Download or read book Community Colleges as Cultural Texts written by Kathleen M. Shaw and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1999-09-02 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Community colleges are positioned to play a critical role in the process of upward mobility in American society. Yet despite the "open door" accessibility of these institutions, the question remains as to whether or not community colleges enhance the social mobility of working class and minority students. The contradictory and often paradoxical nature of research on community colleges suggests that making generalizations about the sector as a whole is perhaps misguided. This book takes an important step toward developing a more nuanced understanding of the rich and varied cultures inherent in community colleges. The contributors approach this task by examining community colleges as "cultural texts," using critical qualitative frameworks to address the question of whether, and how, community colleges confront the challenges of diversity and provide real opportunities for upward mobility. [Contributors include Marilyn Amey, Eusebio Diaz, Stanford T. Goto, Berta Vigil Laden, Dennis McGrath, Laura I. Rendón, Robert A. Rhoads, Kathleen M. Shaw, Armando Trujillo, James R. Valadez, and Bill Van Buskirk.]
Download or read book Community Colleges as Cultural Texts written by Kathleen M. Shaw and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1999-09-02 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Questions whether, and how, community colleges confront the challenges of diversity and provide real opportunities for upward mobility.
Download or read book Competing on Culture written by Randall VanWagoner and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-06-19 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Community colleges are under intense pressure to change in response to shifts in an increasingly complex environment. Stakeholders are placing simultaneously contradictory demands on colleges for more and better service, increased accountability, and more efficient use of resources in order to get the most from colleges in tough economic times. These demands have contributed to cultural fragmentation in community colleges as staff are pulled in competing directions by events beyond their control. The upshot is a circumstance in which leaders are finding that culture is perhaps the most powerful element affecting organizational performance and change. The old saw “culture eats strategy for breakfast’ epitomizes the importance of culture as a means for enhancing the long-term viability of an organization. This book provides fresh analysis of organizational culture in the community college context with a critical examination of the relationship between organizational culture and change. Readers will benefit from frank advice with insights to drive change by transforming and leveraging culture to shape the future of community colleges.
Download or read book Understanding Community Colleges written by John S. Levin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Understanding Community Colleges provides a comprehensive review of the community college landscape--management and governance, finance, student demographics and development, teaching and learning, policy, faculty, and workforce development--and bridges the gap between research and practice. This contributed volume brings together highly respected scholars in the field who rely upon substantial theoretical perspectives--critical theory, social theory, institutional theory, and organizational theory--for a rich and expansive analysis of community colleges. The latest text to publish in the Core Concepts in Higher Education series, this exciting new text fills a gap in the higher education literature available for students enrolled in Higher Education and Community College graduate programs. This text provides students with: A review of salient research related to the community college field. Critical theoretical perspectives underlying current policies. An understanding of how theory links to practice, including focused end-of-chapter discussion questions. A fresh examination of emerging issues and insight into contemporary community college practices and policy.
Download or read book The Culture of a Community College written by Howard B. London and published by Greenwood. This book was released on 1978 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book 13 Ideas That Are Transforming the Community College World written by Terry U. O'Banion and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-03-15 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America’s community colleges are experiencing the most creative and substantive period of transformation in their 118-year history. There has never been so much research, so much support from foundations, and so much commitment from national leaders to reimagine community colleges for today and for the future. 13 Ideas that Are Transforming the Community College World, edited by Terry U. O’Banion, is the seminal work that captures the major ideas faced by community college leaders in this period of transformation. The book includes 23 authors representing 12 national organizations, perhaps the most significant and substantive list of individuals ever to participate in an edited book on the community college. Each author is a nationally-recognized authority on his or her chapter, and all have played major roles as leaders of national organizations.
Download or read book Redesigning America s Community Colleges written by Thomas R. Bailey and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2015-04-09 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the United States, 1,200 community colleges enroll over ten million students each year—nearly half of the nation’s undergraduates. Yet fewer than 40 percent of entrants complete an undergraduate degree within six years. This fact has put pressure on community colleges to improve academic outcomes for their students. Redesigning America’s Community Colleges is a concise, evidence-based guide for educational leaders whose institutions typically receive short shrift in academic and policy discussions. It makes a compelling case that two-year colleges can substantially increase their rates of student success, if they are willing to rethink the ways in which they organize programs of study, support services, and instruction. Community colleges were originally designed to expand college enrollments at low cost, not to maximize completion of high-quality programs of study. The result was a cafeteria-style model in which students pick courses from a bewildering array of choices, with little guidance. The authors urge administrators and faculty to reject this traditional model in favor of “guided pathways”—clearer, more educationally coherent programs of study that simplify students’ choices without limiting their options and that enable them to complete credentials and advance to further education and the labor market more quickly and at less cost. Distilling a wealth of data amassed from the Community College Research Center (Teachers College, Columbia University), Redesigning America’s Community Colleges offers a fundamental redesign of the way two-year colleges operate, stressing the integration of services and instruction into more clearly structured programs of study that support every student’s goals.
