Community Colleges and Their Students: Co-construction and Organizational Identity

✍ Scribed by John S. Levin, Virginia Montero-Hernandez (auth.)

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan US
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 248
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

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.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xiii
Introduction....Pages 1-10
Community Colleges Seen from an Organizational-Cultural Perspective: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations....Pages 11-24
The Construction of Educational Experiences: Elements and Dynamics of the Complexity of College Life at Bakersfield College....Pages 25-48
Organizational Culture and Organizational Identity: Constructions of Student Accommodation in Community College of Denver....Pages 49-70
Discourses of Democratization: Students’ Upward Mobility and the University Transfer Approach at Borough of Manhattan Community College....Pages 71-89
Overlooked Differentiation and Student Categorization: The Hybrid Identity and the Climate of Isolation in Wake Technical Community College....Pages 91-112
Strategic Planning and the Struggle to Generate a Responsive College: Differential Effects upon the Development of the Student Body at Harry Truman College in Illinois....Pages 113-133
Organizational Change and Student Accommodation: Edmonds Community College as an Adaptive-Responsive Organization....Pages 135-158
Forging Student Identity: Socialization, Development, and Contextual Tensions in Community Colleges....Pages 159-180
Conclusions....Pages 181-199
Back Matter....Pages 201-240

✦ Subjects

Administration, Organization and Leadership;Sociology of Education;Sociology of Education;Higher Education;Curriculum Studies