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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_405589 |
| Contributors | Jerry, Mary Priya (authoraut), Milligan, Jeffrey Ayala (professor directing dissertation), Miles, Rebecca (university representative), Schwartz, Robert A. (committee member), Boyle, Helen N. (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Education (degree granting college), Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource (160 pages), computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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