E. Paulette Isaac

Voices of Urban and Rural Community College Minority Faculty: Satisfaction and Opinions

Due to limited knowledge about faculty at community colleges, not much attention has been given to their job satisfaction and opinions. In particular, there is a gap in the literature relative to community college minority facultys satisfaction in rural and urban areas. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore minority facultys satisfaction and opinions regarding faculty issues such as benefits, job satisfaction overall, and faculty workload. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data along with analysis of variance to determine if there are significant mean differences among the various geographical settings. The National Study of Postsecondary Faculty 1999 database was utilized for this study. The findings of this research revealed more similarities than differences between urban and rural minority community college faculty about their satisfaction and opinions.

Book Review: Educating Citizens: Preparing America’s Undergraduates for Lives of Moral and Civic Responsibility

row the focus of the book, the authors’ decision to minimize issues of power nevertheless effectively allows teachers and administrators to continue the perpetuation of current systems of power and privilege within the learning contexts. The intended audience for this book includes new faculty and those who have subject matter expertise but scant understanding of educational theories. Thus, inattention to a broader set of learning theories fails to demonstrate ways in which faculty can change their current teaching methodology. Bates and Poole are aware of the need to expose teachers to other issues and theories related to technology and teaching. “It is better to start to use technology for teaching than to wait until everything that is known about how to teach well with technology has been learned” (p. 22). Even though these are very good intentions, the authors miss important opportunities to help teachers examine their beliefs and the political implications of those decisions. In this way, the authors’sense of urgency enable teachers to continue with current practices rather than use the discussion to help them change to embrace different pedagogical strategies that better focus on the learning needs of the growing, diverse student population. I would, therefore, recommend this book to instructors, instructional designers, administrators, and students within educational settings. The book provides a much-needed connection between learning and technology. Nevertheless, I strongly recommend that educators use supplemental materials, which focus on additional social and critical theories to address the needs of our rapidly growing diverse student population.