Download or read book Community College Faculty written by J. Levin and published by Springer. This book was released on 2006-01-31 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John S. Levin, Susan T. Kater, and Richard L. Wagoner collectively argue that as community colleges organize themselves to respond to economic needs and employer demands, and as they rely more heavily upon workplace efficiencies such as part-time labor, they turn themselves into businesses or corporations and threaten their social and educational mission.
Download or read book Nontraditional Students and Community Colleges written by J. Levin and published by Springer. This book was released on 2007-09-03 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on non-traditional students in higher education institutions, this new book from renowned scholar John Levin examines the extent to which community college students receive justice both within their institution and as an outcome of their education.
Download or read book Understanding Equity in Community College Practice written by Erin L. Castro and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-12-01 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do equity-oriented practices look like in different community college contexts? Given the increasing role of the community college in realizing equitable outcomes for students, examples of what practitioners are doing to move forward an equity agenda are urgently needed. The diverse perspectives and issues in these chapters explicitly advance an equity agenda and offer: Conceptual and empirical rationales to support equity-oriented practices, Examples of programming and practice that support the lives and livelihoods of underserved student populations, and Examples of policy, programming, and thinking that emphasize the role of the community college in expanding educational opportunity for underserved students. Driven by a change in thinking and imagination, these examples show how practitioners can—and should—tailor programming in light of larger patterns of inequality. This is the 172nd volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Essential to the professional libraries of presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today's open-door institutions, New Directions for Community Colleges provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinctive and expanding educational mission.
Download or read book Gateway to Opportunity written by J. M. Beach and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-07-03 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can the U.S. keep its dominant economic position in the world economy with only 30% of its population holding bachelor’s degrees? If the majority of U.S. citizens lack a higher education, can the U.S. live up to its democratic principles and preserve its political institutions? These questions raise the critical issue of access to higher education, central to which are America’s open-access, low-cost community colleges that enroll around half of all first-time freshmen in the U.S. Can these institutions bridge the gap, and how might they do so? The answer is complicated by multiple missions—gateways to 4-year colleges, providers of occupational education, community services, and workforce development, as well as of basic skills instruction and remediation.To enable today’s administrators and policy makers to understand and contextualize the complexity of the present, this history describes and analyzes the ideological, social, and political motives that led to the creation of community colleges, and that have shaped their subsequent development. In doing so, it fills a large void in our knowledge of these institutions.The “junior college,” later renamed the “community college” in the 1960s and 1970s, was originally designed to limit access to higher education in the name of social efficiency. Subsequently leaders and communities tried to refashion this institution into a tool for increased social mobility, community organization, and regional economic development. Thus, community colleges were born of contradictions, and continue to be an enigma. This history examines the institutionalization process of the community college in the United States, casting light on how this educational institution was formed, for what purposes, and how has it evolved. It uncovers the historically conditioned rules, procedures, rituals, and ideas that ordered and defined the particular educational structure of these colleges; and focuses on the individuals, organizations, ideas, and the larger political economy that contributed to defining the community college’s educational missions, and have enabled or constrained this institution from enacting those missions. He also sets the history in the context of the contemporary debates about access and effectiveness, and traces how these colleges have responded to calls for accountability from the 1970s to the present.Community colleges hold immense promise if they can overcome their historical legacy and be re-institutionalized with unified missions, clear goals of educational success, and adequate financial resources. This book presents the history in all its complexity so that policy makers and practitioners might better understand the constraints of the past in an effort to realize the possibilities of the future.
Download or read book Community Colleges and Their Students written by J. Levin and published by Springer. This book was released on 2009-11-23 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book employs a socio-cultural approach to study the organizational dynamics and experiences of self-formation that shape community college life. The authors use case studies to analyze both the symbolic dimension and practices that enable the production of educational experiences in seven community colleges across the U.S. Levin and Montero-Hernandez explain the construction of organizational identity and student development as a result of the connection between institutional forces and individual agency. This work emphasizes the forms and conditions of interaction among college personnel, students, and external groups that were enacted to respond to the demands and opportunities in both participants local and larger contexts. The authors acknowledge both the collective and individual efforts of community college personnel to create caring community colleges that support nontraditional students.
