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STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND:
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FINDING THEIR PLACES IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES

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STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND:
CAREER EDUCATION FACULTY
FINDING THEIR PLACES IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES
By

Lynne Denise Hensel

A DISSERTATION
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Department of Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education

2005

ABSTRACT
STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND:
CAREER EDUCATION FACULTY
FINDING THEIR PLACES IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES
By
Lynne Denise Hensel

Career and technical education is an important part of the mission of the
comprehensive community college, yet the work and perspectives of career education
faculty are not well understood. This study examines what the career education faculty
come to understand as their roles within the community college. It specifically focuses on
how these faculty develop their understanding of their roles as teachers; what events,
actions, and interactions influence the sense-making process as they find their places
within their colleges; and what particular issues and challenges the faculty face in
understanding and enacting their roles.

The study utilizes a phenomenological approach. Data was collected from
extended, unstructured interviews with ten career education faculty. The participants,
who were drawn from two midwestem community colleges, had been fiIll-time faculty at
their schools for two to six years and represented a variety of disciplines. Socialization
theory and Gidden’s structuration theory serve as theoretical lenses with which to
interpret the results.

The image that emerges from this study is of a group of career education faculty
who are engaged in multiple activities—curriculum development and revision, student
recruiting and advising, clinical or lab maintenance and supervision, cultivating and

sustaining links to the workplace, and, of course, teaching. These activities are performed

against a backdrop of changing technologies and externally mandated directives. The
career education faculty have been thrust into an academic setting with little or no
preparation for the role and of necessity maintain a pragmatic and outwardly directed
perspective on their work.

The structural organization issues faced by the faculty in this study—extemal
curricular demands, limited formal educational background, multiple responsibilities, and
potential isolation as a group — suggest a variety of institutional responses that would
support the career education faculty in their work and strengthen the education offered at
community colleges. Orientation programs and formal mentoring would assist new
teachers with their initial adjustment to their colleges, and on-going professional
development programs that introduce faculty to different pedagogical strategies and
promote reflection about matters of teaching and learning would help to reshape
instructional paradigms. Institutional inducements, such as incentives built into the
reward system, appear to be important if the faculty are to view continued professional
development and organizational involvement as part of their role definition. Finally, most
of the participants initially worked as adjunct instructors. Better support and integration
of adjunct faculty would not only bolster the instruction offered by these teachers, but
also help to prepare future full-time faculty.

Understanding the challenges that the career education faculty face and the
perspectives they hold can help institutions support their work and thereby strengthen this

crucial aspect of the community college mission.

To my husband and best friend,
Lawrence Kameya

My life is blessed because our paths are joined.

iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A journey such as this should not be attempted alone, and I was fortunate to have
many companions on the expedition. Some pointed the way, some trudged alongside, and
some shouted encouragement along the path.

Chief among the guides was my advisor, John Dirkx. Without his patient nudging
and keen insights I would have been mired in dissertation distress. He kept me on the
path when I threatened to veer ofl‘ and offered suggestions that were always sound. I owe
him a huge debt of gratitude.

Special thanks also go to the other members of my guidance committee—Ann
Austin, Marilyn Amey, and Frank Fear. Their ideas helped to shape and refine this
research, but their impact on me extended beyond the dissertation. Through classes,
discussions, and conversations, they have influenced my thinking, my perspectives on
education, and my understanding of higher education issues.

I am grateful to the wonderful career education teachers who generously gave of
their time and allowed me a glimpse into their worlds. Their enthusiasm, dedication,
energy, and creativity are inspirational and are reflective of what makes community
colleges so dynamic and essential.

My fellow travelers, the doctoral cohort from HALE, made the trip a lot more fun
and a lot less lonely. Gail, in particular, was always there to discuss, commiserate, and
offer advice, and became a good fiiend in the process.

I would not have even begun this journey were it not for the encouragement and

support of my husband, Larry. He willingly engaged in conversation about whatever I

was reading and was an insightfiil reader of all my writing. His questions challenged my
thinking and refined my writing. I could not have done this without him.

And finally, I was blessed with a host of cheerleaders. My family, including
children, parents, and sister, bolstered me with their pride and confidence. My colleagues
at work, Carole, Barb, Betsy, Chris, Kim, and Becky, listened patiently over the years to
my ruminations about school, offered reassurance when I was plagued with self-doubts,

and rejoiced in my successes.

My thanks to all of you.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1
Background of the Problem ........................................................................ 1
Problem Statement ..................................................................................... 5
Purpose ...................................................................................................... 7
Research Questions .................................................................................... 8
Research Paradigm ..................................................................................... 9
Significance ................................................................................................ 10
CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ........................................................................ 12
Career Education in Community Colleges and the New Vocationalism ....... 12
Sub-baccalaureate Market ............................................................... 13
Curriculum Integration ................................................................... 15
Transferability ................................................................................. 18
Workforce Development and Contract Training .............................. 19
Summary ........................................................................................ 20
Community College Faculty ....................................................................... 20
Demographics ................................................................................. 21
Community College Faculty Roles .................................................. 22
Distinctions between Liberal Arts and Career Education Faculty ..... 25
Summary ........................................................................................ 27
Theoretical Perspective .............................................................................. 27
CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH DESIGN ........................................................................................... 32
Participant Selection ................................................................................... 33
Data Collection .......................................................................................... 35
Data Analysis ............................................................................................. 37
CHAPTER 4
DESCRIPTION OF THE PARTICIPANTS .......................................................... 38
Midwest Community College ..................................................................... 38
Matt ............................................................................................... 39
Madeline ......................................................................................... 42
Nicole ............................................................................................. 46
Andy .............................................................................................. 49
Angela ............................................................................................ 53
Theresa ........................................................................................... 55
Multi-Campus Community College ............................................................. 59
Henry ............................................................................................. 6O

vii

Carlos ............................................................................................. 66
Randy ............................................................................................. 70
Summary .................................................................................................... 72
CHAPTER 5
EXPERIENCE OF THE CAREER EDUCATION FACULTY .............................. 75
Perceptions of Expectations ....................................................................... 76
Perception of Roles ........................................................................ 76
Reward System ............................................................................... 84
Curriculum Integration ................................................................... 94
Development as Educational Professionals ................................................. 96
Learning the Job ............................................................................. 96
Learning to Teach ........................................................................... 98
Learning about Students ................................................................. 104
Role of Occupation in Mediating Perspectives ............................................ 107
Approach to Teaching .................................................................... 107
Approach to Curriculum ................................................................. 110
Relationship with Students .............................................................. 112
Academic World vs. the Work World ............................................. 114
Involvement with Vocational Practice ............................................. 117
Relationships Within the Institution ............................................................ 122
Individual Relationships .................................................................. 122
Relationship with Liberal Arts Faculty ............................................ 125
Summary .................................................................................................... 131
CHAPTER 6
DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS .................................................................. 132
Research Questions .................................................................................... 132
Socialization and the Commonalities ........................................................... 144
Structuration and the Differences ............................................................... 152
Implications ............................................................................................... 159
Limitations ................................................................................................. 166
Directions for Future Research ................................................................... 168
Conclusion ................................................................................................. 170
APPENDICES ...................................................................................................... 171
Appendix A: Introductory Email ................................................................ 172
Appendix B: Participant Consent Form ....................................................... 173
Appendix C: Participant Background Survey .............................................. 17 5
Appendix D: First Interview Protocol ......................................................... 176
Appendix E: Second Interview Protocol ..................................................... 177
Appendix F: Bracketing .............................................................................. 179
REFERENCES ...................................................................................................... 181

viii

CHAPTER 1
Introduction
Background of the Problem

New technologies, globalization, and volatile market economies — all are bearing
down on the American workplace, changing the nature of work and the required Skills of
the workers. Increasingly, jobs that support a middle class life style call for technical
skills and expertise beyond that afforded by a high school degree (Callan, 1997). This
reality is not lost on the public. In a 1990 poll conducted for Time Magazine and the
Cable News Network, 80% of the respondents believed that there was little chance of
economic success without some postsecondary education (Wallhaus, 1996). This interest
in occupationally oriented education is not limited to traditional-age college students. Job
mobility has increased significantly in this new economy (Osterman, 1999). Retraining
and retooling are much more common for today’s workers than was true in the past. More
people find themselves back in school in order to upgrade their skills or to prepare for a
second or third career.

Business leaders and policy makers have also expressed great interest in and
concern about the educational preparation of the work force. Employers complain about
the shortage of technically prepared workers. Politicians, fearing loss of economic
competitiveness, have responded with legislative efforts. In 1983 national attention was
focused on educational quality and the gap between students’ academic preparation and
their readiness for the workplace by the report “A Nation at Risk” (National Commission
on Excellence, 1983). Initially, K-12 schools received the bulk of the scrutiny, but

increasingly the higher education sector has received its share of criticism. Subsequent

legislation, Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act
Amendments of 1990 and 1998, School-To-Work Opportunities Act of 1994, and
Workforce Investment Act (1998) among others, sought to strengthen vocational
education and increase accountability of the educational programs (Orr, 1998).

Almost all the policy initiatives in the last decade that concern vocational
education advocate integrating technical education with traditional academics in order to
foster broader literacy and thinking Skills. This “new vocationalism” broadens the view
of post-secondary occupational programs beyond the traditional two-year terminal and
certificate programs that lead to entry-level occupations to integrated programs that
prepare students for careers in highly paid and skilled professions (Grubb, 1997; Jacobs,
2001a, 2001b; Perin, 2001). In addition, proponents of the “new vocationalism” advocate
the use of learner-centered, constructivist teaching approaches (Dare, 2001; Grubb,
2001)

Community colleges find themselves at the vortex of the interests, concerns, and
activity surrounding occupational education. Open door admissions, geographic
proximity, and affordable tuition make them attractive venues for postsecondary
education, and, indeed, community college enrollment has exploded over the past few
decades. Between 1965 and 1999 public community college enrollment increased about
five-fold compared to four-year colleges and universities where enrollment doubled
during the same time span (Kasper, 2002). Close to half of the Americans pursuing
postsecondary education now do so at community colleges (Phillippe & Patton, 1999).

Of these students, a substantial number are taking career education classes. A national

study in 1993 estimated that 43% of community college students were enrolled in
vocational educational programs (Cohen & Brawer, 1996).

Community colleges have a history of involvement with workforce development.
At their inception in the early 19005, junior colleges primarily delivered the first two
years of a baccalaureate education, after which students transferred to a four-year school
to complete their degrees. Beginning in the 19303 and accelerating with the 1947 Truman
Commission report, “Higher Education for American Democracy,” interest in
occupational education increased (Perkins, 1998). As the junior colleges broadened their
missions to include occupational education, they changed their names to community
colleges. The modern comprehensive community college contends with multiple
missions addressing not only transfer and vocation education, but also developmental
education and community service.

The increasing emphasis on career education in community college missions
(Callan, 1997; Levin, 2000) is not without its critics. They (e.g., Brint & Karabel, 1989;
Kevin J. Dougherty, 1994) argue that community colleges have a “cooling out” effect on
students and point to studies that show that students intending to attain a baccalaureate
are less likely to complete the degree if they start their education at a community college
rather than a four-year school. These critics maintain that the vocational emphasis diverts
the attention and energies of community colleges away from the transfer mission.

The people working in the middle of this controversy, community college faculty,
labor in relative obscurity. Although close to half of undergraduate education occurs at
community colleges, this segment of higher education goes largely unnoticed by both

researchers and the public (Cohen & Brawer, 1996). Community college faculty, almost a

third of higher education practitioners (Huber, 1998), are largely invisible to the general
public and to the educational research community.

The distinction between the vocational and transfer education missions of
community colleges is reflected in their curricular offerings. The career education
programs are typically two-year or certificate programs that lead directly to employment
or job upgrading, although an increasing number of these occupationally oriented
programs articulate to four-year colleges (Townsend, 2001). The courses offered within
the career preparation division vary widely, but typically include health career,
manufacturing and industrial technology, computer information systems, and business
programs. The terms vocational and occupational education are also used to describe this
function of the community college. On the other side are the liberal arts classes, also
called academic, general education, or transfer programs, which include the traditional
collegiate offerings of humanities, science, fine arts, and social sciences as well as
developmental classes. The distinction between career education and liberal arts courses
is not clear-cut, however, and varies from school to school. Some vocationally oriented
programs may be situated within the liberal arts half of the school, such as interior design
in an art department, and a business department fiom the career side may offer economics
classes, traditional liberal arts courses.

This study examined one group of community college faculty —— those involved
in career education. Using a phenomenological approach, I investigated how these
instructors came to make sense of their roles and found their places in the academic

community.

Problem Statement

Although community college faculty in general have not received much public
attention, the career education faculty at community colleges are arguably even less well
understood by the general public than their colleagues in the liberal arts. The most
common public image of the vocational educator is that of the high school shop teacher.
Yet this representation hardly does justice to the sophisticated and varied objectives of
today’s career preparation programs and the responsibilities and activities of their
instructors.

Within the higher education community, the understanding of the roles and work
of career education faculty is not much better. As noted earlier, the research and writings
about higher education generally have largely ignored community colleges (Cohen &
Brawer, 1996). The bulk of the education research that fills the scholarly journals is
performed by university faculty and graduate students who often do not share the
perspectives and priorities of community college faculty (Bers & Calhoun, 2002; Frye,
1994). In particular, much of the writing on college faculty focuses on the full-time
employees of four-year schools, especially research universities and liberal arts colleges.
The discussions and findings of these studies, though in need of general reinterpretation
for the community college sector, have greater applicability to the community colleges
liberal arts instructors, whose teaching responsibilities more closely resemble those of
four-year faculty, than to the career education personnel. Empirical research focusing
specifically on career preparation faculty is almost non-existent (Grubb & Associates,

1999)

Even on community college campuses, a gulf frequently exists between the liberal
arts and career education staff. The tensions between the competing missions of the
community colleges get played out among its faculty. Misunderstanding and distrust of
the intentions and activities of the other sector are too often present (Grubb & Associates,
1999; E. Seidman, 1985). Typically, the offices, labs, and classrooms of the two groups
are separated on campuses, reducing the amount of casual contact. Career preparation
faculty tend to have much lower participation rates in campus-wide committees and in
the college governance structure than their liberal arts colleagues, again limiting the
opportunities for collegial interactions that could further understanding between the two
units (Grubb & Associates, 1999). In addition, career education faculty necessarily
maintain contact with the businesses and industries of their disciplines. This outward
orientation contrasts with that of the liberal arts faculty who have fewer contacts outside
their colleges.

Distrust between the two groups is fueled by status differences within the
academic community. The values of the academy not only relegate community colleges
to the bottom rung of the post-secondary hierarchy, but also have accorded greater merit
to the work of the liberal arts faculty within comprehensive community colleges (Grubb
& Associates, 1999). Better understanding of the work of career faculty could help to
increase appreciation for the complexity and scope of their roles and facilitate
collaboration between the two sides of the college.

These factors — the increased weight given by the policy makers, students, and
community colleges themselves to occupational preparation, the curricular and

pedagogical changes demanded by the “new vocationalism,” the relative invisibility of

community college faculty in general and the career education faculty in particular, and
the distrust between the faculty groups within the colleges — call attention to a need for
greater understanding of the work and roles of the career education faculty. This study
focused on how these faculty viewed and constructed their professional roles by
examining the experiences of career education instructors through a series of unstructured
interviews.

Purpose

Career education faculty face a number of challenges as they establish themselves
in community colleges. Their backgrounds and orientations toward teaching differ
somewhat from those of their liberal arts colleagues. Because of their association with the
workplace, they have to manage relationships both within and outside their colleges,
unlike the liberal arts faculty who tend to have little outside contact. These differences
have contributed to misunderstanding and distrust between the two faculty groups at a
time when pressures are mounting for more collaboration on curriculum and program
matters.

The process by which career education faculty come to make sense of their roles,
and what that understanding is, have not previously received much attention from
researchers. By examining the experiences of career education faculty, this study sheds
light on the challenges that confront these teachers, how they resolve these issues, and
how they shape their roles within their community colleges.

Clarification of the experiences of career education faculty and their subsequent
role enactment should help to dispel some of the misapprehension surrounding these

faculty and facilitate communication between the various constituencies within the

community college staff. Better understanding of these faculty should also enable
community colleges to design staff development programs to promote the curricular and
pedagogical changes of the “new vocationalism.” Finally, this study also provides
insights into how community colleges can better assist and accommodate new career
education faculty as they move into their institutional roles.
Research Questions

This study involved interviews with career education faculty to determine what
events, actions, and interactions the faculty found significant in making sense of their
new work environments and explored their understandings of their work roles. The roles
of career education faculty were expected to include that of teacher, organizational
member, and occupational representative. This study explored the meaning and salience
accorded these particular roles by the career education faculty as well as identified any
other roles they had assumed. Since teaching in general plays such prominent part in the
work of community college faculty, particular attention was devoted to understanding
how these career education faculty viewed their work as teachers.

Accordingly, this study was guided by the following questions:

1. What do career education faculty come to understand as their professional

roles within community colleges?
2. In particular, how do career education faculty develop their understanding of
their roles as teachers?
3. What events, actions, and interactions influence the sense-making process as

career education faculty come to find their places within community colleges?

4. What are the particular issues and challenges that career education faculty
face in understanding and enacting their roles?
Research Paradigm

Lincoln and Guba (1985) suggest that “methodological decisions involve
assumptions not only about the method itself but about the nature of the phenomenon to
be investigated” (p. 178). This study explored the experiences of individual faculty
members as they negotiated their community college careers, experiences that are
necessarily bound to their specific situational contexts. It focused on understanding how
the faculty use these experiences to make sense of their roles in their schools.

I am aware that I am not able to approach a study of this nature as a dispassionate,
distant observer. My years as a community college faculty member have shaped my
beliefs and values and affect both how I have framed the study and the interrelation
between the respondents and me. These factors, the emphasis on exploration and
understanding, the acknowledgment of the contextual nature of the inquiry, and the
interactive role of the researcher, provide epistemological support for the use of
qualitative methods (Guba & Lincoln, 1982; Yin, 2003). The findings from this study are
not intended to be generalizable in a statistical sense, but have been presented with
sufficient detail to allow readers to determine their applicability to their own contexts
(Lincoln & Guba, 1985).

Since my interest in this study in the personal understanding and experiences of
the teachers, a phenomenological inquiry seemed the most appropriate approach. Long,
unstructured interviews are the usual strategy for data collection in phenomenological

studies (Creswell, 2003; Moustakas, 1994; Patton, 2002). “The ability to tap into the

experience of others in their own natural language, while utilizing their value and belief
frameworks, is virtually impossible without face-to-face and verbal interactions with
them” according to Guba and Lincoln (1981, p. 155). Although this study is largely
exploratory, previous research on faculty in community colleges suggested avenues to
investigate with the career education faculty. Consequently, the interviews were
unstructured, utilizing a series of open-ended questions.

Significance

As the Industrial Age fades further into the past, the demand for highly skilled
workers with the ability to analyze and solve problems, manage new technologies, and
engage in life-long learning increases. Community colleges are well positioned to provide
education for this workforce given their history of vocational education and their linkages
with local businesses and industry. However, Farmer and Key (1997) caution that this
history does not guarantee a central role in the new workforce education market. They
note that “community colleges must either lead or be pushed out of the way as preferred
training providers for technical workers” (p. 98).

