Thesis--University of Florida. / Description based on print version record. Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-107).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. / Supervisor: John E. Roueche. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-98). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2006. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 156-159). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2007. / Title from title screen (site viewed July 12, 2007). PDF text: xv, 296 p. : ill. UMI publication number: AAT 3252828. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Oregon State University, 2001. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 253-263). Also available online.

The sureness of the modern educational project has been undermined by shifting epistemological and material conditions. The shift from modernity to postmodernity develops its own incongruencies and anomalies as well as highlighting those extant during modernity. Institutions like British Columbia's community colleges cling to the artifacts of modernity, leaving postmodern environments and discourse unacknowledged. This study applies rhetorical strategies, devices and the methodologies of literature and poststructural social studies, including the use of deliberate ambiguity and unstable signification, to write in opposition to the plain prose privileged by the technical instrumentality of mainstream adult education discourse in the North American academy. This de-centring of traditional academic discourse reframes and challenges prevailing constructions of Canada, education in Canada and community colleges in British Columbia. Exhuming and exposing some of the operational myths of modernity as they found expression in Canada through academic discourse and quotidian practice while offering an alternate story is the means by which my narrative proceeds. This re-storying, in turn, is used as a strategy to challenge modern mainstream educational and educational administrative practice, while attempting to normalize ways of seeing community colleges in British Columbia based outside of modernist orthodoxies. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

Community colleges offer a changing series of evolving academic programs and services. The question is: Can these offerings be evaluated in a way that increases their effectiveness? This dissertation suggests an evaluation approach intended to enhance opportunities for student learning on community college campuses. To respond to this question it is necessary to understand the factors in the community college environment that affect program evaluation, the reasons why educational evaluation has had a limited impact on improving educational programs and alternate evaluation approaches. Therefore, this dissertation includes a review of the literature on community college mission statements, the diverse ways in which they have been interpreted and operationalized and the resultant, institutionally unique student populations and organizational goals. A literature review which focuses on understanding the progress and limitations of each era of educational evaluation is also included. Alternate evaluation approaches, such as Egon Guba and Yvonna Lincoln's Fourth Generation Evaluation, Michael Quinn Patton's Utilization-Focused Evaluation and the work of Vincent Tinto, are also explored. An evaluation approach for community colleges was then designed. This approach is grounded in the assumptions of Guba and Lincoln's Fourth Generation Evaluation and draws upon the work of Patton, Tinto and others. The central component of this dissertation is the implementation of this evaluation approach at Middlesex Community College and an assessment of its usefulness. The successful implementation of this view of evaluation demonstrated that it has the potential to contribute to the development of locally effective programs and services. The major strengths of the design include its flexibility, focus on open communication, recognition of multiple sets of valid educational values and goals, and its emphasis on understanding the educational process for a specific group of students. Most significantly, the implementation experience revealed that the power of this evaluation approach as a tool to improve educational programs and services lies in its emphasis on the interactive, fluid process of conducting a fourth generation evaluation.

Politics plays an inevitable and integral role in the development of policy concerning higher education at the state level. Governors are fundamental to the political process of statewide higher education policymaking. This study examines the role which two governors played in the early development of community colleges in Massachusetts between 1957 and 1962. The purpose of this study is essentially two-fold. First, it seeks to tell a political story about two governors of different personalities, parties, and policy priorities. Focusing on the common historical theme of community college development, this story presents how the contexts of their times influenced the strategies and decisions of Foster Furcolo (1957-1960) and John Volpe (1961-1962) and how, in turn, these two men shaped the period in which they lived. The second purpose of this study is to analyze specifically how Furcolo and Volpe influenced the critical early years of community college development in Massachusetts. Furcolo held a passionate policy commitment to community colleges and his passion is largely responsible for their gestation and birth. Volpe was less personally committed, yet his administration witnessed a marked increase in funding and pace of campus planning. Analysis of this irony holds a number of significant lessons concerning gubernatorial responsibilities for policy formulation, legislative leadership, and public opinion leadership. This dissertation utilizes a case study research modus operandi. It includes a literature review which focuses on works related to politics and policy-making in higher education, as well as the American governorship and the range of gubernatorial power. The results of this study offer insights into how governors use the powers of their office to shape the policies of their eras and beyond. It also provides a view of how two different governors engaged the specific policy issue of community college development within the context of other demands and policy concerns of their administrations. Finally, it offers tightly defined lessons for the relationship between governors and higher education in contemporary times.

The educational system in India is ready for a revamp and community colleges have been identified by policy makers as a vehicle for that change. Although they have existed since the 1990’s, the urgent focus of the Indian government in providing skills to its burgeoning youth population has resulted in a number of community colleges being granted permission to begin functioning as part of existing universities, colleges and polytechnics. The government has special interest in U.S. community college models for its features like open access and industrial partnerships. However, it is not clear whether implementers faced with running the new community colleges have a clear understanding of the borrowed model or whether they are adequately supported. The literature review indicated that global movements of policy borrowing can be manifested in the adoption of foreign educational models. The literature on policy borrowing offered some popular models with which to interpret these national processes (Phillips & Ochs, 2004; Steiner-Khamsi, 2014). However, they do not seem to account for decision making processes at the strategic actors’ or stakeholder’s level. For now, what is apparent is the stance of the implementer after the decision has been made. Problems with this conception would be that decision - making appears to be rigid, linear, one- time processes. It also ignores the aspect of learning that implementers may find inherent in policy adaptation to suit the contexts. It appears that the current theoretical frameworks overlook the black box of decision making which influence an implementer to manifest resistance, non-decision or support. They suggest that internalization or indigenization are distinct processes removed from implementation (Phillips and Ochs, 2004; Steiner- Khamsi, 2014). Also, implementers of the policy may experience recontextualizing simultaneously with decisions on the suitability of a feature in the borrowed model. The literature also seems to overlook nuances in decision making that may result in changing stances. Experts have suggested that globalization trends can help understand how context affects development of the global educational policies (Robertson, 2012; Verger et al 2012). This study adds to the literature on community college development in India with a specific focus on how individual implementers approached translating a foreign educational model, and broadly adds to the literature on policy borrowing in education. The variations in the thought processes of implementers from India looking at community college models in the U.S. were studied using phenomenographical methods. The study involved 13 participants from all over India yielded five categories of description namely; ‘Conceptualizing community colleges’, ‘Assimilation of the new ideas afforded by the learning opportunity in the U.S’, ‘Discerning similarity or difference in the home country and target country’, ‘Identifying obstacles or constraints in implementation’ and ‘Finding solutions for implementation of selected ideas’. These findings indicate that 1. Community colleges are still a very fluid notion 2. New ideas are selectively filtered 3. Context plays a great role in determining what is perceived as constraints of implementation and 4. perhaps the most important finding, that stances assumed by participants can change when faced with new insights or through collaboration with peers. Decision (or non-decision) does not appear to be constant. This finding is significant because it would prevent non - decision or rejection of policy that is not properly understood. The study also revealed immense differences in context where the community college scheme is being implemented in India. As such this study provides insights for policy makers to avoid making one size fits all guidelines for implementation. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2016. / November 22, 2016. / Comparative Education, Globalization, International development, Policy Borrowing / Includes bibliographical references. / Jeffrey Ayala Milligan, Professor Directing Dissertation; Rebecca Miles, University Representative; Robert Schwartz, Committee Member; Helen Boyle, Committee Member.