Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 281-301). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2008. / Title from title screen (site viewed Sept. 18, 2008). PDF text: viii, 241 p. ; 2 Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3303506. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2006. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-88). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2006. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-158). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1994. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 312-327). Also available via the Internet.

The aim of this small-scale study was to examine the phenomenon of "stuckness" (Kanter, 1979) in ways that would inform and direct efforts to maintain and reinforce community college faculty effectiveness. Focus was on full-time faculty who had been teaching ten or more years in the same community college. The sample (N = 27) was drawn from five member institutions of the Massachusetts Regional Community College System. Using a survey instrument, an interview schedule, and a validated measure of job satisfaction (Wood, 1973), the investigator tested two basic hypotheses: (1) that the psycho-social conditions of stuckness and its extreme opposite, generativity, are present among senior community college faculty; and (2) that stuck and generative faculty, respectively, have in common distinct clusters of characteristics. The data revealed six variables of particular significance in characterizing the psycho-social state of an instructor--overall job satisfaction, attitude toward students, time spent on campus each week, satisfaction derived from teaching, current feeling about having entered teaching, and having (or not having) a student-oriented five-year plan. An unanticipated outcome was the identification of a third distinct category, "insulated," related to the developmental stage of "levelling off" (Hall and Nougaim, 1968). Insulated faculty report overall job satisfaction but do not manifest other characteristics associated with the generative cluster. Conclusions instructive to institutional efforts to maintain, renew, and reinforce faculty effectiveness were: (1) Generativity would appear to be, at least to a degree, impervious to the absence of hygiene factors. (2) Similarly, stuckness is an internalized condition of minor frequency that appears unrelated to external factors. (3) Because insulated faculty comprise the largest group and appear to be influenced more than other groups by hygiene factors, they represent the most promising target group for institutional intervention. (4) Formal programs of staff development have little impact on senior faculty, continuing involvement in professional development being an effect of generativity, not a cause. The researcher recommends replication of the study using a sample large enough to permit testing for statistical significance, as well as a similar study of less senior faculty. He suggests that linguistic analysis may also be used for identifying psycho-social states of faculty.

Three ninety-minute in-depth phenomenological interviews were held with each of eighteen returning women students in nine community colleges in four states. The central problem of the study was to identify the constitutive factors in the experience of these returning women students, to explore their educational experience as they viewed it, and to discover what it meant to them. Through a qualitative analysis of the interview material, the study attempts to understand, describe, and explain, from a feminist perspective, the educational experience of women from twenty-five to seventy years of age who have returned to traditional schooling after an absence of four to fifty years and who have chosen a community college as their first point of re-entry. The study examines those factors which appear to lead to growth and change for individual women and to a sense of equity and power in their lives. Forces that limit growth are also identified. Significant themes in the experience of the participants are such issues as: how older women students are advised and taught in the community college; what it is like to study, keep a job, and care for children simultaneously; and how race, class, age, and gender intersect in the two-year educational setting. Implications are drawn and recommendations for action on the part of community college administrators, faculty, staff, and students are made.

The purpose of this study was to identify salient factors influencing the effectiveness of middle managers in higher education and to develop recommendations that will reinforce conditions contributing to effectiveness and alter conditions found to be inhibiting effectiveness. Chairpersons of career divisions in the Massachusetts Community College System were studied. The case-study approach was utilized, with the interview as the primary method for data collection. The maximum variation sampling strategy with a purposeful sample was used. The primary unit of analysis was the individual chairperson and the primary data source was a sample of 10 chairpersons of career divisions at seven of the System's 15 colleges. The sample comprised 27 percent of the chairpersons of career divisions. Three academic deans and three faculty members of career divisions were also interviewed. The data sources were triangulated. A case record was developed and the data were analyzed. The data indicated that there was much agreement among all of the data sources as to the factors which influenced the effectiveness of chairpersons of career divisions. The data revealed that the three basic categories of factors which influenced the effectiveness of division chairpersons were: leadership skills, organizational conditions, and the attitudes/expectations/values of the division chairpersons. Several implications were inferred from the findings and several recommedations were made. The recommendations were that: (1) a common job description needed to be developed for all division chairpersons; (2) deans needed to provide annual performance counseling for division chairpersons; (3) staff development opportunities needed to encourage human resource development; (4) the organizational character of community colleges needed to encourage human resource development; (5) division chairpersons needed to be given a substantive role in collective-bargaining negotiations; (6) state government needed to provide additional human and material resources to allow the division chairpersons to function more effectively.

For nearly a century, community colleges have worked to accommodate students both in and out of the classroom. They do this for a number of reasons, in a number of ways, and to many this is one of the main features that distinguish these institutions that pride themselves on being student-centered from their counterparts, the state universities. Another distinguishing feature is that community colleges have exceptionally high rates of student satisfaction. While students who are accommodated may feel satisfied while enrolled in community colleges, this study revealed how they felt once they transferred to four-year state universities. Research shows that most students experience “transfer shock,” which includes among other things an immediate decline in the GPA. Do these transfer students feel the community college experience and education helped prepare them in their pursuit of a baccaluarate degree, or do they find the transition more difficult than expected? This study looks at the community college, its history, and its history of student accommodation. Featured are phenomonologic interviews with eight subjects—students who transferred from community colleges and are presently enrolled in state universities. Interviews revealed that they were accommodated at their respected community colleges, they suffered “transfer shock,” they were not prepared for university culture and academics, but that they found community college accommodation necessary, as it prepared them for college, if not the university itself. Also included is a review of a University of Massachusetts (Amherst) “Community College Transfer Student” survey which supplements the research.

The purpose of this case study has been to describe and evaluate the Educational Transitions Program (ETP) at Greenfield Community College (GCC). The ETP was established in 1995 to provide an opportunity for academically able high school students at-risk of dropping out to attend GCC full-time while concurrently enrolled in high school. Community college programs for at-risk high school students are relatively new and uncommon. A body of literature has begun to develop, particularly around dual enrollment programs and middle college high schools, two types of programs that share common elements with the ETP. Data for the study were collected using a combination of documents analysis and interviews with ETP students, and staff from GCC and participating high schools. Participants' experiences and perceptions provided a foundation for describing the program and outlining its benefits and challenges. Benefits to ETP students included earning college credit concurrently with a high school diploma, developing improved self-images, and experiencing renewed interest in education and the future. GCC and participating high schools fulfilled an element of their educational missions by providing potential dropouts with an opportunity to remain in school by enrolling in the ETP. Institutions' enrollment and finances benefited from the ETP since both high schools and college received funding for ETP students and could include these students in enrollment statistics. Challenges and problems the ETP faced included the limited number of local high schools participating in the program and the low level of success for ETP students from at least one high school that did participate. Factors contributing to these challenges included the existence and enrollment of an appropriate cohort for the ETP, the varying levels of commitment high schools made to the program, and the program's cost. Issues for further consideration include the need to (1) understand what keeps high schools from participating in the program, (2) determine whom the program can effectively serve and whether there is a reasonable cohort appropriate to the program, and (3) evaluate the relationship between the costs and benefits of the program as plans are made for the ETP's future.