If the societal needs for better-educated workers are to be met, and if community
colleges are to remain a vital part of the vocational education market, the career
education faculty will have to play a central role. These are the people who must design
the curriculum and teach the courses. An understanding of who these faculty are and how
they understand their jobs is crucial if community colleges are going to support their
work and encourage reforms.

This study is also timely due to impending changes in the community college

workforce. Like their counterparts in four-year schools, the faculty in community

10

colleges are graying (Gahn & Twombly, 2001). Community college faculty averaged 55
years of age according to the Carnegie Foundation’s National Survey of Faculty, 1997
(Huber, 1998), so a significant wave of retirements can be expected in the next five to ten
years. Clarification of the process of professional role definition for community college
career education faculty can help colleges to design and provide appropriate experiences

to support the new teachers as they adjust to their new roles.

11

CHAPTER TWO
Review of the Literature

In order to lay the groundwork for this study, this review of the literature will
begin by exploring the terrain of career education in today’s community colleges. Next,
we will consider what is known about community college faculty, particularly about the
people working in career educatiOn. The chapter will conclude with a brief discussion of
the research approach that has been utilized in this study.

Career Education in Community Colleges and the New Vocationalism

As indicated in the first chapter, vocational education was an early add-on to the
initial transfer mission of junior colleges. The increasing prominence of career education
on community college campuses in recent decades reflects, in part, the growing
significance students attach to the economic utility of higher education. In a 1993 survey
conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute, 75% of college freshman gave
economic reasons for attending college, compared to 50% who answered similarly in
1971 (Grubb, 1996b). Eighty-two percent of the respondents in 1993 also pointed to the
value of higher education in securing a better-paying job. While debates may rage within
academic circles about the relative merits of the intellectual, civic, and economic roles of
higher education, it is clear that the vast majority of community college students view
education as a means to improve their job prospects, either immediately or after
transferring to a four-year school. Education for careers is necessarily a central function
of community colleges.

Career education has also attracted the attention of policy-makers. The National

Commission on Excellence focused national attention on the gap between students’

12

academic preparation and their readiness for the workplace with its report “A Nation at
Risk” (1983). The series of reports and policy initiatives that followed (e.g., the Carl D.
Perkins Vocational Act of 1984 and subsequent reauthorizations, the SCANS Report in
1991, the Workforce Investment Act in 1998) all sought to broaden vocational education
from its traditional emphasis on specific skills for entry-level employment (Bragg, 2001b;
Orr, 1998; Prentice, 2001). Dubbed the “new vocationalism,” this approach stresses the
combination of technical education with traditional academics in order to provide
students with the thinking and problem solving skills necessary for today’s workplace
and to prepare students for access to highly paid and skilled professions (Grubb, 1997;
Jacobs, 2001a; Perin, 2001).
Sub-baccalaureate Market

Community colleges are well positioned to capitalize on a shifting focus of
vocational education from the high schools to postsecondary education (Camevale, 2000;
E. 1. Farmer & Key, 1997; Grubb, 1996b). This move reflects the growing sophistication
of technical work and the increased skill sets demanded by employers, as well as the
general inflation in academic credentials that has affected all sectors of the economy. The
sub-baccalaureate labor market, that is, the portion of the labor force that has more than a
high school degree but less than a baccalaureate degree, has grown substantially in recent
decades. In 1967 only about 13% of workers fell into this category, while in 1992 the
number had grown to 28% (Grubb, 1996b). Moreover, this grth is likely to continue.
Experts predict that 65% of future jobs will fall into the sub-baccalaureate labor market
(Gray & Herr, 1995). Employment projections for 2000 — 2010 foresee the greatest

growth rate for occupations requiring an associate’s degree, such as computer support

13

specialists, paralegals and legal assistants, and many fast-growing health occupations
(Becker, 2001).

The sub-baccalaureate labor market poses a number of challenges that community
colleges have to address if they are to maintain their central position in vocational
education. First of all, career education programs must meet the demands of a very local
job market (Grubb, 1996b; Jacobs, 2001b). Employers may search beyond their
geographic vicinity for managers and professional staff but hire workers for the sub-
baccalaureate jobs from the surrounding community. Employers want these workers to
have specific skill sets and experience, ideally with the processes and equipment used at
their particular companies. Moreover, with the exception of the health careers where
national licensing standardizes the knowledge requirements of graduates, the particular
thrust of the skill requirements for jobs varies from one region of the country to another.
For example, the emphasis in computer-assisted design programs in industrial drafting
classes in Detroit where the automotive industry prevails is different from that in similar
classes in Seattle where Boeing is a major employer. The curriculum for career education
must be responsive to the demands of external stakeholders to an extent not faced by the
liberal arts. Career education faculty need to maintain close ties with the local labor
market in order to understand the needs and the often rapid changes in the work processes
of this market.

At the same time that employers are demanding job-specific expertise in their
' prospective employees, they are also asking that these workers have broad academic
competencies in problem solving, written and oral communication, and mathematical

computation (Grubb, 1996b; Jacobs, 2001b). These often conflicting desires for broad

l4

basic skills and narrowly defined technical competencies pose a dilemma for career
education faculty who must design the programs and teach the courses for these
occupations. They find it difficult to reconcile the demands for both general education
skills and the increasingly specific disciplinary requirements within the limitation of 60
credit hours that constitutes the typical associate degree program.
Curriculum Integration

One approach to resolving this quandary is curriculum integration — the
incorporation of traditional academics into technical education. Part of the “new
vocationalism,” this tactic has been advocated and supported by almost every policy
initiative in the past decade, notably the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied
Technology Education Act Amendments of 1990 and 1998 (Grubb, 1997; Jacobs, 2001a,
2001b; Perin, 2001; Prentice, 2001). Drawing from the ideas of John Dewey, curriculum
integration shifts the emphasis from teaching for the occupations to education through the
occupations. Grubb (1997) argues, “integrated approaches to occupational education can
foster meaning-making pedagogy because broadly-conceived occupations provide a
context for teaching a variety of subjects” (p. 85), and that “in its most Deweyan form
‘education through occupations’ can incorporate the entire range of political and moral
purposes, rather than simply assume that the need of employers are paramount” (Grubb,
1996a, p. 540).

Although vocational education leaders and public policy initiatives have
promoted curriculum integration, community colleges have been slow to embrace the
concept. However, pockets of genuine innovation and integration do exist. Badway and

Grubb (1997) compiled a scurcebook of innovative practices from some 40 colleges and

15

technical institutes across the country that provide examples of integrated curricula. The
most common form of academic and vocational integration are stand-alone applied
academic classes, such as mathematics for health careers. This approach is one of the
weaker forms of integration, and the courses suffer from their lack of transferability to
baccalaureate institutions. In a survey of all 49 community colleges in Illinois, Bragg and
Reger (2000) found that most schools offered applied academic classes, but more
SOphisticated forms of linkages, such as multidisciplinary courses or learning
communities, were much less common. Badway (1998) reported similar findings in a
national study of public community colleges. The National Assessment of Vocational
Education (NAVE), a comprehensive study of the American vocational system conducted
by the US. Department of Education, confirms these results. The NAVE Final Report to
Congress notes that “a number of improvement strategies promoted in both Perkins II
and Perkins III — e.g., the involvement of employers, use of current technology,
articulation agreements — are standard in many community and technical colleges. Other
strategies, such as the integration of academic and vocational education, receive less
emphasis” (Silverberg, Warner, Fong, & Goodwin, 2004, p. 117).

Why have colleges been slow to adopt these approaches that have been so heavily
promoted as good practice? The usual impediments to innovation exist -— faculty
resistance to change, costs for planning and development, lack of professional
development, and amount of time needed for collaboration. In addition, structural issues,
such as scheduling difficulties with linked courses and transferability problems for
multidisciplinary or integrated classes, complicate implementation. However, Bragg and

Reger (2000) point to a more fundamental divide.

16

The structural, political, and philosophical mechanisms that maintain clear
distinctions between academic and vocational education have been difficult to
modify. Problems with transferring applied academics courses and reluctance to
commit institutional resources to support collaboration between academic and
vocational faculty are indicative of deeper underlying differences. Political and
organizational structures that separate the liberal arts for transfer from vocational-
technical education for work, curricular approaches reinforced by external
agencies, and the traditional distribution of time, space, and money all work
together to perpetuate the schism between academic education and vocational
education. Until these larger forces over which individual faculty have little
control are recognized, it will be difficult to move beyond rhetoric calling for
more integration. Faculty commitment to the idea of integration is important, but
such commitment is difficult to carry out when one's professional life and career
advancement is constrained by a different set of values. (pp. 265 — 266)

Prentice (2001) also makes note of the rift between academic and vocational sides of

colleges.
This divide seems to be at the heart of the issue. The unwillingness of academic
faculty to collaborate with occupational faculty, the unwillingness of many
baccalaureate institutions to accept for transfer any course that might be labeled
"applied," and the unwillingness of institutions to commit time and resources to
develop integration are largely the result of a belief that occupational education is

somehow inferior to academic education, and that students who are drawn to

17

occupational subjects are less academically competent than those drawn to

academic subjects. (p. 88)

Until there is greater understanding and appreciation in collegiate circles of the work and
aims of the career education faculty, little headway toward true integration is likely to be
made.

T ransferability

Another aspect of the new vocationalism concerns the reconception of the
technical degree. Historically, technical degrees and certificates were considered to be
terminal programs that led directly to employment, and students planning to transfer to
four-year schools were channeled into classes for the associate of arts. Increasingly,
however, students earning associate degrees in applied science are transferring to
baccalaureate programs (Bragg, 2001a; Cohen & Brawer, 1996; Edgar 1. Farmer &
Fredrickson, 1999; Townsend, 2001). Nearly 32% of students in associate degree
programs in the applied fields intended to transfer to baccalaureate institutions according
to data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (Berkner, Horn,
& Clune, 2000). In order to facilitate this transfer, career education faculty are advised to
develop articulation agreements with four-year schools, a task that requires outreach to
and cooperation with the faculty of the transfer institutions.

At the same time that career education faculty are asked to create alignments with
their programs and those of four-year schools, they are also urged to work with their
counterparts in the high school occupational programs in order to smooth the transition of
high school vocational education students into college technical programs (Orr, 1998; Orr

& Bragg, 2001). Two plus two programs, one of the key goals of both the Tech Prep

18

Education Act and the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994, link two years of high
school occupational education with two years of community college technical schooling
(Bragg, 2001b). Developing these collaborations again requires that career education
faculty build associations with staff and programs outside of their colleges. The career
education faculty are being pulled in many directions.

Workforce Development and Contract Training

To this point we have surveyed the landscape of the traditional vocational
programs offered by virtually all community colleges. Two other areas of postsecondary
occupational education are worthy of note. First are the courses and programs that fall
under the general category of job training and workforce development. Typically funded
by federal legislation such as the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and the Temporary
Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), these programs are designed to provide low-
income individuals the basic academic and technical skills they need for employment
(Jacobs, 2001a; Szelenyi, 2001). Because of funding regulations, the programs generally
are short-term and job-specific.

The second area outside the traditional vocational curricula is the contract and
customized training offered by over 90% of community colleges (K. J. Dougherty &
Bakia, 2000). More entrepreneurial than the traditional vocational programs, the
customized training units work closely with the local private sector. Employers contract
for educational services aimed at improving the job skills of their current or prospective
employees. The training frequently is very business-specific and non-credit (Jacobs,

2001b).

l9

Both of these areas — workforce development and contract training — have
different clientele and aims than the traditional vocational education curricula. Although
career education faculty may teach some classes in these different units, often for extra
pay, they usually are not involved in the design and development of the programs
(Jacobs, 2001b). Consequently, this study did not devote attention to the staff responsible
for these areas.

Summary

Career education plays a prominent role in today’s community colleges. Most
new jobs require postsecondary education, and the sub-baccalaureate labor market is an
expanding sector of the economy. The faculty responsible for career education face
challenges that distinguish their jobs from those of other postsecondary faculty. For
example, the content of the technical programs is rapidly changing and is dictated by
stakeholders outside the college. This requires career education faculty to maintain close
ties with their local economies, to continuously upgrade their own technical skills, and to
revise their courses to reflect these changes. In addition, career education faculty are
asked to integrate liberal arts instruction into their courses and programs in order to better
meet the skill demands of employers. Finally, these faculty are asked to coordinate
curricula and programs with both high schools and four-year schools in order to provide a
seamless K-16 technical education for students.

Community College Faculty

Given that close to half of Americans pursuing postsecondary education

(Phillippe & Patton, 1999) do so at community colleges, it is surprising that community

colleges and their faculties receive so little notice among both the general public and

20

within academic research circles (Cohen & Brawer, 1996). This section will review the
research on community college faculty that has been done to date.
Demographics

Roughly a third of higher education practitioners work at community colleges
(Huber, 1998). Of these, the majority are part-time. According to the National Center for
Educational Statistics, 65% of the community college faculty in 1995 were part-time
(Leslie & Gappa, 2002). This percentage has grown steadily over the years. In 1962,
38.5% of the community college faculty were part-time, increasing to 40% in 1971 and
almost 50% in 1974 (Callan, 1997). However, these statistics overstate the actual
percentage of classes taught by part-time faculty since a full-time instructor typically
teaches more classes than an adjunct instructor.

Part-time faculty typically are not involved in curriculum and program
development and usually have limited association with and connection to the schools at
which they teach. Although some part-time faculty teach on a contingent basis while
looking for a permanent teaching position, most either have a “day job” elsewhere or are
not interested in full-time employment. As a result of these factors their experiences as
faculty are distinctly different from those of the full-time faculty. Consequently, this
study did not include part-time faculty.

The precise breakdown between liberal arts faculty and career education faculty is
difficult to ascertain. In 1989 Keim found that 60% of community college faculty were
employed in the career education areas (as cited in Olson, Jensrud, & McCann, 2001). A
national study in 1993 estimated that 43% of community college students were enrolled

in vocational educational programs (Cohen & Brawer, 1996), while the Community

21

College Research Center, using data from the 1999 — 2000 National Postsecondary
Student Aid Study (NPSAS), suggested that roughly 51% of community college students
were in occupational programs (Bailey et al., 2004).

The Center for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC) analyzed the spring
1998 class schedules of 164 community colleges to determine the proportion of classes
that were “non-liberal arts” (Palmer, 1999). They conclUded that, overall, 45% of the
classes were non-liberal arts (up from 43% in 1991), but they also noted that the
percentage varied among the schools from 19% to 77%. The CSCC categorized the non-
liberal arts classes into ten groups, with over 80% of the sections from the business and
office, trade and industry, technical education, health occupations, and personal
skills/avocation areas. The NPSAS (Bailey et al., 2004) survey reflected a similar
distribution among community college occupational students, with 27% enrolled in
business and office programs, 26% in health, 17% in computer and data processing, 10%
in trade and industry, and 7% in engineering and science technologies.
Community College Faculty Roles

Community colleges developed in the breach between high schools and four-year
schools. Some have suggested that community college faculty “are beset by uncertainties
and torn by ambiguities in a professional role that wavers somewhere between traditional
college professors and traditional high school teachers” (Callan, 1997, p. 101). Numerous
scholars have discussed the professional role definition of community college faculty,
some questioning whether the faculty can claim professional status (Cohen & Brawer,
1972, 1977, 1996; Palmer, 1992; Rifldn, 2000; Schmeltekopf, 1983; Spear, Seymour, &

McGrath, 1992). Cohen and Brawer (1977) observe that while the faculty possess some

22

characteristics of professional groups (e. g., long period of academic preparation), they
fail on other counts, notably, attention to self-management and a communal sense of
identity. In a more recent study that analyzed the normative structure of community
college teaching, Bayer and Braxton (1998) concluded that the faculty had assumed
responsibility for self-regulation of the teaching role performance, giving more credence
to their professional status.

The continuing discussion of the professionalism of the community college
faculty is testimony to their desire to find a defined niche within higher education. For
most, that professional role definition is teacher (F ulgate & Amey, 2000). In 1972 Cohen
and Brawer asserted “First and last, the junior college purports to be a teaching
institution... For the junior college instructor, then, the process of instruction is crucial to
identity formation” (p. 13). This orientation toward teaching has not changed over time.
No other sector of higher education views teaching as more central to its mission than
community colleges. Nearly 95% of faculty at community colleges indicate that their
interests primarily lie in or lean toward teaching (Huber, 1998).

Community colleges may view themselves as the “premier teaching colleges,” but
how community college faculty come to understand their teaching role is not clear.
Socialization for faculty careers typically begins with graduate school (Austin, 2002;

F ink, 1984), but graduate programs do little to prepare students for community college
careers. Indeed, some colleges have been reluctant to hire Ph.D.s because goal dissonance
has made their adjustment to the community college setting difficult (Gahn & Twombly,
2001). A few universities have established graduate programs with an emphasis on

community college teaching, but these isolated programs do not come close to preparing

23

the needed number of . faculty members (Gibson-Harmon, Rodriguez, & Haworth, 2002;
Miller, 1997). Teaching skills are typically learned on the job by trial and error since
there is little supervision, guidance, or professional development support at the colleges
(Grubb & Associates, 1999).

These problems are magnified for career education faculty. The teaching demands
on them are more complicated than for the liberal arts faculty. Grubb (1999) describes
their work as “rich and complex. It incorporates a greater variety of competencies than
academic instruction, and it takes place in more varied settings, including workshops with
a bewildering variety of activities as well as classrooms, workplaces as well as colleges”
(p. 137). The faculty are under greater pressure to keep their curriculum relevant and
specific than are their academic colleagues (Jacobs, 2001b). Yet the career education
faculty’s preparation for community college work does not offer much support for
teaching. They are more likely to have prior business or industry experience (Gahn &
Twombly, 2001) and less likely to hold graduate degrees or have worked previously in a
postsecondary education setting (Palmer & Zimbler, 2000). Furthermore, the on—campus
sources to which most community college faculty turn for advice about teaching matters
and institutional concerns, their departmental colleagues, are likely to be in short supply
for career education faculty. Vocational education departments tend to be small — one or
two full-time faculty supplemented by a number of adjunct teachers (Grubb &
Associates, 1999).

The work lives of career education faculty are further enriched and complicated
by their necessary association with the workplace outside the community college. They

maintain a more cosmopolitan orientation to the college than the liberal arts “locals.” Not

24

only are they teachers, but they are representatives of their respective vocations, and they
may be more attentive to the norms and standards of the workplace than to those of
academia (Grubb & Associates, 1999). They must be more engaged with the businesses
and industries they serve, and frequently employ advisory boards composed of local
employers that provide curriculum suggestions and program guidance. Student
recruitment, clinical assignments, and job placement are all concerns of the career
faculty, issues with which liberal arts faculty have little contact.
Distinctions between Liberal Arts and Career Education Faculty

Several surveys point to additional differences between the liberal arts faculty and
the career education faculty. Cohen and Outcalt (2001) conducted a national randomly
sampled survey of more than 1500 community college faculty. Generally, they found that
the community college professoriate had become more differentiated since 1974 when a
similar study had been conducted. Not surprisingly, they found that the career education
faculty were less likely to believe that the purpose of community college courses was to
prepare students for further education. They agreed in greater numbers that the most
important goal was to provide knowledge and skills directly relevant to careers than their
liberal arts counterparts, although this was the highest ranked goal of all for all
community college faculty. In addition, they found that the two groups used class time
differently with liberal arts faculty making greater use of lecture and discussion and the
career education faculty relying more on lab activities and technology.

