch too much television. She also enjoys most sports,pretends she is athletic, plays several musical instruments mediocrely, and has recentlyrediscovered reading for pleasure(!)pleasure(!)