Developing and Nurturing the Culture of Community Colleges through Administrative Leadership
Uploaded by john03 on Oct 26, 2011
This paper discusses some of the issues facing community colleges as they attempt to create nurturing atmospheres for students. (14 pages; 3 sources; APA citation style.
I Introduction
Community colleges in the United States are vital components of our overall educational system, yet they have often been perceived as “inferior” institutions—places where less-qualified teachers work, teaching less-qualified students who are not really equipped to handle life at a “real” university.
Anyone who has worked like a slave to get through a community college course knows that this perception is extremely inaccurate, but there is no doubt that the “culture” of a community college is very different from that of a four-year university.
This paper will discuss community college culture, and the way in which community college administrators can influence it.
II Culture Shock
Perhaps the best place to start this investigation is with a brief look at the differences between community colleges and four-year universities, because they are profound. Although teaching lower-division courses is much the same everywhere, teaching them in the context of a community college comes as a shock to new instructors. In a four-year university, students in education courses have as their role models the graduate faculty “whose primary mission has been to do research, and to prepare their students to do the same.” (Fulton, 2003, p. 56).
At a community college, however, the role of the faculty is substantially different: “But the community college culture is all about teaching and student outcomes and mission and collaboration. Relationships with faculty colleagues, staff, administrators, and students are not the same as in graduate schools.” (Fulton, 2003, p. 56). I don’t believe it’s fair to characterize community college instructors as a sort of substitute parent, but they are generally much more accessible than the tenured faculty members at a university. Their interaction with the students is direct and much less formal than in other settings. (This, I suppose, begs the question as to whether or not such informality is desirable, but that is beyond our scope here.)
Another source suggests that there are few (or no) programs that adequately prepare either administrators or instructors to function well at the community college level. The research cited is a research study conducted in 2001, in which 128 community college instructors rated “skills and areas of expertise in effectively fulfilling community college instructional leadership roles.” (Brown, 2002, PG). Although the...