Brewer and Gray (1997) used both survey results from more than 1700
community college faculty and intensive case studies of several colleges to examine the

connections between community colleges and local labor markets. They found that the

25

vocational faculty were more aware of and engaged in community issues than the
academic faculty. The study also uncovered strong boundaries between the academic and
career departments.

Using data from the 1993 National Survey of Post-Secondary Faculty, Palmer and
Zimbler (2000) compared differences between subgroups of two-year college faculty.
They, as did Cohen and Outcalt, found evidence of disciplinary subcultures and
differences in teaching approaches. Gahn and Twombly (2001) used the same database to
examine the faculty labor market of community colleges and discovered differences in
the academic preparation of career education and liberal arts faculty and in their previous
job experiences. As might be expected, career education faculty were much more likely
to have previously worked in the health professions, business, federal government, or
consulting than their liberal arts counterparts.

Very few large-scale surveys have focused exclusively on community college
faculty. Most surveys that include two-year faculty compare their aggregate means to
those of other postsecondary educators, providing little information specific to career
education faculty (Palmer & Zimbler, 2000). A number of qualitative studies of
community college faculty (e.g., Fulgate & Amey, 2000; Grubb & Associates, 1999; E.
Seidman, 1985), although not focused exclusively on career education faculty, do provide
some insights into the issues these faculty face. Using data collected from observations
and interviews with approximately 260 instructors from all disciplines and types of
community colleges as well as interviews with about sixty administrators, Grubb, in
particular, offers a detailed view of the work of community college instructors, including

that of career education faculty.

26

Summary

Career education teachers constitute a sizable portion of community college
faculty. They, as do their liberal arts counterparts, must contend with ambiguity when
defining their roles within the community colleges. Although their roles clearly include
that of teachers, how they come to understand and define this role is not clear,
particularly given the challenges of teaching in the vocational programs and the lack of
formal preparation for this work. They differ from their liberal arts colleagues in teaching
approaches and goals and are more likely to have worked outside academia. Finally, the
ties they must maintain with the businesses and industries outside of academia make the
work of career education faculty distinct from that of other postsecondary educators.

Numerous authors (e. g., Cohen and Outcalt, Brewer and Gray, Palmer and
Zimbler) have commented on the increasing differentiation of the faculty of community
colleges and the proliferation of sub-cultures. The result is what Grubb and Kraskoukas
(1992) describe as “an archipelago of independent islands, each serving one mission but
with limited communication among them” (p. 39). This study will shed light on how one
of these “islands” — career education faculty — understands its place and role in the
community college archipelago. This information should aid communication,
understanding and collaboration between the different parties.

Theoretical Perspective

This research explored the understandings career education faculty had about their
professional roles. Because the focus was on how the individual teachers interpreted their
experiences within the work context and then used these subjective meanings to make

sense of their professional roles, this study adopted a phenomenological approach. Patton

27

(2002) suggests that phenomenological studies emerge from the question “What is the
meaning, structure, and essence of the lived experience of this phenomenon for this
person or group of people?” (p. 104). Implied in this question is the belief that there is an
essence to the shared experience (Creswell, 1998; Moustakas, 1994; Patton, 2002), in this
case the experience of being a career education teacher in a community college.

Phenomenology is an interpretive approach that considers the meaning of a
particular phenomenon from the perspective of many individuals so that the essence of
that experience can be described (Creswell, 1998; Moustakas, 1994; Patton, 2002). In
order to ascertain this essence, people who have actually experienced the phenomenon
must be the focus of the study. So, in this study it is the lived experience of career
education faculty that was examined, not the observations or opinions of administrators
who supervise them or liberal arts colleagues who work with them. Although each
participant in this study had a unique set of experiences as a career education instructor,
these experiences were analyzed and compared to find the commonalities that constitute
the essence of the work of career education faculty.

This study was further informed by socialization and structuration theories.
Theory does not play a prescriptive role in qualitative studies, and numerous authors
argue that theory should emerge from the data (e.g., Creswell, 2003; Lincoln & Guba,
1985; I. Seidman, 1998). These same authors also note, however, that researchers do not
approach their investigations without some working assumptions about the behavior of
people and organizations. It is in this spirit that socialization and structuration informed
this study. Both were viewed as sensitizing devices that guided without limiting the lines

of inquiry.

28

In his classic work, “Socialization Through the Life Cycle,” Brim (1966) defined
socialization as “the process by which persons acquire the knowledge, skills, and
dispositions that make them more or less able members of their society” (p. 3). The
process by which a person assumes a role is one aspect of socialization, but socialization
includes all the various ways by which newcomers are incorporated into organized
patterns of interaction. Socialization can be viewed from the perspective of the group or
from that of the individual. The group’s interests revolve around integrating the
newcomer into the established norms, values, and behaviors that promote realization of
the group’s goals. For the individual, socialization is the means to participation in social
life (Mortimer & Simmons, 1978).

This study focuses on the entry of faculty into new work settings. Whenever an
employee moves within an organization, either into a new role or across boundaries,
socialization occurs, but this process is most acute and apparent with new employees
(Van Maanen & Schein, 1979). Louis (1980) applied Brim’s definition to organizations
and defined organizational socialization as “the process by which an individual comes to
appreciate the values, abilities, expected behaviors, and social knowledge essential for
assuming an organizational role and for participating as an organizational member” (pp.
229-230).

Classic views of socialization emphasize the efforts of the organization to mold
and shape the newcomer to the norms and values of the group. Although the role of the
individual in making sense of the new situation is recognized, the theory largely
represents socialization as something that is “done” to the newcomer. This structural side

of socialization is of course important and is the aspect that the organization can most

29

easily control, but it is only half of the story. Despite organization charts, job
descriptions, and socialization programs, faculty do not assume the roles precisely as
defined by the organization. But neither does job definition rest solely in the hands of the
instructors.

The gap between institutional structure and individual agency is bridged by
structuration theory. Formulated by Giddens (1979; 1984), structuration theory posits that
structure is recursively created through social interactions. Structure here is defined as the
rules and resources that enable and constrain action. Human social activities, Giddens
(1984) states, “are not brought into being by social actors but continually recreated by
them via the very means whereby they express themselves as actors” (p. 2).

This duality of structure is key to structuration theory. Structure is both the
medium that guides the activities and interactions of people and also the outcome of those
actions and interactions (Giddens, 1984). This means that while there are social structures
— traditions, moral codes, established ways of doing things, and for our purposes, roles
— that guide the actions and interactions of people, these very same structures get their
meaning and validity from their use in interactions and can be changed when people
begin to ignore them or interpret them differently. Structures themselves are not reified,
but exist in their “instantiation,” their use.

Structuration is metatheory that does not lend itself to predictive claims, but rather
provides a means for understanding the interaction of the individual agency and social
structure in the creation of structure. At the heart of this interaction are the social
exchanges between people that are both guided by rules and resources and at the same

time recreate these structures. From the point of view of structuration, roles are not

30

institutionally defined. But neither are they the result of free agency on the part of the
faculty. It is the iterative interplay between agency and structure that fashion the
meanings that career education faculty have about their work.

This study is concerned about the professional roles career education faculty
assume within their community colleges. Socialization focuses on the efforts of the
institution to acclimate new faculty and to shape the new teachers’ understanding of their
roles. Structuration highlights how these roles are dynamically created and recreated by
the activities and interactions of the teachers. Together these two theories offer a more
complete picture of how the career education faculty come to understand their places

within the community college.

31

CHAPTER THREE
Research Design

A review of the literature shows that while community college faculty in general
do not receive much research attention, the work and roles of career education faculty are
particularly in need of clarification. The pressures on career education faculty to
maintain discipline currency and to develop continuing relationships with the workplace
are far greater than on liberal arts faculty. The teaching demands on these faculty are
"rich and complex" in the words of Grubb (1999), yet their backgrounds often do not
provide much preparation for the teaching role. Further, the demands of the "new
vocationalism" for curriculum integration with the liberal arts and for developing smooth
articulations for two plus two plus two programs require faculty to work collaboratively
with many groups of educators both within and outside the community college. Finally,
increased emphasis placed on occupationally oriented education by both policy-makers
and the general public call for greater attention to the work and roles of career education
faculty.

This study will focus on this important group of postsecondary educators. It will
be guided by the following questions:

1. What do career education faculty come to understand as their professional

roles within community colleges?
2. In particular, how do career education faculty develop their understanding of
their roles as teachers?
3. What events, actions, and interactions influence the sense-making process as

career education faculty come to find their places within community colleges?

32

4. What are the particular issues and challenges that career education faculty
face in understanding and enacting their roles?

This study adopted a phenomenological approach. The aim of phenomenology is
“to determine what an experience means for the persons who have had the experience and
are able to provide a comprehensive description of it. From the individual descriptions
general or universal meanings are derived, in other words the essences or structures of the
experience” (Moustakas, 1994, p. 13). Open-ended, in-depth interviews with people who
have experienced the phenomenon are the usual means to gather data in a
phenomenological inquiry (Creswell, 2003; Moustakas, 1994; Patton, 2002).
Consequently, I conducted long, in-depth interviews with ten community college career
education faculty.

Participant Selection

Consistent with the methods of qualitative studies, I used purposive sampling to
select participants for this study. Since the focus of this study is on how career education
faculty make sense of their professional roles, I interviewed ten community college
career education faculty. Because part-time faculty work on a contingent basis and
consequently have a very different relationship with their colleges than that of full-time
teachers, I restricted my attention to the experiences of full-time faculty. Furthermore,
since this study sought to understand the events, actions, and interactions that influence
the sense-making process of these faculty as well as the issues and challenges they face
along the way, I focused on faculty who are still in the early stages of their careers —

people who have taught two to six years at their schools. After two years of employment

33

instructors have a sense of their roles and responsibilities. By limiting experience to six
years, however, memories of the process should be still fairly fresh.

The study drew participants from two midwestem community colleges, Midwest
Community College and Multi-Campus Community College. The decision to use more
than one community college stemmed from a pragmatic consideration —— the need to find
a sufficient number of willing participants that meet the selection criteria. However,
multiple sites also shed some light on the effects of different organizational structures on
the understanding of roles. Multiplicity of both participants and colleges provided means
of triangulation for a study that is based on the meanings and understandings individuals
attach to their experiences.

My initial contact with each of the two community colleges was with
administrative officers that I met at professional meetings. In each case, I introduced
myself and briefly described the nature of my study. Both agreed to allow teachers from
their institutions to participate. I followed these initial contacts with emails that again
described the study and asked for their assistance in identifying faculty who met the
selection criteria. At Midwest Community College, the administrative officer simply
supplied me with the names and contact information of full-time career education faculty
who had taught at the institution the desired two to six years. At Multi-Campus
Community College the administrator made the initial contact with the teachers who met
the selection criteria and then forwarded me the names of the faculty who agreed to be
interviewed. Because he only sent the names of people who agreed to participate, I do not
know if there was any conscious or unconscious bias in the selection process. This is a

shortcoming in the participant selection in this study.

34

In both cases I sent an email (see Appendix A) to the identified faculty in which I
introduced myself, briefly described the nature of my study, and invited their
participation. Using this approach I was able to recruit ten participants, in keeping with
Creswell’s (1998) suggestion that phenomenological studies collect data using “long
interviews with up to 10 people” (p. 65). The participants hailed from a variety of
departments, four from various health professions, two from computer-aided design, and
one each from computer science, hospitality, welding, and automotive service. Gender
and ethnicity differences were not the particular focus of this study, and participant
selection did not hinge on balancing the gender and ethnic mix. Nevertheless, the sample
group was comprised of five men and five women. The group was overwhelmingly
Caucasian with only one non-Caucasian participant, an African-American woman. One
of the participants was foreign born and had immigrated to the United States as a young
adult.

Data Collection

Interviews provided the vast majority of the data collected. All the participants
but one were interviewed two times. In that one instance, I was unable to schedule a
second interview due to the unavailability of the participant. I conducted all the
interviews at participants’ schools and digitally recorded the sessions. The interviews
ranged in length from one to two hours, with most running approximately 80 minutes.

Prior to beginning the interviews, I “bracketed” the research by recording my own
ideas, assumptions, and beliefs regarding the research questions for this study (See
Appendix F). By doing so, I hoped to expose the preconceptions and prejudgments I

brought to the study in order to better set them aside during the interviews and the

35

interpretation of the data. This process is important in order to be open and receptive to
the participants’ descriptions of their experiences (Moustakas, 1994). Also before I began
collecting data, I piloted the first interview protocol with a career education teacher from
my college.

Both the interviews consisted of a series of open-ended questions. Prior to
beginning the first interview, I reviewed in general terms the nature of the study,
reiterated the voluntary nature of participation, and explained how I would maintain
confidentiality. Participants were then asked to sign the consent form (see Appendix B).
The first interview (see Appendix D) focused on the teachers’ descriptions of their work,
their connections with the workplace outside the college, and their places within the
college. The second round of interviews (see Appendix E) included questions about the
teachers’ interactions with colleagues and their understandings about teaching.

At the end of the first interview each teacher was given a questionnaire (see
Appendix C) to complete. The questionnaires collected demographic information,
thereby eliminating interview time needed to solicit the data, as well providing

background information about each participant. The instructors were asked to mail the
completed questionnaires to me, and any necessary clarifications of the information were
sought at the start of the second interviews.

Between the two interviews I attended an organizational meeting at each of the
two colleges. At one school I was present at a departmental meeting that was also
attended by four of the participants. At the other college I observed a meeting of the
instructional technology committee of which one of the participants was a member. The

purpose of these observations was not for data collection, but to provide a broader sense

36

of the organization and a shared experience that could be discussed at the second
interview. Scheduling difficulties and a lack of suitable venues prevented similar
observations with the other participants.

Data Analysis

The interviews were transcribed for analysis. I sent participants copies of the
transcripts of their interviews in order to check for accuracy and completeness, and
participants had an opportunity to clarify their responses. The units of analysis in this
study are the individual teachers.

The data was then analyzed to look for patterns and themes concerning the career
education teachers’ experiences and understandings related to their professional roles. I
began with repeated readings of the transcripts to develop a holistic and intuitive
understanding of the data. From these readings I developed an outline of the meanings
and ideas that had emerged. I then moved to closer analysis of the text and in the process
both refined my outline and also used it to code the transcripts. The coded passages were
clustered together to form a general description of the roles and responsibilities of career
education faculty, including both a textual description of what was experienced and a

structural description of how it was experienced (Moustakas, 1994).

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CHAPTER FOUR
Description of the Participants

Ten career education faculty participated in this study, six from Midwest
Community College and four from Multi-Campus Community College. Both schools are
public, comprehensive two-year colleges from the same midwestem state. A brief
description of the colleges and participants is necessary to understand the findings of this
study. This chapter provides some demographic information about the colleges and an
introduction to each of the participants. For the faculty 1 have included a short account of
their prior employment and entry into teaching, a description of their teaching practices,
some of the challenges and constraints that they face, and their plans for the future.
Pseudonyms are used throughout the accounts.

Midwest Community College

Midwest Community College, founded in the early 19605, serves three counties
with a combined population of about 400,000. Although the main campus is in a rural
setting, it is close to three metropolitan areas. The school also has three small satellite
locations in each of the three cities. The total enrollment of the college numbers about
10,000 students, of which almost 50% have declared majors in one of the career
education programs. The college employs roughly 200 full-time instructors.

The full-time faculty work under a contract negotiated by their faculty senate.
They are not affiliated with any external unions. The contract specifies a promotion
system to which all of the participants from Midwest referred. The college uses the
traditional academic ranks of instructor, assistant professor, associate professor, and

professor. Candidates for promotion, as well as tenure, prepare packets listing their

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accomplishments in teaching, professional development, contribution to the college, and
community involvement. These packets are subject to both peer review and evaluation by
administration.

Of the six faculty that I interviewed at Midwest, four were from health careers.
These programs are unique among those represented in this study in that students are
admitted as a cohort, generally after some prerequisite work, and advance through a
defined one or two-year program of study. The other two Midwest participants taught in
programs -— computer technology and computer-aided drafting (CAD) — that have more
open enrollment policies. A brief description of the participants, their backgrounds,
classroom experiences, and future plans, follows.
Matt

When I met Matt, 3 thin, earnest man in his late forties, he was completing his
third year as a faculty member in the respiratory therapy program at Midwest Community
College. Working at the college provided a welcome contrast to his previous twenty-five
years of working as a respiratory therapist in a hospital.

It’s fun. I get to teach what I love to do. The other, working in the hospital was

rewarding and exciting and extremely hard. This is rewarding and fun. I can’t say

that what I did at the hospital was fun. It was exciting and rewarding, but it wasn’t

fun. This is fun. And if I can be paid to have fun. When I make a mistake here,

nobody dies. If I make a mistake, I don’t get AIDS. If I make a mistake, I don’t

get hep C. It’s not as dangerous here.

Matt was introduced to the respiratory therapy program at Midwest Community

College when he was drafted as a clinical instructor while working in the hospital. He

39

worked in this capacity without additional pay for eighteen years and, in the process,
gained confidence as an instructor.
So I did it that first year. And I was probably doing twice as much work as the
students because I was doing my regular workload plus they were firing a lot of
questions at me. And I would have to go home and do research and find out what
the answers to those questions were. Each year it got progressively easier.
Matt’s family influenced his decision to apply for a full-time position at Midwest.
Family was a big input into whether I took this job or not. Family is wife and
kids. This job allowed me to spend more time with my kids actually because
working in the hospital, we worked twelve-hour shifts and every third weekend
and every third holiday. So a lot of the times when my kids were home after 3
o’clock, I was at work, and a lot of the times when I was off from 8 in the
morning to 3 in the afternoon, they were off at school. So this job allowed me to
spend more time with my kids. My wife and I sat down and we actually added the
positives and the negatives of working in the hospital and the positives and
negatives of working at the college.
He has not severed all ties with hospital work, however. He continues to work as a
respiratory therapist during holidays and summers. “So I have a personal belief, desire
that I think to stay current that I should work at least seven weeks a year in the field. So
every year since I have been here I have worked seven weeks. Last year I worked eleven
weeks.”
Conscientious and earnest about his work, Matt was proud of his success afier

only three years at Midwest Community College. He values hard work and believes it is

40

rewarded by his administration. “They’ve already promoted me to assistant professor. My
parents, they can’t believe it. My mother passed away a couple of years ago, but she
would be very happy.” He had obtained a Bachelor of Science degree early in his career,
but is now pursuing a master’s degree in education at the suggestion of several colleagues
when he was reviewed for promotion. He reasons that the advanced degree will
strengthen his case for tenure and further promotions.

As the clinical supervisor for the program, Matt not only teaches classes but also
arranges clinical placements for his students. Over the course of a year he receives four
hours of release time for his clinical responsibilities, but “that doesn’t nearly cover the
time that I spend. I visit approximately six sites per week, and I spend at least an hour at
each site, and that doesn’t include travel time.”

In order to accommodate the students’ clinical schedules, classes are long, often
lasting five hours. During several of these hours Matt lectures, using elaborate
PowerPoint presentations that include graphs and pictures to reinforce his significant
points. Hands-on activities are interspersed through the lectures. He described an
upcoming activity with syringes, needles, and artificial arms. Students would practice
putting the syringe on the needle and then sticking the artificial arm. During this time, he
oversees the activities.

