John S. Levin

The Community College as a Baccalaureate-Granting Institution

The introduction of baccalaureate degree programming and credentialing expands the mission and may lead to the alteration of the institutional identity of the community college. This study examines baccalaureate-degree granting community colleges through the lenses of both globalization theory and institutional theory, in a multisite, two-nation investigation. In addressing potential outcomes of baccalaureate-degree-granting status for community colleges, this study questions whether the institution can maintain its traditional role.

Public policy, community colleges, and the path to globalization

This study addresses the nature of governmentpolicy toward community colleges in the 1990sand the responses of institutions to thesepolicies. This is an examination of Canadianand U.S. community colleges in two Canadianprovinces and three U.S. states as well asanalysis of government policy in two countries,at the federal, state and provincial levels.Government policies are viewed as directingcommunity colleges toward economic goals,emphasizing workforce training and stateeconomic competitiveness as outcomes,compelling colleges to improve efficiencies,increase productivity, and to becomeaccountable to government and responsive tobusiness and industry. Government responses toeconomic concerns at the provincial and statelevels resulted in economic developmentpolicies applicable to community colleges. Institutional responses among communitycolleges, evident in behaviors such asmarketization and productivity and efficiency,altered college missions, resulting in thepursuit of economic ends by theseinstitutions.

Faculty Work: Tensions between Educational and Economic Values

Faculty are the critical labor element in the pursuit of the economic goals of the community colleges, yet they are not central to institutional decision-making. Their views and values are not consistent with the goals and actions of their colleges. Instead, these goals and actions are aligned with business and industry, directed by government and college administrators. Although there is a misalignment of faculty values and institutional actions, faculty do not comprise an oppositional culture within their colleges. This multisite qualitative study addresses the presence of tensions between educational values of faculty and the economic values of faculty work.

The Hybrid and Dualistic Identity of Full-Time Non-Tenure-Track Faculty

Colleges and universities rely on full-time non-tenure-track (FTNT) faculty to achieve their teaching, research, and service missions. These faculty are deemed both symptomatic of and partly responsible for academe’s shortcomings. The ascriptions, however, are made with little attention to the faculty themselves or to their consequences for FTNT faculty. Through analysis of interview data of university faculty, the authors present and explain FTNT faculty self-representations of professional and occupational identity. Assumptions drawn from institutional and professional theory contextualize the research, and narrative analysis infuses the application of the framework of cultural identity theory. These FTNT faculty are found to possess hybrid and dualistic identities. Their work and roles are a hybrid and contain some elements of a profession and some of a “job.” Their identity is dualistic because as teachers, they express satisfaction, whereas as members of the professoriate, they articulate restricted self-determination and self-esteem. This troubled and indistinct view of self-as-professional is problematic both for FTNT faculty as they go about their daily work and for their institutions, which are in no small part responsible for the uncertain conditions and identities of FTNT faculty.

The Recipe for Promising Practices in Community Colleges

This study identifies and examines the key practices of California community college programs that have demonstrated success in improving (or that have shown significant potential to improve) the achievement of underrepresented groups whose educational attainment often lags behind the attainment of relatively well-off White students. Unlike many examinations that focus only on the transfer mission, this study includes other vital areas of the community college, including workforce preparation and developmental education. Study findings reveal that the practices of these programs had four common characteristics: cohesion—the ability of program personnel to operate as a unit in which behaviors and actions mesh or are rationally consistent; cooperation —the degree to which program personnel work together toward common goals and form good working relationships with each other and with students; connection—the ability of program personnel to sustain interdependent relationships with internal and external entities, such as other departments within the college and industry representatives; and consistency—the presence of a distinctive and stable pattern of program behaviors that promote program goals. In addition, study results show the central and critical role played by the faculty in assuring program success.

Organizational paradigm shift and the university colleges of British Columbia

This study focuses on the universitycolleges of the Canadian province of BritishColumbia, connecting the behaviors of managersand faculty to government policy andlegislation and determining that the responsesof managers and faculty can be construed inpart as responses to economic globalization. As such, this investigation observes thatglobal forces of change framed and affected theevolution of five community colleges in BritishColumbia to university colleges. As well,this study addresses cultural change withinBritish Columbias university colleges,particularly to note if the baccalaureatedegree status of these institutions has broughtabout an alteration to the organizationalparadigm.

SHARED GOVERNANCE IN THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

ABSTRACT This study examined shared governance in public, unionized community colleges and creates a national inventory of areas in which faculty participate in governance according to the language of collective-bargaining agreements. The findings suggest that community college faculty are engaged in shared governance in both the traditional academic areas such as faculty evaluation, curriculum, sabbatical, and tenure recommendations, and in the nontraditional areas such as budget and retrenchment decisions. Document analysis of 238 contracts representing 301 community colleges in 22 states was used to determine faculty participation in institutional governance. The results are intended to increase the understanding of shared governance in the community college.

GLOBAL CULTURE AND THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

This investigation addresses the alteration of the community college from a local institution to one that is more entrepreneurial and corporate as well as more connected to the global community. This multi-case study of seven community colleges in two countries - The United States and Canada - focuses on three cultural aspects of globalization as they pertain to community colleges: (1) the dominant ideology associated with globalization, (2) the involvement and interactions of people in and with other cultures, and (3) the conceptualization of the world as a single place. The first two of these cultural aspects are identified as organizational behaviors within community colleges. The third aspect is viewed as cultural change potentially promulgated by the use of electronic technology.

The Divided Self: The Double Consciousness of Faculty of Color in Community Colleges

Through qualitative field methods research addressing faculty of color in four California community colleges, this investigation examines and explains faculty experiences and professional sense making. By combining critical race theory with social identity theory, our perspective underlines the potential social and ethnic identity conflicts inherent in the daily lives of faculty of color. The professional and social identities of faculty of color are not necessarily compatible, leading to a condition of “double consciousness,” or what we refer to as “the divided self.”

Embedded Neoliberalism within Faculty Behaviors.

Although there are claims that neoliberalism has not only commandeered the agenda and actions of universities and colleges but also become identified with the work of academic professionals, there is little empirical evidence to show that neoliberalism has infiltrated the work of faculty. This qualitative field work investigation of three California higher educational institutional types determines that while faculty are not necessarily apologists for or proselytizers of neoliberalism, neoliberal principles are tied to faculty behaviors in subtle and covert ways.