Download or read book Community Colleges written by David Levinson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2005-03-25 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The only overview of research on the uniquely American community college system, which is increasingly becoming the site of entry for students seeking a higher education. This new volume shows why America's community colleges increasingly find themselves at the epicenter of social conflict, surrounded by unresolved questions such as: In a country based on the notion of equal opportunity, shouldn't all high school graduates have access to higher education? Are access and excellence really compatible? What is the real work of community colleges? Is it to provide transfer programs for students going on to baccalaureate colleges or training workers for careers in business and industry? In this comprehensive guide, readers will find not only a solid grounding in the latest research on these difficult questions but also a thoughtful analysis of the social forces that gave rise to American community colleges and still shape them today.
Download or read book The Academic Crisis of the Community College written by Dennis McGrath and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1991-01-01 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "What I like most about this book is that the authors do not see community colleges as being separate from other parts of post-secondary education. The usual view of two-year colleges is reductionist -- perceiving them exclusively in functional ways -- vocational, collegiate, remedial, etc. McGrath and Spear see community colleges as part of the full historical unfolding of educational institutions in the United States and, thus, critique them as academic institutions. This is an important work -- more intellectually challenging and wide ranging than virtually all books on the subject." -- L. Steven Zwerling New York University School of Continuing Education "This is a book which will stand out. It takes a genuinely fresh, integrated approach to a difficult and vexing problem. The authors develop a synoptic picture of education in the community college by tracing the ways in which that institution has been shaped. The authors present a convincing framework within which they can discuss the past failures of efforts at reform and put forward their own proposals." -- William M. Sullivan, LaSalle University; co-author Habits of the Heart "The concept of 'remedialization' of the community college is an important contribution to the understanding of community colleges. This work is appealing because it draws from and is influenced by a diversity of works in philosophy, education theory, organization theory, and literary analysis. I especially appreciate the fact that this book does not proselytize the community college credo nor politicize its function." -- Estela M. Bensimon, The Pennsylvania State University
Download or read book The American Community College written by Arthur M. Cohen and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-10-30 with total page 595 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praise for The American Community College "Since 1982, The American Community College by Cohen and Brawer has been the authoritative book on community colleges. Anyone who wants to understand these complex and dynamic institutions--how they are evolving, the contributions they make, the challenges they face, the students they serve, and the faculty and leaders who deliver the services and the curricula--will find The American Community College both essential reading and an important reference book." --George R. Boggs, president and CEO, American Association of Community Colleges "I have been a community college president for over forty-one years and a graduate professor for three decades. This book has been an inspiration to generations of students, faculty members, and administrators. It has become the classic of the field because it has great 'take-home' value to us all." --Joseph N. Hankin, president, Westchester Community College "In this latest edition of The American Community College, the authors continue to manifest their unique, highly knowledgeable perspective about the community college. This book is must-reading for all who desire to understand one of the most important educational institutions in the twenty-first century." --Barbara K. Townsend, professor and director, Center for Community College Research, College of Education, University of Missouri-Columbia "Cohen and Brawer's classic work is the touchstone for a comprehensive overview of the American community college. This is a seminal book for graduate students as well as seasoned professionals for understanding this uniquely American institution." --Charles R. Dassance, president, Central Florida Community College
Download or read book Community Colleges and First Generation Students written by Jan Osborn and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-04-08 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Community Colleges and First-Generation Students examines a community college writing classroom through ten students from diverse linguistic, ethnic, socio-economic, and national backgrounds. Students are introduced to a version of academic discourse that challenges their identities and visions of the future.
Download or read book Minding the Dream written by Gail O. Mellow and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2014-11-07 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Minding the Dream provides challenging, reflective, and practitioner-based information about community colleges that is data-based, clear and accessible for the general reader as well as the scholar. New employees, current leaders, graduate students, legislators, and boards of trustees need a grounded sense of the magnitude of the community college sector. Minding the Dream evokes the laudatory goals of the early pioneers of the community college movement, while accurately framing key programs and political conundrums challenging community colleges. Minding the Dream celebrates community colleges’ successes and is scrupulously honest about their failings. Community college leaders need honest information about what’s working and need to be challenged about the things that are not. State Legislatures and Congress need updated facts to assist them in making wise funding decisions regarding community colleges. Community college advocates need updated information to assist them in their advocacy work, and Higher Education programs need an updated book about community colleges to use as a basic text. These are the people who can benefit from reading Minding the Dream.