Going from table to table making sure that they are following the procedure and

the proper steps and maintaining clean technique, safe technique; that they are not

picking themselves or picking somebody else. Just constantly going around. There
are frequent questions. Somebody will bring up a question, and I will ask them to

repeat it louder for the whole class. And I will give one answer to the whole class.

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It is, the lab sessions are very informal and open. Students enjoy it. They have a

good time, relax.

When his partner in the respiratory therapy program retires, Matt hopes to assume
his position as program coordinator. Although he has continued to work part-time in the
hospital, he sees his future to be at Midwest. When asked if he would consider ever
working full-time again as a respiratory therapist, he replied:

If the college should explode, if there were a giant earthquake that swallowed the

college, I would consider it. I love the job [working in the hospital]; I love doing

it part-time. That is the best of all worlds, teaching here and working part-time.

But those twelve-hour days, when you get to be a certain age, they’re tough.
Madeline

Madeline, an attractive woman in her late forties, began her full-time career at
Midwest Community College with twenty-one years of experience in the dental hygiene
field. When I first interviewed her, she had been working full-time in the college’s Dental
Hygiene program for two and a half years on a series of one-year appointments that
afforded her opportunities for promotion but not tenure. In the interval between my two
interviews with Madeline, she applied for and was awarded a tenure-track position.

Madeline’s association with the college preceded her full-time employment there.
While working as the dental manager of a health clinic, she was also employed as an
adjunct faculty member at Midwest for sixteen years, mostly supervising students in the
dental clinic, but also teaching some lecture classes. Those years as a manager soured her
on administrative work, and she has no intentions of moving out of the teaching ranks

now that she is employed full-time at Midwest.

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I am not an asset to this college in any kind of administrator role because I don’t
have the patience I once bad. You know, seventeen years of basically the same
personality types and the same issues regardless of where you go. I just found I
really couldn’t take much more.

As did several of the other participants, Madeline herself attended a community
college, graduating from a dental hygiene program with an associate’s degree in applied
science. In contrast to most of the others, however, her background also included many
education courses. She received a bachelor’s degree in allied health teacher education and
was finishing a master’s degree in adult learning when I interviewed her. This recent
school experience gave her empathy for her students.

The other day I had the realization, this has been the hardest thing for me. I don’t

remember my associate’s being this hard or my bachelor’s being this hard, but I

realized I wasn’t working before. When you combine that working full time with

going to school and having a home and having spouses. Most of the students have
children on top of it!

She credits her education background for her comfort in the academic setting. “I
learned that when I was working on my bachelor’s, because that was the basis for
curriculum development, how you put a class together, goals and objectives, how you
assess, learning styles.” She expressed interest in sharing this knowledge with other
teachers through the college’s teaching and learning center.

Madeline’s responsibilities include both classroom and clinical instruction. Class
sessions are typically two hours, but some run as long as three or four hours. Madeline

breaks up the sessions with a variety of activities. For example, she has her dental

43

students construct models of mouths using play dough and incorporates crossword
puzzles, jeopardy, and bingo games for review. She makes heavy use of PowerPoint in
which she tries to include a lot of visuals. She does that:
So that instead of me telling them that information, they have to put the pictures
together to figure out the topic. So they are not just reading it; they have to think.
One of them was a guy trying to lift weights, and he was too weak to lift the
weights. And that had to do with the enamel breaking down and becoming weaker
and turning into a cavity. So that is not just words that they are reading.
Madeline is very conscious of educational trends such as learning styles, and all
students entering the dental hygiene program must take a learning style assessment.
That is something we have them do so they know what their learning style is. And
I know, what it is so that we know, if they are having difficulty, we know the
different things that will help them with their learning style.
She incorporates principles and activities from writing across the curriculum in her
community dentistry course. She described a writing assignment:
So I tell them, you have a dental clinic. You decide where it is, and you decide
what you are going to do, and you decide how you are going to do funding. It can
be your dream or whatever. And then you write how you are going to develop this
clinic and how you are going to eliminate some barriers to dental treatment. So
that is a writing assignment to help them apply their writing skills, but yet they are
applying what they learn in class.
As part of her philosophy of teaching, Madeline has communicated some of the learning

theory from her graduate program to her students.

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Since I’ve gone through my program, I’ve tried to incorporate trying to teach
them a little bit about the learning process so that they realize, that yes sometimes
you just have to memorize it to get a real basis, but then as you build on that, you
need to start comparing and contrasting things to do a deeper learning. So I try
and teach them that so that they know why they should be looking at a first molar
or a second molar, and why they should be different. I try and teach them a little
bit about learning so they realize what they should be doing.

Clinical instruction is, of course, very hands-on. In the clinical sessions she
supervises six students as they work with patients, and “we are working one-on-one with
students. It’s pretty much your entire time is working one-on—one with the students,
observing them, giving them feedback, encouragement or instruction, whatever they
need.” As a clinical instructor she must work with multiple constituencies.

The prep for clinic is kind of different than the prep for lecture because the prep

for clinic is more the where are we at, where are we at in the semester, what are

we doing, but it involves communicating with the receptionists, the faculty, the
students, the patients. The students are not as experienced in communicating with
patients. I have to call my patient, this is the problem, this is the treatment. So you
have to talk them through until they are comfortable to make that contact.

Like many of the other participants, Madeline feels the press of many
responsibilities.

I didn’t expect that when I came here that I would have a hard time keeping things

organized and everything. So and I think that what I have figured out is that you

are in this role and you are in the classroom, but then you are in the role as

45

helping out in the college, doing different things to get students, and you have
some other responsibilities in the college. And then, because I’m main clinical, I
have these faculty that I am working with. And then I have my classroom things
that I want to keep changing and making better and updating. So there are just so
many facets.
Her future at the college does not look like it will offer much respite from such
responsibilities. Now that she has a tenure-track position, she is beginning to prepare for
her tenure review. And as a result of retirements in her department, she will take on the
role of program coordinator next year.
Nicole
Nicole, a petite, energetic woman in her early forties, coordinates the sonography
program at Midwest Community College. Her introduction to full-time employment at
Midwest was stressful. During her thirteen years as a sonographer in a hospital, she had
worked with students during their clinical placements, but beyond that had no academic
experience except as a student herself. Nicole was hired five years ago to establish a
sonography program at Midwest and was given one semester to get the program up and
running. She confessed,
I didn’t know what I was getting into. Which in a sense was good because I
wouldn’t have taken the job. I was very na'r've. I thoroughly enjoy the job now, but
if I knew what I was up against then, I think I would have been too afraid to take
the job.

She remembers in those first days her division chair telling her:

46

That you will need to have outcomes and objectives for every single class. But

first I had to put the, design what the classes were going to be, the content and so

on. I didn’t even know what an outcome and an objective was. I got samples, and

I learned real quick, even though all the inner workings of a college, that I was

clueless on. But very quickly I had to go through all those processes to put the

program together. I had to develop the admission procedure, how were we going
to admit students, what was the criteria going to be, what was the process going to
be. Once I figured out the design to the program, how many credits per semester,
how many classes, then the next step was the outcomes and objectives. From
there I had to write the lectures and form the classes. At the same time I had to get
the program accredited.

When Nicole started at Midwest, she had only an Associate of Science in medical
radiography and a certificate in medical sonography. So during those first couple of years
on the job, she also completed a Bachelor of Science degree in medical sonography. This
additional education strengthened her case for promotion, and Nicole had been advanced
to assistant professor the prior year. Because she has been working on a series of one-
year appointments, she is not eligible for tenure. Midwest did not want to commit initially
to a permanent tenured position because the sonography program was new and had no
track record. Just the prior fall, local hospitals had been surveyed and, based on the
results, the college chose to keep the program and position on an annual renewal basis.
Although this made her continued employment somewhat tenuous, Nicole seemed

unconcerned. “Other than that I don’t worry about it too much. I automatically get my

47

letter every year. I generally forget the fact until they send me the letter telling me I’ve
been renewed.”

With those initial rocky years safely behind her, Nicole can now concentrate on
running the program and teaching classes. She receives six hours release time during the
year for her program coordinator responsibilities, which include budgeting, developing
and maintaining clinical sites, and working with her advisory board. Students in the
program take classes continuously for fifteen months, so Nicole does not have the option
of a summer break. The spring and summer classes she teaches are part of her annual
contractual load of thirty hours, and, consequently, she does not receive additional pay
for them.

Nicole’s classes are usually two hours in length and are mostly lecture. Lab skills
are taught in a single first semester class. Nicole’s teaching style has evolved over the
years from a traditional approach modeled after her own experience as a student to one
that is:

Much more focused on not just verbally giving them the information, but

having the student own the information and trying to get that information in their

long term memory and trying to get them to see how this information, all these
definitions and terms and so on, how it applies to their clinical setting.
She uses PowerPoint to accompany her lectures, but “not for the words. I tried that once
and hated it because all they were doing is looking at the slide and writing it down. But
I’ll throw slides up to illustrate what we are talking about, which is extremely helpful.”
Nicole took a “Writing to Learn” class offered by Midwest Community College

for its instructional staff and has incorporated writing activities into her classes.

48

I had them pull out a piece of paper and write me a scenario. I said you are the
sonographer. Make up the patient, make up whatever symptoms, and you have to
use x amount of all the new terms we used today. I said, you can borderline along
the edge of reality, but you have to use the terms correctly. And they had fun
doing that. I got some really funny stories. Another time I gave them two minutes
to write as many, I can’t remember what it was, but something we had talked
about the week before. And then other times I will have them, oh, make lists or
describe, different things like that. I find that the more they write and pull out that
paper and actually write something, the more it really helps to apply it.

Although she started at Midwest with no prior teaching experience, Nicole now

finds it the part of the job that she likes the best. She would happily give up her

administrative responsibilities.

Andy

I love teaching; I don’t want to quit. But I would love not to be the program
coordinator. I think the thing that would highly tempt me is a program that is
developed. A strong program, it has been around a long time, and the position is
just for a full-time faculty, and someone else is running it. That would be

tempting.

Andy has worked full-time in the nursing department at Midwest Community

College for two and a half years, but had been a clinical instructor while working in the

hospital for four years prior to that. He described his entry into teaching:

I was sitting in the nursing office, and one of the instructors from here [asked],

does anyone know anyone who might want to be a clinical instructor? And I said,

49

well, that is always something I was interested in, but I don’t know if I could do
that. Well, the next thing I knew, I was hired.
His seventeen years of experience in hospital nursing, working both as a staff nurse and
as a manager, have given him a practical background on which to base his teaching.
A friendly and gregarious man in his early forties, Andy puts much emphasis on
his relationships with students and colleagues
I’m a very open doors type of person, which is a bad thing sometimes. If I am
here, you are free to come in. For some reason I have asked my colleagues, is
there a light out there that says “come on in,” because I don’t get a thing done. I
do like it because it allows the students to come in. I want people to feel
nonthreatened by me, to feel welcomed that, whenever, if they are just down there
studying and some crazy question just pops in their mind, I am here to answer.
Perhaps because of the importance he attaches to these relationships, he is very sensitive
tocfificfint
I am a very I-have-to—make-everyone-happy type of person. Not that I’ve given
up on doing that, but I don’t let it bother me to the degree that it used to. It used to
drive me insane when one person would say, “he was not available.” And I was,
oh my god, I keep the door open all the time, and I tell them any time. When
someone says, I’m not available, I just want to drop over dead because that is not
me at all. I used to take some of that stuff really personally, and then I would be
like, I’m a total failure. But what I’ve realized is that there will always be that
percentage, that no matter what you do, you may get some negative feedback and

that’s OK.

50

Andy has two master’s degrees. Prior to his employment at Midwest, he obtained
a Bachelor of Science in nursing and a Master of Science in Administration. When he
began working full-time as a teacher, he returned to graduate school and completed a
Master of Science in Nursing. Thus far, Andy has not been reviewed for either tenure or
promotion.

Andy’s teaching responsibilities include both classroom and simulation labs on
campus and clinical instruction in the hospital. Weeks of clinical assignments alternate
with weeks of on—campus instruction. The classroom sessions are long, stretching five or
six hours. He tries to keep the students engaged by asking questions and including a
variety of activities.

I tend to talk about what I think is the newness of the topic and then get into doing

a case study. So now they have been given some information so they can do a

case study and start applying some of the information. So I will do things like

that. I have developed some games. Sometimes, like maybe you take a topic and
develop a Jeopardy game to change things around a little bit.
As was true of the other health careers faculty at Midwest, Andy accompanies his
lectures with PowerPoint presentations.

Simulation labs are interspersed in the classroom work. The labs typically
demonstrate some of the apparatus the students will encounter in their practice and offer
them an opportunity to work with it.

When we do trach suctioning, we talk about all the different trachs there are. We

demonstrate it, show how to clean it, talk about why it is important. But then we

break out, and each student does that process. And during that process, I give

51

them scenarios. You have a patient who has had a trach for thirty years. This is

what you are finding. Maybe I make them tell me what their assessment findings

are, make them be creative.

Hospital days stretch ten hours starting at 6:30 AM. Andy supervises ten students
during this time. He arrives before his students in order to make patient assignments,
keeping in mind the skills level and previous experience of each student.

As the semester progresses each student gets more and more patients. When we

first start off, each student gets just one patient. But they have not been in the

hospital; they have to learn the paper work. I don’t know their competencies with
medications, so everyone has to run their medications past me. So it keeps you
hopping because there are constantly things coming up.
Clinical assignments are not just all hands-on work. Students are required to complete
written reports about their work.

They all submit paperwork to me that goes through what we call the nursing

process in terms of having gathered data on their patients, putting it together,

coming up with nursing diagnoses, looking at implementations of things to help
the person evaluating that. So that is all written and interpretation of the data and
stuff. So I, then at a point when I can sit down actually, I provide lots of written
feedback to then.

The future is wide open for Andy. He hopes to continue teaching for the
foreseeable future and plans to get a doctorate. However,

I can pretty much guarantee you that I will not retire from here because I am a

person who likes changing environments. I have twenty-five years left to work,

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and I would anticipate at least two major job changes. Not because I don’t like

this place, but because I am a person who thrives on changing environments.
Angela

Angela, an African-American woman in her late thirties and the only minority
participant in this study, began her career at Midwest Community College as an adjunct
instructor in the business and information technology department because “I just needed
something to keep my sanity with two little babies at home.” She has twin sons, one of
whom has been diagnosed with autism. Prior to this she worked as a computer network
engineer and administrator and systems analyst for some six years at a variety of
organizations, as well as a stint in the Army Reserves. After two years of adjunct work,
she was hired full-time to teach computer science. During her four and a half years as
full-time faculty, Angela had been granted tenure and promoted to assistant professor.
She came to Midwest with a Bachelor of Science in computer science and Master of
Science in technology management, and she is now working on a Doctorate in Business
Administration.

Angela teaches a heavy course load of both face-to-face and online classes. The
semester I interviewed her, she taught eight different classes and more than the minimum
fifteen contact hours. Anything over fifteen hours qualifies for supplemental pay, and
overloads are the norm in her department.

But if you probably looked at our collective schedules —— fifteen is the semester

minimum — the average in our department is probably eighteen or nineteen. We

have some people who teach twenty something hours. This is the first year that I

have carried under nineteen hours myself, and I felt like I was slacking. But it

53

wasn’t that I was slacking, but I had so many preps. I think that if somebody did
slack that we would probably fall apart, because a lot of us are carrying way over
load.
The majority of the face-to-face classes are half lecture and half lab. During her
lectures, Angela tries to encourage student interaction.
So in a typical class session, there is lecture, there is discussion. I make the
students interact. I’ll put them on the spot, call them by name, ask them to answer
a question. If they don’t know the answer, I tell them. you’ve got a friend next to
you. Ask your friend. I try to make sure I’m not the only resource that they have
in class. So I try to really promote a lot of interaction among the students in class.
During the lab portion of the class, students actually use the application software, and
Angela works individually with them.
We have a specific set of exercises that they go through. It’s guided like the first
15 minutes. I’ll get everyone situated so they know what’s expected, and then it is
at your own pace. And students ask questions. Depending upon the lab, some
students may have more questions than others. And then also depending upon the
students’ level of understanding. Some students are just typically good at
computers, and they may never ask questions. While I may have those that are
terrified and, is it OK to touch this key? So in a class session I may have certain
students who I almost have to hold their hands or they are more comfortable if I
am just standing in the vicinity. And then I may have a group of students who

other than, what am I to turn it to you, don’t ask any questions. It varies. During

54

the lab I am walking around, some of them holding their hands, others answering

their questions.

Besides her course and department curriculum work, Angela is very involved with
the shared governance structure at Midwest Community College. She serves on five
standing committees, a role she values.

It breaks up just being in my little world of teaching. It allows me to see how the

college is actually run. And some of the policies that have to be in place to make

the college function. No, I don’t find it to be a burden. I think it is part of the
continuing learning process, because there is more to, the primary function of the
college is to serve our students through our teaching, but there is more to making
that institution run than just teaching. And I think that being able to be on both
sides of that makes me a better teacher, makes me better in my first job.

Angela anticipates an extended career at Midwest Community College. Currently
one of the youngest in her department, she will become one of the senior members in a
few years due to retirements. She hopes to complete her doctorate and move through the

academic ranks to full professor. In time, she would like to move into an administrative

role.
Eventually I would like to be a decision maker, and I think that the experience
that I bring from being in class and being on the faculty side will give me a very
broad perspective on what the needs are of students, faculty.

Theresa

Theresa graduated from the program at Midwest Community College in which

she now teaches. She had been a full-time Computer-Aided Design (CAD) instructor

55

working with both the architectural and mechanical departments for two and a half years
when I interviewed her. Theresa is not in a tenure-track position, instead working under a
series of one-year renewable contracts. Her position is in limbo until it is clear whether or
not her department chair will step down and resume teaching the CAD classes. She is
eligible for promotion, though, and was in the process of assembling her packet for
review.

In addition to the Associate of Science degree from Midwest, Theresa has both a
Bachelor of Science in Education and a Master of Arts in industrial education, acquiring
these over a period of some thirty years. Her initial start in college was interrupted by a
twenty-five year hiatus during which she married and started a family. Now divorced and
living alone, she is not only teaching but also serving as her own architect and contractor
for an addition to her home.

Theresa’s degrees provided her with background in education, and she student
taught in a high school career center. However, having had some college adjunct teaching
experience and knowing that “that high school was a lot of crowd control, especially
where I was located,” she did not pursue K-12 teaching positions.

Before joining the Midwest faculty, Theresa worked for four years as a CAD
technician and detailer in architectural and construction firms. She also taught as an
adjunct faculty member at Midwest for four or five semesters, experience that helped
prepare her for her full-time classroom responsibilities.

Soft-spoken and reserved, Theresa is one of two women in the Technical, Trades,
and Manufacturing department at Midwest Community College. She is conscious of her

position as a role model for female students in the predominantly male field.

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Sometimes if I only have one girl, the girl will drop and that bothers me. I hope
that just by the fact that there is a female instructor that she doesn’t think she is in
the wrong place. All that we are aware of, how people might treat male and
female students differently in the class. Me and the other female instructor in the
department have gone to a class about how to recruit and retain women in
nontraditional fields. So I try to do self-examinations. Are you giving both of
them the same kind of attention and validation?

Theresa normally carries a course load of nineteen or twenty contact hours, above
the base load of fifteen hours. Because most of her CAD classes have only one section,
this translates into many different course preparations.

I have five preps every week. Last semester was the, I’ve been working, let’s see

this is my sixth semester. Last semester was my first semester with three preps,

and it was a whole different ball game. You could handle the meetings and the
other obligations besides your classroom obligations. Right now I am pretty well
swamped.
In addition, some of the classes must be offered at night to accommodate the schedules of
working adults, so she usually has to teach two or three nights a week until eight or nine
o’clock.

Theresa’s class sessions usually include some lab time during which students
work on projects using the CAD software. She typically begins by talking about a
particular CAD project, demonstrating the software, and then working with students

individually as they try to complete the activity.

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My average class I would go in and usually I try to tell them what I am going to
Show them, just kind of a brief run through what this class is going to be about.
Maybe an estimation of how long the demonstration will be because what they are
really interested in is, when will she be done and how much free drawing time
will we have at the end of class. And then the demonstration. The
demonstration I work at my computer, and it is shown on a screen. I have to work
on moving the cursor slowly enough, talking slowly enough, maybe saying
something twice in different words. So I talked about it, they’ve seen me do it,
and then they, with the help of their notes and my help, do it. There is always at
least that last half hour for lab time. During that time they start the drawing. Now
that they are taking better notes they are working much more independently.
There may be two or three with questions, and I’ll answer them and then there
might be four or five minutes when there are no questions. And then there will be
a few more questions.

In part as a result of the classroom assessment class that she took at Midwest and
prompted by her work on the campus assessment committees, Theresa has been
considering introducing some new elements into her classes.

That is something probably I could work into an assessment thing. Maybe just a

little card that they could write which concepts are still hazy, and I could do a

quick review. I wouldn’t mind having a writing assignment that was just a

short paragraph, just technical note that you might have to write to somebody else

who is working on the same drawing halfway around the world. The type of

writing that they would do on the job because our students traditionally do not

58

like to write, but that type of an assignment, knowing that it is going to be a

necessary part of your job.

For the future, Theresa hopes that her position will become a tenure track one and
that she can remain in the classroom.

And the other thing is the closure and the fresh beginning. I love it. When I

worked in industry we worked so hard, and you met one deadline and three more

had popped up. No matter how hectic it gets, there is that day when you are going
to turn final grades in and as soon as you do that you are going to start thinking,
how can I do this better next time. And then there is that brand new fresh
beginning. And I love those fresh beginnings. I can’t imagine ever going back to
industry.

Multi-Campus Community College

Founded in the mid 19505, Multi-Campus Community College is a large
community college serving a suburban county in an extensive metropolitan area. The
college enrolls over twenty thousand students at two large campuses and two smaller
satellite locations. Roughly 28% of these students are enrolled in career education
programs based on credit hours.

Two hundred thirty full-time faculty work at Multi-Campus. An independent
union represents them. Instructors can achieve tenure after three years, and it requires
administrative review and recommendation. No salary distinction is made for advanced
degrees, nor are there opportunities for promotion. Salary increases are based on years of

service and negotiated raises.

59

The four faculty interviewed represent very diverse fields — welding, vehicle
design, culinary arts, and automobile service. Descriptions of these faculty and some of
their teaching practices follow. I was only able to arrange one interview with Randy, and,
consequently, have a little less information about him.

Henry

Henry teaches welding in the Applied Technology department at Multi-Campus
Community College. The Applied Technology courses were originally designed to serve
the training needs of apprentices, who were essentially paid by their employers to attend
school. As a result of a downturn in the economy, however, fewer companies were
sending their employees to school, and the Applied Technology classes suffered a drop in
enrollment. Even though they began enrolling more non-apprentice students, Henry
expressed some discouragement, describing the situation as a “hopeless environment.”

Henry worked as a welder and millwright in a variety of manufacturing firms for
more than twenty years when his wife passed away, leaving him with two young boys. In
order to better accommodate his sons’ school schedules, Henry enrolled at Multi-Campus
Community College intending to become a science teacher. While attending classes he
also worked as a lab assistant in the welding lab. When illness prevented the full-time
welding instructor from teaching a retraining class for the millwrights of a local
company, Henry was asked to substitute.

And the gentleman from [the local company], upon their evaluations, wow, this

guy really knows a lot about welding. Well, little known to them, I had been a

welder for twenty-five years. So I had already had a joumeyman’s card as a

welder and also a millwright. So when [the full-time instructor] came back and

60

saw the credentials, it was, oh my god I didn’t know you had this, and how would

you like to teach a welding class?

Although Henry was still intent on obtaining a teaching degree in science, the retraining
contract with the local company grew to the point where he was teaching three forty-
hour, week-long classes a month. He was hired as a temporary full-time instructor six and
a half years ago and two years later became a permanent faculty member.

Henry characterized himself as a professional student. He completed his
associate’s degree at Multi-Campus and then went on to complete a Bachelor of
Technical and Integrated Studies degree. He also has started coursework for a master’s
degree.

Now that the classes in the Applied Technology department include many more
non-apprentice students, they are offered primarily in the evening. So Henry’s day
typically starts between noon and four o’clock and runs to 10 PM. In addition to his base
load of fourteen contact hours, he usually also teaches the maximum allowed limit of
twelve extra-contractual hours. The heavy teaching loads that he and his fellow
department member carry take their toll on the instructors.

And then frankly, you have the blackboard burnout phase where you’ve taught so

many courses to so many people, a lot of different expectations. I can see where a

lot of people can easily become very lackluster, basically going through the

motions and then want to leave. I can see that happening.

The courses in the Applied Technology department differ from those in other

technical departments in that they include more lab time. During a two-hour class

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session, Henry follows a standard format of lecture, demonstration, and then time for
students to practice in the lab.

We would generally begin on a topic, a lecture, whatever the topic would be for

the day. The lecture could last from anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour and a

half. We will then convene in the lab across the hall. Generally I would do a

demonstration, and time permitting, at that point they indeed do their exercise

doing the same thing. Basically they go across the hall ninety-nine percent of the
time. It is about a fifty - fifty lecture/lab time. So basically they will go out and
practice the skills. We will do whatever is required until about ten minutes before
the class. Then we will go through a clean up process.

While his students work in the lab, Henry is “following them around. I am
basically in just about all the welding booths or in the front of the room where they are
able to catch me and drag me around.”

More than any other participant, Henry expressed a sense of division between the
occupational and the liberal arts faculty.

By and large I don’t think the tech areas are revered as being as good as the

liberal arts. I think there is maybe, to use a term, a caste system, the lords and the

commons if you will. There certainly is a split.

However, some of this may be a reflection of his own feelings. When he returned
to school, he had wanted to leave the vocational field and become a science teacher.

I really didn’t want to be a vocational teacher because I had done it so long in the

field. It is not a glamorous profession. Maybe none of teaching is, but I think that

some are better than others. And working in an industrial climate is usually less

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than clean. You’ve got a lot of grime and dirt and smoke. Obviously you see this

room right here and it looks like a factory. Most of the time you come to work

wearing work clothes rather than a suit and a tie.

Perhaps also due to some insecurity, Henry was given to exaggeration. He
described how he had averaged three or four thousand hours a year as a part-time
instructor, a feat that would have required him to teach sixty to seventy—five hours every
week of the year. At another point he claimed that “on a daily basis I am here about 14
hours,” contradicting an earlier statement. He described his seven-man department as:

A department that I guess basically because of its nature has a reputation of

almost the bad boy image —- the motorcycle person with a black leather jacket.

Throughout the college, the applied tech area are the guys that go out and get dirty

and basically work.

Henry would like to finish his career at Multi-Campus.

This is a wonderful job. If everybody does their part, this is a job, this one of the

best jobs, one of the best careers you could ever have. I think it is a good paying

job. It has very flexible hours. Again, the companionship, the interactions, the

exploration is just phenomenal. You’ve got tremendous freedom. It is one of the

few jobs you’re not punching a clock. It has tremendous professional rewards.

Obvious social rewards — you are in a position that is revered quite highly in the

community.

His concern, however, is that with contracting economy and shifting school
priorities the position may not last. “So that would be advice I would give to someone.

Fantastic job if you can keep it.”

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Ginny

Ginny, the youngest of the participants at thirty-three, is an engaging and involved
instructor in the Vehicle Design program at Multi-Campus Community College. She
completed an Associate of Applied Science in automotive body design at Multi-Campus,
worked as 3 engineering design analyst at an automobile company for six years, and then
returned to Multi-Campus as an adjunct instructor. She had not sought the teaching
position, but was actively pursued by the COOperative education director at Multi-Campus
to the point of calling her three or four times a day. She taught one class and thoroughly
enjoyed the experience. “That one semester, that four months gave me so much
satisfaction from a job perspective in comparison to what it was like in the industry, that I
instantly fell in love with it.” After the semester of adjunct teaching, she applied for a
full-time instructor’s position in vehicle design and was hired to teach the CAD programs
used in the automotive industry. When I met her, she had completed five years of full-
time employment at Multi-Campus Community College. She was married but did not
have children.

Although she has almost two hundred credit hours of college coursework, Ginny
does not have a bachelor’s degree, a fact that she regrets.

Sometimes I think to myself, what have I done wrong? I’m always going to

school. I have to stop. I haven’t taken one program — design, engineering,

management, what next. That’s why I tell my students, finish your degree. Take it

from a person that knows.

The lack of academic credentials contributes to some professional insecurity.

64

Because I definitely feel intimidated by the fact that I don’t measure up a lot of
times — not from a teaching perspective so much — but I don’t have a master’s
degree. And I know that is a requirement in the arts and sciences, but it is not

here. Although I may have been well trained and had a great career in industry, I

still don’t have the credentials necessarily. .

The vehicle design classes are all scheduled at night since most of the students are
working, so Ginny’s workday runs fiom four to ten o’clock at night. During the day she
either works from home on her laptop or is on campus for office hours or meetings. Her
teaching load consists of four four—contact-hour classes that meet in two-hour blocks. The
classes meet in computer labs where Ginny leads her students through CAD projects that
she had created.

But afier that I essentially sit up at the front of the class and make sure they know,

number one, what’s required of them for the day. Ask before I start the new

material if they had problems with the previous material. Then I go through on
the software myself, the projects that they will have to create. Usually the first
project I’ll go through from beginning to end and the second, third or fourth I will
just highlight the areas where I think they might get hung up. And then they
will go through and basically start the project. And I will basically go down each
row. Each row, first row, does anyone have a problem? If I see a student
struggling, I will work with him individually. Or if I see a number of students

with the same problem, I will stop the class and then cover that portion in a

lecture again. I am a firm believer that the only way they are going to learn that

software is to actually work on it.

65

In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Ginny has assumed the role of
unofficial department head. In that capacity she is heavily involved in recruiting students
for her program and student advising. “My typical day basically starts off with answering
roughly fifteen to twenty voice mail messages, easily. Depending if it is registration,
when it goes to eighty-five a day. Tons of voice mail, tons of email responses.” She is
passionate that her students her students are exposed to the most current software and
methods and is fearful that her technical skills are rapidly becoming obsolete because
industry standards change so quickly. Consequently, as she contemplates her future, she
would like to stay in education but wonders whether she will seek a more administrative
role.

I am not quite sure what position or capacity that I would be working in. I don’t

think that I would want to work in a strictly advising role because I would still

want to have my hand in some of the curriculum and working with the different
corporations and the advisory committee. I’m not really sure. I would almost like
to teach part time and have more of the administrative or organizational type
position.

Carlos

Carlos had been the full-time pastry chef and baking specialist in the culinary arts
program at Multi-Campus Community College for three and a half years when I
interviewed him. As did most of the other participants in this study, he had begun as
adjunct faculty at Multi-Campus, teaching for five years before he was hired full-time.
Prior to his full-time employment at the college he had worked as a pastry chef for about

fifteen years, both as the owner of his own pastry shop and for a hotel.

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F oreign-bom, Carlos attended pastry school in his native country with the hope of
one day immigrating to the US. This two-year certificate is his only degree. While
working as an adjunct instructor, he took some classes at Multi-Campus, including
psychology and assessment classes, in order to enhance his chances for full-time
employment. He is sensitive about his lack of credentials.

I’m not a professor; I will never be a professor. I call myself an instructor because

I don’t have the degrees that go with being a teacher, and I don’t want to insult

somebody who actually went to school to be a teacher by calling myself a teacher

or a professor. I don’t think that is right. So I see myself as, what I had them put
on my business card, chef instructor, because I am a chef instructor.
He takes a very business-like approach to his work and chafes at what he perceives to be
the differences between academia and the workplace.

Again because I come from industry, where if things have to get done, they get

done now. That’s the way I am. If something has to get done, it gets done now.

It’s not, let’s plan for eight months down the road. As an example, we had a new

faculty. They started in August of last year. We finally we got the chef’s coat for

him last Friday. It has taken countless phone calls. This is the sort of thing that in
industry, it would be done in three days. It just a small example, but it shows you
something. It’s a very small example. So much paperwork.

Carlos usually arrives on campus each day between six and six-thirty in the
morning to prepare for class. Class preparation may involve pre-heating ovens, preparing

bread dough so that it has time to rise, and getting the kitchen equipment and supplies

67

ready. Class sessions are typically six hours long, consisting of an hour or so of lecture
and classroom work and four hours of lab in the kitchen.

As an example, today they are making cookies, so we are going to discuss the

methods of making cookies, and the different types of leavening agents, and the

different ways of making cookies. When that is all done, we take a short break
and move on to the bakeshop. They are already in their uniforms. They bring in
their toolbox, wash their hands, get their sanitizer buckets, wipe the table down,
and get their assignments.
In the kitchen Carlos demonstrates a procedure or technique and the students, working in
groups of two or three, try it themselves under Carlos’ supervision.

And basically as the instructor, I don’t stand around, but I am there to give a

demonstration. If there is something to demonstrate, I will do it right there. And

they will go back to their stations and do it. And I walk around between groups

and kind of supervise, but also help if they have a problem, like piping a cookie a

certain way. Then I will show them and even more individually at the station

rather than from the group demonstration at the front of the class.

Days are long for Carlos. Several days a week he has evening classes that last
until nine or ten at night. However, he has no complaints about the hours since “I used to
do long days when I was in the field; you’re working bakeries or whatever, twelve-hour
days are regular days.” He teaches the maximum number of extra-contractual hours
above his base load, in large part due to a lack of qualified adjunct faculty.

And sometimes I want to tell them I don’t have the faculty to teach that class. Pay

me at the rate of adjunct faculty; I don’t care. But I need to teach that class. I

68

don’t have the faculty to teach it. I can’t bring in a monkey to teach that class. Pay

me the $30, pay me even at the rate of a sub, I don’t care. I’m not doing it for the

money. We need to teach that class.

In addition to teaching responsibilities, Carlos and the other culinary arts faculty
participate in numerous extracurricular and public service activities. They send students
to competitions, do cooking demonstrations on the local food shows, and participate in
“taste of the region” fundraisers, and in the process generate positive publicity for the
coflege.

So like the president said, we are kind of like the football team of the college even

though we are not in sports because we do bring a lot of good publicity and press

to the college. So I guess they get their money’s worth in that way.

Carlos has no desire to leave teaching. The combination of working with students
and a better schedule makes academia much more attractive than industry.

I really love my job here now. I love the sharing part. I have to be honest with you

— I love the schedule. How many jobs are you going to work and have almost 20

weeks off a year. When you work in the industry you have two weeks paid time

off. If you are lucky you can get a third one after ten years. I worked all the
holidays. I’ve come home on Christmas Eve after working 36 hours straight and
crashed on the couch and not seen Christmas with my kids because I was zoned
out on the couch. I worked all the Mother’s Days when my kids were growing up,

all the Easters. I’ve paid my dues.

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Randy

When I interviewed him, Randy was in his fifth year of full-time employment in
the automotive service department at Multi-Campus Community College. His first four
years were spent teaching in a corporate-sponsored service training program in which
students spent two years alternating between coursework and dealership internships. In
the current year he was teaching a new one-year program for service technicians that he
had developed. Prior to working at the college, Randy was employed by an auto parts
supplier. He had also taught as an adjunct instructor at Multi-Campus.

Randy had earned a Bachelor of Science in Training in Business and Industry
before starting to teach at Multi-Campus. During his first two years of full-time teaching,
he also had to complete a series of training modules offered through an automotive
manufacturing company.

Randy developed the new one-year program in part because he predicted that the
downturn of the local economy would reduce the number of dealerships willing to
participate in the corporate-sponsored training program. He displayed obvious pride in
the new program and was involved in the whole range of student-related activities, from
recruiting to advising to registering to instructing. The program also allowed him to
spend more time with his young family.

Last year, because I was low man on the totem pole, I was here four mornings and

four nights. I left the house Monday at noon and I didn’t see nobody awake at the

house until Friday afternoon because I had 8 AM class. I left the house at 6 AM. I

live about an hour away. Class would get done at noon. Next class began at 6. I

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did paperwork in between. So basically I didn’t see the kids until Friday

afternoon.

In his new accelerated program, students take about fifty-five credit hours of
automotive classes in one year. During each four-week period, students take two classes,
each one meeting four times during the week. The students and Randy are engaged in
class from 8 AM to 5 PM, Monday through Thursday — a three or four hour class in the
morning, a break for lunch, and a second class in the afternoon. The classes are a
combination of both lecture and lab work.

Most classes are, generally between forty and sixty percent hands-on versus
lecture.

The first couple of weeks, like in electrical the first couple of weeks of class

sections, it’s a lecture. You’ve got to get the fundamentals out of the way. Then

after that you probably get fifty, sixty percent hands on, the rest, you know, going

back over the labs, talking about it. Getting back, reviewing what we just covered.
During the last four weeks of each semester students spend the entire day in the lab
working on the cars of other faculty.

But now, in our lab, strictly lab, what I do is have the students who are service

advisor, or service advisor for the week, they take calls, they schedule work, they

talk to customers. And I’m out there just facilitating the lab, making sure that
bolts are tightened up and making sure nothing is going wrong, hopefully.

The compacted teaching schedule puts Randy at the maximum allowable hours
for his base load and extra-contractual. In fact, during the summer he will be paid at

“greed rate” because he will have exceeded the number of hours allowed for extra-

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contractual, a move that he figures will cost him twenty to twenty-five thousand dollars.
The schedule also doesn’t allow time for committee work.

But right now if you want to keep the department going, there’s so much to do

keep this thing going. I mean, I attend meetings and all, get involved, but it’s not

like I’m joining committees here and there. It’s like there is no time; there’s so
much more to do, especially in the tech ed field. I wish I had time, but you got to
prioritize it.

When he first joined Multi-Campus, Randy thought that he might one day move
into an administrative role as an associate dean. After some observation, however, he
changed his mind.

That’s not a good career path — so many meetings, and his position. I don’t know

how your associate deans work, but I consider associate deans the toughest job to

have. Probably the worst job in the school. Because, one, you have to control, you
have to have authority over instructors, which has their own union. So really you
have no authority over these people because if it’s not in the contract, you don’t
have to do it.
Instead he plans to stay teaching. It is, he said, the “best kept secret out there. It is. This
job’s phenomenal.”
Summary

The ten participants, though working in varied areas, showed some remarkable
similarities in their backgrounds. With the exception of Madeline and Theresa who had
completed education degrees before starting at Midwest Community College, none of the

participants had intended to become teachers. All had worked in jobs outside academia

72

for a period of time ranging from four to twenty-five years and made their way into the
teaching ranks more by happenstance than deliberate planning. And all but Nicole had
worked as adjunct instructors at their respective colleges before they were hired full-time.

The group was older than might be expected given that they were early in their
academic careers. The youngest was thirty-three, and most of the rest were in their forties
or early fifties. They were fairly typical in their home lives. Theresa was divorced and
Henry widowed, but the rest were married. Most of the group had children; Ginny was
childless and Madeline and Nicole did not mention children.

All the teachers in this study expressed great enthusiasm for their work and
positive feelings about their schools. Nicole voiced interest in finding a job that was
solely teaching and did not entail program administration, and Andy indicated that
thought he had one or two more career moves left to make. The rest hoped to finish their
working careers at their colleges.

The following table summarizes the backgrounds of the ten participants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yrs Full- Adjunct at
Name Age Department time Demees college?
Midwest Community College
Respiratory

Matt 49 Therapy 2.5 BS Yes
AAS, BS,

Madeline 48 Dental Hygiene 2.5 MA Yes

Nicole 41 Sonography 4.5 AS, BS No

BSN, MSA,

Andy 42 Nursing 2.5 MSN Yes

Angela 38 Computer Science 4.5 BS, MS Yes
AAS, BS.

Theresa 54 CAD 2.5 MA Yes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

73

 

 

Yrs Full- Adjunct at
Name Age Dgpartment time Domes college?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mum-Campus Community College

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Henry 51 Applied Tech 5.5 AAS, BTIS Yes
Ginny 33 Vehicle Design 5 AAS Yes
Carlos 43 Culinary Arts 4 2-yr delee Yes
Estimated
around
|Randj 35 Automotive Service 4.5 AAS, BS Yes

 

 

The next chapter will explore the themes that emerged from the interviews and
how the occupational orientation of the participants affects their understanding of role

and place within their community colleges.

74

CHAPTER FIVE

Experience of the Career Education Faculty

Over the several hours that I spent with each of the participants we discussed their

experiences as teachers, the joys and frustrations of their work, and their interactions with

their colleagues. Each participant had his or her own story to tell that reflected the

particular background, the aspirations, and the orientation that he or she brought to the

job. Yet, common themes emerged from my analysis of the hundreds of pages of

interview transcripts. Four general themes will be explored in this chapter.

1.

Perceptions of Expectations. The participants spoke at great length about what
they considered their jobs to be. Their understandings of role were influenced
by the reward systems at their institutions.

Development as Educational Professionals. All the participants worked
outside education before becoming faculty. Learning their new jobs in the
colleges, and, in particular, learning how to teach were frequently discussed
topics.

The Role of Occupation in Mediating Perspectives. The vocational focus of
their backgrounds and educational programs influenced the participants’
approach to teaching, curriculum, students, and their colleges. Moreover, they
did not sever their ties with their occupational fields when they joined their
community colleges but found ways to maintain contact.

Relationships Within the Institution. Both their individual interactions with
colleagues and their perceptions as part of a group of career education faculty

within their schools displayed commonalities.

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Perceptions of Expectations

The role of a community college teacher is complex. Although there may be a job
description for the position, it usually is written in general terms that do not specify what
the new employee is to do from day to day. Instead, new faculty must construct their own
understandings of their job responsibilities and how best to carry these out. For the
participants in this study, this process is complicated by their previous work experience
outside of academia where job duties are typically better defined and more closely
monitored.

In this section I will explore the participants’ understandings of their roles as
career education faculty. From my conversations with the participants, it became clear
that the reward system in place at each of the two colleges was one of the factors
influencing the participants’ meaning making. Consequently, I have included a discussion
of the different reward systems and how they affected the participants’ perceptions of
their roles. Finally, I asked the faculty about their involvement in curriculum integration
since federal initiatives have placed emphasis on such activities. The section will close
with their responses.

Perception of Roles

It should come as no surprise that all of the participants saw their primary role as
that of teacher. As Angela described it, it was, after all, “the first job you have.” It was
also the part of their job that they enjoyed most. As Nicole stated,

I enjoy the teaching the most, and what I enjoy is what can I do different in my

class to help these students learn. I don’t look at it as just, well, I do look at it as,

yes, I have to give them all this information. But I don’t want to just give it to

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them. I want them to learn it, to know it. What can I do? So learning different

techniques that I can try. And I am trying them now. That’s my favorite part, the

actual teaching.
The old “seeing the light bulbs turn on” metaphor was mentioned by several of the
teachers. At both schools the base teaching load for a school year consisted of thirty
credit hours, although clinical and lab hours were counted somewhat differently.

Although all of the participants had spent years, some as many as twenty-five,
working in their occupational fields, they now identified themselves more as teacher than
as occupational practitioner. The shift from practitioner to teacher had for most been a
steady progression during their college employment, fueled by distance from the
workplace, education coursework for several participants, and the daily immersion in
school activities. For a couple of the participants, this shift was equated with losing
professional currency. Andy expressed his unease. “What’s the scariest is, if this trend
continues, how can I really teach what I need to teach if I am not up on it. And that is
to me a big concern.”

Although they may see teaching as their primary function, it was far from their
only duty. The teachers all enumerated many other responsibilities that they had, some of
which they had not anticipated. Nicole observed, “Well I was too naive to know what to
expect. All I envisioned was teaching them in the classroom. I didn’t envision everything
else that would be involved as a part of that.” And Andy added, “80, yes, this job has
come with all kinds of things that I didn’t necessarily expect. Because it is just more than

walking into a class, giving your presentation, turning around, and coming back out.”

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The specific responsibilities cited by the teachers varied somewhat, depending
upon their particular program. The participants whose programs required some sort of
clinical or internship placement, such as the health careers and the dealership service
training programs, were involved in working with the external sites. Finding hospitals or
dealerships that were willing to take on students and supervising students or clinical
instructors at these sites were time-consuming tasks. Matt reported that the two hours of
release time per semester he was allotted for his clinical supervision did not fully
compensate for the amount of time the work required. Andy discussed the effort he put
into maintaining good relations with the hospital staff.

Other than one or two times in six years, I have been very successful at keeping

everybody happy. I mean mainly the nurses at the hospital. Because, if over time,

every time I bring students there are issues, pretty soon they will say, Andy’s
bringing students here, and we don’t really want them. That has happened to
people in the past. They hear that students are coming, and everyone wants to
board up the place and keep them out. You don’t want to develop that reputation.

Lab maintenance was another constraint for several of the participants. Although
the computer labs all appeared to be serviced by another department in the schools,
ordering the raw materials used in labs, such as in the culinary arts program, fell to the
teachers in those areas. Henry described his responsibilities in the welding program.

We’ve got maintenance on the machines. As a mechanical device, they are

perpetually broken. We’ve also got to order supplies and have supplies on hand.

Unlike a traditional academic classroom that uses a chalkboard or blackboard, this

particular class uses a tremendous amount of consumables.

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Another challenge resulted from the demands of accrediting agencies. External
bodies accredited some of the programs, particularly in the health careers area. The
teachers in these programs had to periodically engage in self-studies in order to maintain
these accreditations. Carlos mentioned some of the requirements for the culinary arts
program.

We are an accredited program with the American Culinary Federation. So we

have to send reports to them, copies of all our classes, copies of our tests, copies

of our course outlines and syllabi. And they come here and do site visits every
three, five, or seven years.

Most of the participants had some responsibilities regarding adjunct faculty who
taught in their departments. Carlos was the adjunct faculty coordinator in his department;
Matt supervised the adjunct clinical instructors; Angela was “stewar ” for several classes
and served as mentor for the adjunct faculty who teach those classes. Ginny told me how
she learned that she was to oversee the adjunct instructors in the vehicle design program.

It was not too long ago I was sitting in a meeting and someone said, “Well you’re

the adjunct faculty coordinator in this area.” And I said, “What?” And they said,

“Yeah, your job is to hire and interview all the adjuncts.” We actually

recommend, and it is the associate dean that hires. But we are the one that are

supposed to recommend. So I thought OK. And now we are supposed to do all the
reviews. We are supposed to sit two times per semester in every adjunct’s
classroom and write a review. And that’s very difficult because we have classes

ourselves.

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All the participants had some involvement with advisory committees for their
programs. The advisory committees, consisting of representatives from local businesses
and industries, met several times a year to provide program advice about current practices
and needs of the occupational practitioners. Although both schools had an office that
helped to coordinate the advisory committees, the participants at the very least had to
attend and make reports at the committee meetings, and in other instances, to identify
potential committee members and manage the committee meetings. Ginny explained that:

We have a chairperson title, but usually myself and the gentleman that is now my

office partner, the probationary faculty member, our responsibility is literally to

get the people together, decide who we want on the committee. Come together
and write up an agenda and basically host the meeting.

Another challenge and task in which all the participants were engaged was that of
recruiting students because, in large part, their jobs depended on it. Matt told me, “When
I hired in, they said my job basically depended upon student load. That if we couldn’t fill
the program, that they were going to close the program down.” Unlike many liberal arts
departments such as English and mathematics where the courses are required of almost
all students, the career areas have to promote their programs. The participants were
involved in such activities as career days for high school students, competitions that
brought the high school students to the college, and conferences for high school teachers.
Ginny described some of her experiences:

The recruiting thing, that’s such, it’s such a drain on us. We have the Learn and

Earns, and visiting the high schools, having the high schools here. The Learn and

Earn, it happens once a semester. And it’s where they bus literally thousands of

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high schools in. And it is literally just myself and my office partner standing

there. And I’ve had it where I’ve literally stood up on a chair and had students and

parents handing out flyers and screaming at the top of my voice trying to give
them information. And it’s fun and it’s exciting, you know. I feel great leaving it.

But you are also exhausted. Because while you are there you are thinking, all

right, I have a substitute teacher teaching my class right now.

Some of the teachers also recruited students from companies. This was particularly
common in the Applied Trades area where the department secured training contracts for
employees of a business.

Another role that the participants mentioned was that of student advisor and
confidant. This role was usually construed as a welcome challenge. Randy described his
experience.

You’re an advisor; students come to you before a counselor. You’re a mentor

whether you want to be or not with students because, you know, a lot of these

students have never thought about college before. Especially in the trades fields
now. It’s not like you are dealing with academics.
Andy found himself engaged some of the personal problems of students lives in addition
to their academic dilemmas.

Like helping people deal with difficult situations in their lives. I don’t know if it is

my responsibility, but sometimes people come, and they just put it on you. So

trying to help them will do that. Sometimes you help them because it is truly

impacting their academic performance. So in that regard I look on it as a

professional responsibility.

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Several mentioned how they saw that student focus to be one of the differences between
community colleges and four-year schools. In a discussion about her adjustment to the
community college Angela talked about how that involved:

Learning that you are in a smaller environment and not having the university

attitude and having more of a community college attitude. It is more one-to-one,

smaller classroom size, knowing who your students are. Whereas in a big
university setting, how many professors or instructors can you talk to at a big
university who can actually tell you face—to-face, who their students are, when
they had those students, and maybe what classes they had them for. Most of my
students, I remember, see them in the hallway. They’ll come by to just talk, that
sort of thing.

Committee work is a hallmark of academic life, and most of the participants were
involved in committees. In this regard, however, there was a contrast between the two
colleges. At Midwest Community College all the participants listed several committees in
which they were involved and generally attached value to their participation. Matt
contrasted his experience at the college to that at the hospital.

The good thing about being on committees, I feel, I feel that instructors in the

college have more control over the college than a therapist has in the hospital. In

the hospital we have no input in any of the policies, the procedures. Here at the
college we are actually on committees to hire our co-workers. You never see that
in the hospital. In the hospital they come on and say here’s the new employee.

Here we are actually involved in the selection process.

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When discussing some of her colleagues, Nicole mentioned, “You can tell the people
who are committed to the institution because they are willing to be on this committee or
that committee because that’s something important to them.”

At Multi-Campus Community College committee participation and the apparent
value of this participation was markedly different. Two of the teachers there were
members of a couple of committees, but the other two had no committee involvement.
Henry, who belonged to both the faculty senate and the assessment committee, said that
there was very little pressure to join committees.

It is pretty much open as far as if you are interested, certainly you are encouraged

but it is not required. It is, as you can well imagine, it is pretty much the same

people involved all the time. The doers do and the don’ts, don’t. I don’t know.

If we’ve got forty, fifty people, we’re probably looking at twenty-five percent

doers, by and large.

One of the differences between the two colleges that might account for the differing
participation levels is the reward system in place at each school and will be explored in
the next section.

So, in addition to teaching and its associated activities of curriculum work, class
preparation, and grading, these career education teachers had a host of other
responsibilities. Ginny felt weighed down by the expectations.

The only thing that I would say that I’m a little disheartened by is that I feel

completely overwhelmed. It is, I think that as instructors in this arena, we have so

many hats to wear, and it is hard to balance. And if you don’t know which one is

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most important — sometimes in hindsight you can tell, but a lot of times, our

administrators expect us to do so much in addition to our teaching loads.
Some of these responsibilities are shared by all parts of the college — attention to
students, recruiting and supporting adjunct faculty, participating in committee work.
Others are particular to career education faculty. Most general education faculty do not
have to worry about discipline-specific accreditation nor work with external sites for
student internships. Advisory boards are rarely used by liberal arts departments. Student
recruitment and program promotion are matters of survival for occupational faculty but
are largely ignored by faculty in such departments as English, mathematics, social
science, and science that offer the required general education classes. These additional
responsibilities give the career education teacher a perspective that is more directed
toward the world outside the college than that of their liberal arts counterparts.
Reward System

One of the structures in any institution that guides behavior, affects perceptions,
and reflects values is the reward system of the organization. Teachers in both schools had
written documents that defined compensation and delineated some work requirements. In
both cases these documents were negotiated by faculty senates that were not affiliated
with an external union, but the faculty at the two schools conveyed different senses of
their respective representatives. The teachers at Multi-Campus Community College
clearly saw themselves as represented by a union and referred repeatedly to their
“contract.” On the other hand, no mention was made of a union at Midwest Community
College and the document governing wages and working conditions was generally called

a “handbook.”

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Whether the presence or absence of a union made a difference in the teachers’
attitudes and understandings about their work was not clear. What was striking was how
the differing systems for tenure and advancement affected those understandings.

At Midwest Community College every participant introduced some aspect of the
school’s tenure and promotion system into our discussion. Midwest uses traditional
academic nomenclature for rank: instructor, assistant professor, associate professor, and
full professor. Progression through the ranks as well as tenure decisions are based on the
candidate’s teaching performance, contribution to the college, professional development,
and, to a lesser extent, community service. Promotion to a new rank brought with it an
increase in salary.

Faculty are guided through the tenure and promotion process by a mentor
committee who helps the instructor complete the application, observes the instructor’s
classes, and makes a recommendation regarding the promotion or tenure decision to the
instructor’s department. Department members review the candidate’s packet, make
suggestions for improvement, and, assuming department assent, forwards the application
on to administration for review and action. The same areas — teaching, college
contribution, professional development, and community service -— are reviewed for each
rank, but the standards to which the teacher is expected to perform are increased. Nicole
described the process:

There’s a template actually that we have to use. There are three parts that they

look at. They look at, of course, at teaching effectiveness. You have to have a

committee and members of your committee have to observe you teach and then

they will write up a report. You have to compile the statistics from all your course

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evaluations that you have collected over the years. That’s put together and that
goes in your packet. They also look at your involvement in the college community
and you have to obviously list everything that you have been involved in, the
committees you have been on. Professional development is a part of that. We
have to show all the professional activities that we participated in. and so really
by the time you’ve done all that it really is quite a useful tool. Granted it is quite a
huge process, a pain to go through, but is a useful tool because when you are
done, you have a pretty good sense.

Angela was anticipating her application for promotion to associate professor the

following year and explained the escalating expectations.
Teaching effectiveness — teaching is always first. And then as you go up the
ladder, my next promotion, I will be viewed next year this time next year, and
they will be looking at sustained teaching effectiveness; also college contribution,
and have I transitioned college-wide to the types of committees and work that I
am doing and beginning leadership roles. To make full professor, again teaching
effectiveness and what leadership roles have we taken on. Because when we get
to the rank of full professor they expect you to be a leader. Because we have the
adjuncts, the instructors and the assistant and the associate professors looking to
you for guidance. So this is sort of tiered in the responsibilities.
The effects of this process were readily evident in the culture surrounding

academic work at Midwest Community College. Instructors viewed their responsibilities

as reaching beyond that of their individual program. For example, all of the participants

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from Midwest were involved in committees outside of their respective departments. Andy
told me:

Now that people realize that I am done with my master’s program, now they want

to see me much more involved in college activities. So I’m getting involved in

college committees, getting involved in community types of things.

Continued professional development was encouraged. All of the Midwest
participants had been engaged in some sort of formal coursework since they had been
hired full-time at the college. Four of the six had been or were currently taking classes
toward degrees, and most had completed classes offered at Midwest for faculty on such
pedagogical matters such as Classroom Assessment Techniques and Writing to Learn.
When I asked Matt how it was that he had chosen to take the Midwest classes, he
responded that “Again, those were things my division chair recommended. And that
shows in that template that you are promoting your, increasing your level of knowledge.”
Similarly, he took colleagues’ recommendations to complete his master’s degree before
he applied for promotion.

They did tell me that I was eligible to go up for associate professor, that I could

get my committee going this year and I could apply for associate professor in

September. But when I got my assistant professor, two people recommended that

I get my master’s before I go up for associates, so I decided to wait a year. Higher

standards are applied for associate professor.

Tenure and promotion at Midwest required peer review, which appeared to be
received positively by the teachers. Theresa welcomed the support offered by her

committee.

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The head of my committee is and we have worked together. And she has been
very kind to share copies of what she had filled out. And there is another person
from the architectural discipline who is on my committee and then someone who
is from a completely different discipline, psychology. But all very nice people
who I respect. I am sure they will have very good suggestions. I will be observed
in the classroom. It will make me nervous, but not nearly as nervous as it would
have the first semester. You do kind of get used to it.
Angela similarly cast the peer involvement in a positive light.
They’re your peers, and everything they say to you is for you to grow. And it is
constructive criticism, and it is also support, because they want you to achieve the
tenure or get the promotion. So your peers take a real active involvement in what
you are doing. And if you are doing something that they think will hurt you, they
will tell you. And if you are doing something good, they will tell you that too.
The reward system at Multi-Campus Community College is quite different, and
the approach taken by the teachers there somewhat reflects this difference. At Multi-
Campus, increases in base salary stem from years of service and negotiated raises.
Additional degrees or coursework have no effect on a teacher’s wages. This dampened
interest in getting additional schooling, as Henry pointed out.
I think that one of the things that keep coming up in discussion and certainly here
at this school, professional development and reimbursement to go to these. There
is not a tremendous motivator to go to a university for advanced degrees. One of
the reasons is that it is out of pocket. There is no pay back in terms of wages and

in most instances there is no co-pay with the faculty, so it is strictly out-of-pocket.

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The master’s program at Wayne State, you can break it down to dollars and cents.

It is about a thousand dollars a four-hour class. So we’re looking at a ten

thousand, twelve thousand dollar cost. With books, registration, parking, you are

realistically closer to fifteen thousand dollars. Soto get a master’s, to put out
fifteen thousand dollars — in lieu of going to Hawaii, that doesn’t sound quite as
appealing.
Similarly, there are no incentives for participating in other professional development
activities. Ginny observed that “they are really trying to push the professional
development, but there is no requirement for professional development. It’s just basically
if you feel like going, if you feel it can benefit you.”

Participation in college-wide committees also appeared to be at the discretion of
the instructor. “It is pretty much open as far as if you are interested. Certainly you are
encouraged, but it is not required. It is as you can well imagine it is pretty much the same
people involved all the time,” Henry told me. Both he and Ginny both were involved a
couple of committees, but more as a matter of personal interest. Henry explained his
membership on the college assessment committee.

There was a stipend for actual time put in, very minimal, but nonetheless there

was pay involved, and I thought it would be an interesting thing to understand

how the system worked for actually measuring the learning outcomes. So it was
kind of an interest to me personally.
When asked, Carlos and Randy responded that they did not participate in any college-

wide committees and felt no pressure to do so.

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What was clearly compensated by contract was teaching. And this seemed to lead
some teachers to a narrowed perspective on the boundaries of their jobs. Although Randy
did many things besides classroom teaching to maintain his program, it seems that he saw
those tasks as not part of his regular job, things for which he was not compensated. “I’ll
be honest with you, you have the corporate program, half your time is spent on the paper
end of it, than you are actually teaching. But you get paid to teach, that’s where the pay
comes in. So it’s challenging.” He also viewed days for which he had no scheduled
teaching responsibilities as “time off.” Classes in his current program met Monday
through Thursday, and every Friday was unscheduled. In recounting his involvement in
college activities, he told me “like one Friday they had a, I think it was the NCA
recertification. It was that or another one. I went to that one. On my day off I went to that
meeting.” His co-workers encouraged this perspective when he first started teaching at
the college.

When I was in the corporate program, it was eight weeks on, eight weeks off. My

days my class wasn’t scheduled, I still was here. They’re like, “What’re you doing

here?” Working. “Why?”—- you know. “Go home.” I’m like, am I allowed to?

You are so used to always working, always having to be there. So when you get

the scheduled time off, it’s hard not to, you know adjust the time.

All four Multi-Campus teachers expressed some frustration with the lack of
accountability built into the system. Ginny told me:

It’s really sad, and, unfortunately, there are no checks and balances here. . .. Well,

I think that even though I enjoy it, there is a lot of freedom for faculty members, a

lot. And there are some that take that to one of the two extremes. One, some of the

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faculty members will go so above and beyond their call, and we have others that
take advantage of it and do the bare minimum. And there is no one, even though
we have an associate dean, the famous words on the street is that, “He’s not my
boss. I don’t have a boss. I am an individual, and I run by our contract, by the
union.” And it is really sad because there’s no one to, I won’t say monitor,
because they can give evaluations, good, bad or indifferent, but there’s no
consequences.

Randy expressed similar irritation with the different contribution levels of his colleagues.
Here it’s way more secure. I don’t know, sometimes I think it’s maybe too secure
for a lot of people. Yeah, some instructors, I know no matter where you go to,
what school you’re at, some instructors that bend over backwards, do more than
needs to be done. Other instructors do the bare minimum. And everybody gets
paid the same, or you know, on the scale. If I make a program drive — you got to
go out to the schools. You don’t get paid for that, but you’ve got to do that. About
half of us do and half of us don’t. You know, recruiting events, everything. It’s
just some people go beyond, other people do the bare minimum.

Carlos put some of the blame on the tenure system.

Well, I think I have a few more expectations, but I don’t think they are
unreasonable at all. I think we should all be accountable for what we teach and be
responsible and not just walk into the classroom and throw some papers and walk
out. To be honest with you, I’m sure that I would ruffle some feathers, but I really
don’t believe in the tenure system. I don’t personally don’t think that it should

exist. I think that if there were nothing, you probably would do a better job.

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Whereas the faculty at Midwest Community College engaged in peer review and
evaluation, the teachers at Multi-Campus did not take this role very seriously. Ginny
described how peer evaluations were conducted in her department.

There is a peer evaluation that is supposed to take place, and, unfortunately, what

the peers do, they sit in a room and say, “I think you did this good.” I mean they

don’t even come into your classroom. And I’ve asked administration, can I have
an administrator? And a lot of the faculty members kind of got on me. “If you do
this, then they’re going to want to come into everyone’s class.”

One other aspect of the reward system was under discussion during the time that I
interviewed teachers at Midwest Community College. At both colleges, lab and clinical
hours were not counted as equivalent to lecture hours in the computation of teacher loads.
At Midwest, an hour in lab or clinical was considered the equivalent of .8 of a lecture
hour. This had been a practice of long standing, going back as Madeline recounted, to
“when they decided there wasn’t as much prep time as for a lecture, and, therefore, it was
only worth .8 instead of l.”

A proposal to make the lecture and laboratory hours equivalent was under
consideration, a move that would require all teachers at Midwest to take a smaller raise
the following year in order to finance the change. Since lab and clinical hours fell
disproportionately in career education classes, the issue tended to pit the career education
faculty against some of the liberal arts instructors. Matt informed me, “And English and
math, they just don’t get it. What’s the big deal, why are you so worried? Because I am

working thirty hours and only getting credit for twenty-eight.” Not only did the .8

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equivalency necessitate the lab and clinical teachers spending more time on instruction,
but some, such as Andy, saw it as a value statement about their work.

The way I look at it is, whatever you do, you’re getting paid for your importance

within the system. And yet, someone has decided that the importance of learning

that occurs either in different type of environment, outside of this place, or
whatever, is not as important. I just don’t feel probably they really understand the
whole picture.

I spoke to Andy immediately following a faculty meeting at which the merits of
the proposed change were discussed. He was particularly animated as he recounted his
arguments in favor of the change.

So, for example, my understanding was the whole reason a lab class was paid at a

less amount than a lecture class was because it took less to prepare for it. But I

don’t find that to be true at all. As a matter of fact, I probably spend more time in

my lab-associated activities than in my lecture-associated activities. And then
people who teach primarily one-to-one or lecture-associated activities have talked
about alternate ways of learning, so now they aren’t even lecturing. They are
doing other things which to us sound like labs. And I think that is really what this
has come down to, as disciplines, you may teach mathematics, I may teach
nursing, the next person may teach science. The thing is, we are all teaching. And
we are teaching in a way that is helpful to student learning. In your setting it
might be all strictly classroom. In their setting, in order to help the student

effectively learn, not only do we teach in the classroom, but we do hands-on.

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The proposal to count lab hours as equivalent to classroom hours was approved a few
weeks later.

The reward systems at the two colleges were a powerful force in shaping faculty
understanding about roles and duties. The weight accorded to professional development,
committee involvement, and peer review at Midwest Community College provided
external impetus to the teachers to expand the scope of their responsibilities, and seemed
to contribute to greater integration of career education and liberal arts faculty. This aspect
will be explored further in the last section of this chapter.

Curriculum Integration

Curriculum integration, that is, the incorporation of traditional academics into
technical education, has been an approach strongly advocated by numerous policy
initiatives, notably the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Act. The
participants displayed different understandings of their roles in curriculum integration
that split along college lines.

At Multi-Campus Community College the instructors seemed largely unaware of
any efforts to include general education topics and skills in career education classes.
When asked about his involvement in curriculum integration activities, Carlos told me,
“We know it is they have to have so many credits of gen ed, but we don’t do any of it in
our classes.” Ginny’s response to a similar question was, “I haven’t had much direct
involvement in that.”

The participants at Midwest Community College had a higher awareness of

curriculum integration associated it with the assessment initiative at the college. Faculty

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had to identify which of the general education outcomes they addressed in each course.
Nicole explained the process.
Now in assessment we do look at all our classes and mark down what are the gen
ed assessment type of things, like reading skills, writing. We have this whole
sheet of paper where we mark, do they practice it our class or do they demonstrate
it? And that then goes on file with the official paperwork for the course. And we
do that for all of our courses.
The practice was seen as a means to document the sorts of activities already occurring in
classes. According to Angela, “We just have to identify what we are doing. Really we
have done it all along, it just hasn’t been stated. So when we look at revamping our
outcomes and objectives, we have to make sure those things [general education
outcomes] float to the top.” Nicole also felt that her courses incorporated many of the
general education skills.
Obviously they want us to be using that [general education outcomes], but
truthfully, we basically are anyways. There is a lot of writing that my students are
doing, obviously specific to ultrasound. And there is a lot of analytical critical
thinking. That’s another gen ed. So really it’s not that hard to incorporate it into
the class anyway.
Whether or not the assessment strategies prompted actual changes of teaching practices
was not clear, but a consequence of the course check-off seemed to be a heightened
awareness of the need to include general education skills. Theresa told me, “Now if I
mark some of these gen ed outcomes, I want to make sure that whether I am really

assessing them. And seriously looking at the ones that I don’t check off.”

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Development as Educational Professionals

The roles identified by the participants were many and varied -— teacher, advisor,
recruiter, clinical instructor, curriculum developer, and committee member. Such roles
bear little resemblance to their work prior to academic employment, so the participants
had many things to learn as new faculty members. How they came to understand their
jobs and, in particular, how they learned to teach, is the focus of this section. The section
will conclude with their observations about student learning.

Learning the Job

Starting a new job is a stressful life event for most people, and this was true for
the participants when they began their employment as full-time faculty. Even though all
but one of the participants had initially taught as adjunct faculty at their colleges, they
still felt overwhelmed. Matt told me, “I guess I shouldn’t say I wouldn’t do it over again,
but if every year was like that first year, I wouldn’t do it.”

Starting a new job in higher education may be even more difficult than in other
settings. At many colleges faculty work almost as independent contractors. They are
given class schedules and expected to construct their work life within and around those
rough parameters. As Randy described, “So it was pretty much thrown on my plate. It
was just basically, here’s your job. Here’s your classes.” Faculty are assumed to be
professionals who can work with little direction and with generic job definitions. While
that makes the first year challenging for all new faculty, it is particularly difficult for
career education instructors who for the most part leaving non-academic work settings
where typically supervision is tighter and job responsibilities more carefully defined.

Andy expressed how he initially felt overwhelmed.

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I guess sometimes, and I am not saying I didn’t have any guidance, but I think
basically this is how I felt. They hired you for a job, and because they felt you
were qualified to do it, and then they said, here you go. Here is your job, and just
let me know if you have any questions. So you like come in here and you’re like,
well do I have any questions? And then you realize, oh my god, you have five
million questions!

So how did the participants find the answers to these questions? They did so
primarily with the assistance of their colleagues. Office partners, departmental
colleagues, people with nearby offices — all became resources and unofficial mentors. At
Midwest Community College each new teacher was assigned an official mentor who
provided assistance, and the department chairs played important roles. Matt told me, “My
division chair was just excellent. He would stop by at least once a week, knock on the
door, ‘Hey how you’re doing? Do you have any questions?”’ But even with this support,
the instructors had to seek information assertively in order to make sense of their jobs.
Ginny described how she learned to operate within the school.

It was really a lot of, you know, just trying to gather information and being in a

sense a researcher and finding out from the various areas of the college, finding

out what I could and couldn’t do. And there were a lot of times I got burned, not
realizing that that wasn’t the proper protocol or the proper way of handling it. But
the majority of it was definitely just by struggling through it and trying to find the
answers on your own.

Both schools had implemented orientation programs for new faculty, although the

participants from Multi-Campus Community College did not have an opportunity to

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participate since New Teachers’ Academy was initiated at their school after they were
hired. The programs were heralded by all the participants, even those who had not had
the benefit of attending, as welcome additions to the colleges. The sessions helped the
new teachers understand the complex organizations in which they now worked, but still
big questions remained. Andy again articulated his initial concerns.
Well one thing that this college does is that they have a very nice orientation for
new people. But it is all for the overall organization. So I understand who our
president was. I understood that there were these different committees that did
this and this. And I understood how I was going to get promoted. I understood all
that. But even when the day was done, the thing I was concerned about was how I
was going to teach my course. And no one told me that.
Learning to Teach
As Matt poignantly expressed, the major concern for most of the participants
during their early years was how to teach. Coming directly from the corporate world,
Ginny found the transition difficult.
I think that the most frustrating things for me, being an instructor now, I’ve never
been formally trained as an instructor. The only skills that I had to offer was
what I had learned about the different software and the industry itself. So sitting
down it was very frustrating to me to try to figure out how to convey this message
to someone. I’m speaking at such a level and they’re at a different level. How do I
get that message across correctly, without number one, talking down to them and
making sure that I am clear and concise, and knowing where their level was. And

that was an incredible challenge, especially up front because you are thrown with

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so much right off the bat. And so different personalities, different learning
methods and different teaching methods, and it was a challenge.
Madeline and Theresa had the benefit of education degrees that included student
teaching, and Angela and Randy had done corporate training and worked in community
education, but the others had never taught before they started at their colleges. The
participants from Multi-Campus Community College began as adjunct instructors and
had to step into their classes on short notice and with little preparation. Randy described
his start.
And finally I called here one time. “Do you want to teach starting charging
class?” I said, great, I’d love to. I go, when do I start? He said, “Tonight, at six.”
He goes, “We’ll give you everything, just give them the high five, you know.”
When I first started there was no syllabus, nothing to hand out. It was basically,
here’s the book. It was a class I hadn’t took in ten years. So I kept, I stayed a
week ahead of my students.
Carlos also experienced a sudden entry into academia.
I was called 48 hours before the class starts and said, here is what we did last
year. Good luck. There was two instructors that were sitting with me that didn’t
like each other. One would tell me something when the other one was gone.
And when the other one was back and the first one was gone for something, he
would tell me the opposite. And I was OK, now I am going to have to wend my
way between what each of you say in order to figure out what I am supposed to

do, because one tells me black, one white on the same subject?

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The health careers participants at Midwest Community College had previous
experience working with students in clinical settings. This experience helped them
develop their explanation skills and better understand their students, but it did not fully
prepare them for classroom teaching. Matt recalled his first days of teaching.

I remember my very first class was supposed to go two hours. I spend four hours

preparing the class. And after I gave what I had prepared for four hours, I looked

at the clock and realized that twenty minutes had gone by. I knew I was going to
have to tap dance for the next hour and a half.

So given that they had no formal preparation and little time to get ready, it is no
surprise that many of the instructors began by teaching as they had been taught. Andy
said that he learned how to be a teacher, “I guess based on how I was somewhat taught. I
won’t say fully because when I went to nursing school, you were fiilly taught on the fear
factor.” Several of the participants taught classes that they had actually taken as students
at the college. Theresa had completed the CAD program at Midwest Community College,
and “I had taken the courses, so I started teaching in the way they were when I took
them.” But that was only the starting point.

They don’t even resemble that now. I found better textbooks, found what I think

are better drawings that take them through more concepts, more commands, but a

whole series of smaller, easier drawings. ...They can turn things in sooner, they

can get grades and feedback sooner.

There were four primary resources that the teachers relied on to learn about
teaching and to modify their practices. Their colleagues were the first. Office partners,

teachers in nearby offices, and mentors offered practical advice on matters ranging from

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student issues to classroom techniques. Ginny’s office partner served as her informal
mentor.

When the gentleman who preceded me was working here, a lot of time I would

come to him, and even though we were teaching two different softwares, I would

say, “How do you approach this problem? What do you think works?” I went to
him for a lot, especially when I had students who had problems, issues. You
know, they were going to be gone on vacation for two weeks — how do I handle

this? He was more or less my mentor. If he hadn’t been here, I don’t know what I

would have done You know you are working on a piece of paper with pencil

and compass, how do you let thirty students see what you are doing. And he
would show me how he used the overhead projector or the document camera to
get the point across. So from that standpoint I definitely relied on him a lot.

The second impetus for changing their practices came from the students
themselves. Angela noted that, “the students really tell you what you’re doing works or
not. They are your best critics so to speak, good or bad.” The course evaluations
completed by students at the end of the semester were mentioned by many of the
participants as not only useful barometers of student satisfaction, but also as sources for
suggested changes. Carlos referred to these evaluations.

And I do read those and make changes. I do make changes, like in the past I never

used to give them a copy of the test. And then quite a few of them said that having

a copy of the test would help them study for the final better. So now that is a

change that was made.

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Several of the instructors solicited student feedback during the course of the semester.
Madeline used this approach when she was trying out new ideas. “Sometimes I get an
idea, and I think oh, this will work. So I tell them, I’ve got this idea and I am going to try
it out on you guys, and you tell me then if it is working.” The significance of student
reactions to faculty stems not only from that fact that the students are the “customers,”
but also because in education there are so few other means of obtaining evaluative
comments. This was particularly true at Multi-Campus Community College where the
reward system did not encourage any personal reflection or peer appraisal, as was the
case at Midwest. Indeed, Ginny was particularly desirous of student feedback and several
times a semester surveyed her classes.

As the examples cited indicate, the advice provided by colleagues and students
tended to focus on the mechanics of teaching and not on more fundamental issues of
teaching and learning. Nicole noted this propensity.

Actually, I guess my conversations have been more along the lines of situations of

students struggling or students failing or attitudes of students on the clinical side,

and trying to get ideas, how do you handle these type of situations, more than
actually talking about how they teach.
The deeper insights into practice were prompted by individual reflections and formal
classes.

For most of the participants, the first year was a race just to prepare lectures and
stay ahead of their classes. Once through that initial rush, they had time to reflect on their
successes and consider ways of changing their approaches. Andy described how he was

able to make changes in his teaching.

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So doing some reflective type of things, looking at the course, what could be
changed to improve it. Knowing what kind of explanations to give to make you a
better instructor. Not so much totally changing content, but understanding how to
explain that content maybe a little bit differently so that it improves
understanding.
The teachers talked about learning how to be clearer in the expectations they expressed to
their classes, how to adjust to the different learning styles and proficiency levels of their
students, and how to better structure classroom activities and assignments in order to
enhance student learning.

The final influence on the participants’ approaches to teaching and learning were
professional development activities, particularly in the form of classes or workshops on
different aspects of pedagogy. Midwest Community College offered semester-long three-
credit hour classes on such topics as assessment and writing to learn. Perhaps because
participation in these classes enhanCed their chances for tenure and promotion, all of the
participants from Midwest had either taken the classes or planned to do so in the near
future. The classes seemed to push their thinking about teaching to a deeper level, as
reflected in Nicole’s musings about her changing practices. “I knew I had to do more to
help them learn themselves, to help them, help sink it in. So over time I realized I needed
more interactions, more questions to help them critically think.”

Multi-Campus also offered workshops on different topics related to teaching, but
these were short, one-session classes that did not seem to have the same impact as those

offered at Midwest. Ginny described the offerings at Multi—Campus.

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They have more along the lines of your PowerPoint or your Excel or managing

Outlook or those types of things, but there has been courses on effective teaching.

But I would still feel more comfortable if I were degreed in it, had a little bit more

than a two-hour workshop.

One other institutional initiative had an impact on the participants’ teaching. Both
schools had programs to assess student learning in order to comply with accreditation
requirements. Teachers at both schools made references to changes and activities that
they had implemented to address assessment requirements. Ginny told me about her
appearance before the curriculum committee with a redesigned course.

And I sat there through the first time, and they said, “Well what’s your

assessment?” And I said, “What’s assessment? I don’t know what you are talking

about people.” And they were the ones that told me about CATS and Angelo, and
that’s where I stumbled upon it [muddiest point] literally. They told me about
the muddiest point and the classroom quiz evaluation.

It did appear that the institutional emphasis on assessment was influencing teaching

practices.

Learning about Students

The final aspect of their growth as educators involved working with students. The
participants told me repeatedly that the part of the job that they liked best was working
with students and “seeing the light bulb go on.” But that didn’t mean that they weren’t
surprised and challenged by the issues their students brought with them to school, as

Andy noted.

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You know, I always used to think I’ll teach in the classroom, I’ll share my
knowledge, I’ll help people. Then you find out not everyone in your classroom is
always there to learn. Or they are there for different reasons. Or something is
happening in their life. And you have all these other things that impact your
ability to do what you thought you were going to do. And so then you find out
that there is whole other aspect to teaching that, that I never thought about.
Community college students often lead “complicated lives” and do not fit the
stereotype of a college student. The number of demands on their students’ time dismayed
many of the participants, as expressed by Matt.
What I don’t like is all the baggage these kids genuinely have. That is probably
what surprised me the most. Single parents, people working two jobs, they don’t
have reliable transportation. They’re sick or their kids are sick. And I can’t
discriminate between the ones that have legitimate excuses and the ones that just
decided not to show up that day. That’s the hardest thing — like trying to, cause I
was the traditional student. I lived at home. Dad paid the bills; mom did the
cooking and cleaning. To see the hardships -— that’s the part that I don’t like.
The skill levels that the students brought to the classroom also surprised many of
the teachers. Carlos told me:
You want to know the truth? I am surprised that people cannot spell chef. These
are people that have graduated from high school. I am just amazed how the
students are, when it comes to spelling or even doing basic math. Like doubling

up a recipe, you have eight ounces times two. It’s sometimes, it’s like scary. My

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god, they are supposed to have graduated from high school, and this is fourth

grade math that you are doing here.

Several teachers commented on the challenges posed by disparate levels of preparedness
within a single class. They struggled with finding ways to challenge the more advanced
students while supporting the less prepared. And, of course, some students displayed little
motivation to learn, which was fi'ustrating for the teachers as Angela expressed.

The greatest challenge is when you have those students and you can’t figure out

why they are there. And you do everything you can to try to bring them into the

fold, so to speak, but they are just holding a spot and not even trying to blend or
take anything away from the class.

In learning to cope with these challenges, the participants frequently turned to
their colleagues and mentors for advice. They learned to become stricter and to trust their
own judgment. Nicole described an experience during her first semester with a failing
student.

I didn’t know how to deal with it. It can’t happen; they can’t fail. And I panicked

and ran to my mentor. And it was like I wanted to fix it. I was so insecure. It

shook me so much that a student would fail. Now, not that I’m hardened to it, I

always want my students to succeed, but over time I’ve come to realize that you

know if they can’t perform at a certain level, if they don’t have a basic
background of skills, they just are not going to succeed in a clinical setting as they
move from one progression to the next. It’s not right for them either.

The issues discussed in this section are certainly not unique to the occupational

faculty at community colleges. New liberal arts faculty are similarly challenged by the

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complexity of their new organizations and are bewildered as they try to sort out their new
responsibilities. They also may not have any formal background in education, having
completed degrees in their disciplines but not taken any education classes. The students
in liberal arts classes also have varying skill and motivational levels and carry as much
“baggage” as those in vocational classes. However, the occupational backgrounds of the
career education faculty do color their experiences. Since all of the participants’ prior
full-time employment had been outside academia, their adjustments to college teaching
are likely to have been more challenging than it was for their liberal arts colleagues. The
influence of the participants’ occupational backgrounds upon their perspectives will be
explored in the next section.
Role of Occupation in Mediating Perspectives

The participants’ involvement with their occupations surfaced as a recurring
theme in their conversations about their work as educators. This vocational perspective
colored their ideas about the purpose of education and their approach to teaching, and
influenced their relationships with their students. This section will explore these concepts
as well as their observations about the differences between the academic world and their
previous employment. Finally, this section will conclude with a discussion of the
continued involvement of the participants with their vocational practice.
Approach to Teaching

Preparing students for a world of work appeared to be the major organizing
principle for the practice of the participants. Most identified career preparation as the

most important function of their school. Nicole echoed the sentiment of many of the

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participants when she described what she saw to be the primary role of her community
college.

Well, I think we take students from all walks of life since it is a community

college, and in a lot of cases we are sending them on the road for a career. Maybe

they are not done with that when they leave here. But we are serving the
community, and we are doing that by giving students the skills that they need to
work in a variety of professions and providing the community with full-skilled
workers.

Within each discipline the particular focus of the job preparation became very
specific. Nicole summed up her role within the school by stating, “I am here to produce
competent sonographers.” The prospect of imminent employment of her graduates
compelled Nicole to maintain stringent standards for her classes.

Well, number one we don’t want to produce students that become sonographers

that really don’t know what they are doing, and they are not going to be able to

perform properly in the field; and number two, we don’t want to put students out
there in situations that they are not prepared to handle.

The ability of students to find employment was an important measure of program
success and significance. Matt told me, “I know I am doing a good job if they all pass the
national exams. I know I am doing a good job if they all get jobs.” To Henry, the fact that
his students could earn a good living was a point of pride.

A good example —- let’s say a degree in history, a degree in English — really

doesn’t get you an eamable wage. A degree in pipefitting, plumbing, or heating

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and air conditioning puts you out on the job front immediately, and lets you get a

check very rapidly.

But beyond its significance as a goal or marker of success, the influence of
occupation reached into the participants’ actual approach to teaching. This, of course,
was particularly apparent in the health careers departments where clinical instruction was
an integral part of the program. Madeline discussed the dental hygiene clinicals where
“we are basically teaching them hands-on with a real live patient during those clinic
times. So they are learning how to clean someone’s teeth and how to educate the patient
and how to teach prevention.” But occupational orientation was also evident in the other
areas. For example, Carlos described how in his culinary arts classes the students “are
responsible for the station, kind of like in the real world. They are set up in a station and
they have to keep it clean, wash their dishes, and get everything all ready.”

In each discipline taught by the participants, students were expected to learn the
skills of that profession, and each of the participants used hands-on learning to teach
those skills. Again, this was very evident in the clinical instruction of the health careers
disciplines where students actually worked with patients, but all the participants had
incorporated lab work into their instruction. The students baked cakes and pastries in
Carlos’ culinary arts classes, repaired cars in Randy’s automotive service classes, welded
in Henry’s applied technology classes, and worked with software in Theresa’s, Angela’s,
and Ginny’s computer-based classes. Ginny told me, “I am a firm believer that the only

way they are going to learn that software is to actually work on it.”

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Approach to Curriculum

Occupation also influenced the participants’ ideas about curriculum. The “real
world” became a ruler against which relevancy of curriculum was measured. Matt felt
that this measure should be used throughout the college.

I have two kids that go to school here, and I don’t see where they take math

problems and say, you need to know this math problem because in the real world

you have to be able to deal with it. And to make sure that you understand I am
going to put that type of problem on your test. Same thing with English, same
thing, I mean they could do that. Here’s English, and if you are going into the
health care field here’s how you are going to have to be able to document, here’s
why it’s important to be able to do it this way, here’s why it is important to be
able to communicate in this fashion. And I think they should do that. I have to do
that. Here’s what we have to do for a pulmonary function test, and here’s how it is
going to be practical. You are going to use it in the field.

The “real world” in the form of national exams guided the curriculum in the
health careers. Students in these fields have to pass an externally administered exam
before they are allowed to practice, so the curriculum in those disciplines must prepare
students for those tests. When the national exams changed, the teachers had to revise their
classes, as Matt described in reference to the exam for respiratory therapists.

Previously they used to say, what would you do to assist the physician with a

bronchoscopy? What would you do to assist the physician to do a

thoracentesis? . .. The latest [test] matrix said, how would you perform a

bronchoscopy? What would you need to know to diagnose the need for a

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thoracentesis? How would you perform it? So now we are going almost from an

assistant’s role to the physician’s role. So I need to change my notes to bring in

some more information.

The curriculum in non-health career fields was also affected by the “real world”
by way of employer requirements. In Henry’s area, the employers play a very direct role
in determining course content. “And of course we have our industrial peOple who come
in and dictate their interest in learning this, this, and that. And therefore we have to
research and find out exactly what they are interested in training for.” Advisory boards
comprised of representatives from local businesses provide feedback about the relevancy
of coursework, as Theresa describes. “Actually when we change programs or update,
...one of the first things we do is ask for input from that advisory board, and then take it
and show it to them and say, is this something, are these skills that employers want?”

The ultimate arbiter of curriculum is employability. The decisions on what to
include or not revolved around how well they prepared students for a job. In the culinary
arts program Carlos said,

We are here to teach them what is being done in the real world and the proper

procedure to do that. We don’t teach them what was popular twenty years ago.

They have to be right at the edge of what’s in now to get a job.

Similarly, in the computer science field Angela told me,

Because you know in our area, things change like every eighteen months. There is

almost this huge transformation that takes place in computers and technology. So

we needed to address, making sure that our students who got a degree from us,

were able to compete. So we looked at some of the courses that we were offering.

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The penalty for not responding to the marketplace demands can be severe. If
programs and coursework do not provide students with the requisite skills for
employment, or if shifts in the economy reduce employment opportunities in a particular
field, enrollment in the program is jeopardized. Ginny was worried about the fiiture of her
program because of the changes in manufacturing in the region.

Our [field] changes so quickly and from one day to the next. If the governor says

we won’t have any more manufacturing or engineering in the state, we’re dead.

We’re done, unless we reinvent ourselves or try to apply it different. And that is

very scary for us because we weren’t trained to be instructors. We were trained to

be engineers.
Randy foresaw the reduced demand for corporate-sponsored service managers and
accordingly developed his one-year program.

I was thinking about it for a while, but when, oh about two, three years ago, they

shrunk about half the ASSET schools across the country —- from forty down to

twenty. I kinda seen it coming. I think a lot of instructors didn’t, and it kind of
hit them blindsided.
For all of the participants, curriculum was bound up by the needs and requirements of
their occupations.
Relationship with Students

Finally, aspects of the occupational nature of the programs affected the

participants’ relationships with their students in positive ways. Because students could

see the relevance of their coursework to their future employment, their motivation to

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learn was increaSed. Madeline gave this as one of the reasons she decided to teach adults
rather than children in a K-12 system.
Because they are in a program, because that is what they have chosen. Some are
there because mom or dad has said you have to go to school, but not really that
many. That is the part that I find most exciting. They are sponges, they do want to
learn. They know when they get out they are going to have this responsibility to
the patient. So they want to learn while they are here the most information so that
they are prepared when they get out, and they are responsible for their patients.
Student motivation was also enhanced by the hands-on nature of the instruction.
Ginny saw this as an advantage in her area.
When you have a history instructor, unless they are bringing in different types of
presentations or projects that get the students to do something hands on, I think it
is much more difficult to keep the students engaged. Because obviously, my
classes allow students to let off steam by being able to play on the computers, so
to speak.
Henry also spoke to the inherent attractions of working with physical objects.
One of the big things that have been a selling point for us is that today, most of
the younger people are very much swayed by bright lights, movement. Showing
them a blackboard with Einstein’s theory is totally a zero. Showing them a video
game where everything is moving or robot with arms and machines are moving
— much more captivating.
Because all of the participants were engaged in lab or clinical instruction, the

frequency of one-on-one interactions between them and their students was increased

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compared to a typical lecture-based class. This was particularly true in the health careers
programs where faculty had on-going contact with their students over the one to two-year
span during which students were enrolled in the program. Madeline viewed this as one of
the benefits of working in a career education program. “I think the fun part of being in
that program is that you do get to see them from start to finish. And they are learning an
actual skill. And you know that they are going to use that skill when they get out.” Andy
pointed to this as one of the differences between the career education fields and the
liberal arts departments.
Where nursing is a little bit different, and that is how I term a lot of occupational
and career fields, where the students and the instructors become really close
because there is a lot of time spent together. I can’t imagine being a student
and enrolling in a single math class and maybe having this person once ever, then
maybe going in and telling people their whole life stories. But you get that here.
Once they are in the program, they feel they have to let you know every bad thing
that is going on their life. Good things too, but definitely every bad thing in their
lives.
In general, the participants seemed to connect with their students on a more sustained and
personal level than is often the case in general education classes.
Academic World vs. the Work World
Having worked outside of academia, the participants had a vantage point from
which to compare the two environments. In most cases the colleges fared well in the

comparison. The participants appreciated the amount of control they had over their

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teaching situation, in sharp contrast to their previous work experiences. Matt marveled at
the degree of input he was accorded.

It is not so much power but in control of the atmosphere I am going to work in.

They actually asked our input as far as building structure. What do you want your

classroom to look like, classroom design, who are the people you want to work

with? We are now in the process of selecting a new president, and my
understanding is that some of the faculty are involved in selecting the new
president.
The flexibility of their hours at school was another distinct advantage, as were the
holidays and summers off. Theresa relished the rhythm of the academic year with its
beginnings and endings.

And the other thing is the closure and the fresh beginning. I love it. When I

worked in industry we worked so hard, and you met one deadline and three more

had popped up. No matter how hectic it gets, there is that day when you are going
to turn final grades in. And as soon as you do that you are going to start thinking,
how can I do this better next time? And then there is that brand new fresh
beginning. And I love those fresh beginnings. I can’t imagine ever going back to
industry.

There were, however, areas that required adjustment on the part of the
participants. Nicole noted that she initially felt isolated after the constant camaraderie of
the hospital.

But I think that I would tell them that initially you are going to seem, even though

you are around a lot of people, you are going to seem isolated initially. And that is

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an adjustment that people are going to have to make coming from another setting,

and a lot of the other people in the other health programs have commented on that

too.
She also commented on what she initially took to be a sense of entitlement expressed by
the faculty.

I don’t know how to explain it. I used to tell my husband that the world of

academia is different. And I think that people that have done it as a career, never

worked outside of academia type setting, it’s like a different world. I sense
sometimes a little bit of eliteness at times. And also I sense that at times they
expect an awful lot. Not to say that people, well in terms of salary, benefits, work
hours, requirements for faculty. Some of those arguments to me seem petty
coming from the environment I came from.

The pace of business in academia was another source of irritation for several of
the participants. The delays and paperwork involved in ordering or repairing equipment
frustrated Carlos.

And in industry when you are working in a restaurant or whatever, when work

had to get done and things have to happen fast, because you cannot let a party of

500 people sit around because a machine broke down. So I still have that

mentality. It has to get done so we can move on and teach our classes. I just, I’m

not the only one, it seems that all the people that come from industry have that

same reaction. You know why can’t it be done any faster? Why can’t it happen
like it should? Why does it take so long? Why do we have to wait so long to have

a plug fixed?

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Randy also noted the contrast between the corporate world and education and felt that
those faculty who had never worked outside academia did not feel the same level of
urgency to get things done. He attributed this, in part, to a lack of accountability. “Like I
said in the corporate world, there’s a lot of accountability. If you don’t it done, you’re
done. If you don’t get your jobs done, you’re pretty much. Here I don’t quite see that.”
He was also disappointed by the lack of cooperation within his department.

I think it’s the lack of teamwork with all the other departments, with your own

department, just getting things done. The simple things, you knOw, if you work as

a team, if you divide it up it would be nothing. But it’s not here.

In their definition of professional success as well as in their frustrations with the
academic setting, the career education faculty members were oriented outside their
community colleges. The basis of their curriculum and the markers of their successes
were driven by forces outside their institutions — employer requirements, accreditation
demands, and national testing. These were forces over which they could exert little
control, but they needed to understand if their programs were to remain viable. In
addition, for most, their work experience prior to employment at their colleges was non-
academic. These strong connections to the workplace shaped their views of the
educational process and resulted in high value placed on “real world” applications of
knowledge.

Involvement with Vocational Practice

Academia is sometimes characterized as the ivory tower, removed from the

realities of the outside world. But such was not the experience of the career education

faculty in this study. As was noted above, curriculum matters were greatly influenced by

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the requirements of outside accrediting agencies and the demands of the workplace. The
occupational programs that ignored such external realities risked obsolescence. The
participants all discussed ways in which they maintained contact with their vocational
fields and the necessity of such contact.

A common theme voiced by the participants was the difficulty of keeping pace
with the rapid changes in their fields. The computer-based fields were particularly
volatile. Angela reported that the software applications that she taught changed on
average every eighteen months. Ginny had the same problem in the vehicle design
program.

This area is incredibly difficult because not only does technology change, but our

software that we use probably changes versions on the average of once every six

months. And sometimes it’s something where you won’t even notice it, and other
times it is a complete tear-up where we need all new curriculum, all new projects,
the textbooks change so ofien. And then we have students who come back for
retraining. They may know the software but have to have the latest version. So
that is a daunting task because you are constantly, constantly upgrading and
improving.

Change was not confined to computer technologies. New findings about diseases
and different equipment and procedures kept the health careers faculty busy, new
products and techniques required modifications in the culinary arts program, and new
applications of welding technology affected the applied trades instructors. Randy told me
that “the problem with automotive is that the technology changes so rapidly. What used

to be false back then is now true.”

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The rapid rate of change created complications in teaching. Randy recounted a
story of giving an exam from the textbook to a group of evening students, some of whom
were already employed in the automotive industry. He ended up discarding the test
because the students pointed out how recent changes in manufacturing rendered many of
the questions invalid. In a similar vein Theresa anticipated problems in the fall.

I’m sure that next fall they probably will be loading 2006 onto my computers, and

I will start a demonstration and will say this is what a layered dialog box looks

like, and I will look up at the screen and go, oh they changed that. My only

problem is that they are updating the software so often and so quickly, and we get
the updates so quickly, that I will get the updates long before I get an AutoCAD

2006 textbook.

Maintaining currency within their fields was an ongoing endeavor for the
participants. Theresa told me, “You know after the first semester, as long as you teach
you are going to be a lifetime learner.” Journals, online resources, conferences, classes,
and seminars all contributed to the participants’ knowledge base. However, their direct
contact with the workplace was of equal if not more significance.

The program advisory boards were one of the resources the faculty drew upon to
stay connected to the “outside world.” The boards offered suggestions about the specific
needs of employers and current trends in the industry. Henry said they advised him about
“what’s actually happening in the industry, where we’re going in the future. What type of
purchases, what type of training, what type of personal development is required to keep

current. What’s going on in the industry.”

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The adjunct faculty employed in the participants’ programs also offered a direct
link to the workplace. Many of these faculty worked by day in industry and taught at the
college at night. Their daily experience with the current technology and industry
standards provided more immediately relevant program feedback than could be gained
from journals and seminars. Ginny relied heavily on her adjunct faculty to keep her
course content up to date.

And we’ve actually had training sessions with [the adjunct faculty]. You know,

come on in and teach us what is going in the districts so we can pass it on to our

students. Some things are consistent and don’t change, but the latest and greatest
techniques in terms of their training. They are the ones that bring it to us. And we
just can’t live without them.

But the most valuable connection for most of the participants was actual work in
the field. Angela bemoaned her loss of hands-on, practical experience that she had when
working in industry.

And just trying, doing the best, reading trade manuals and trade journals, but

again it doesn’t substitute for the hands-on that you would get from doing it day-

to-day. When you get into teaching, if you have been in industry, what you miss is
experiencewise when you go from industry into teaching.
Ginny had managed to arrange for a summer internship at a job site in order to learn
about new techniques that she could incorporate into her classes, but it was primarily the
health careers faculty who were able to work as practitioners on weekends or during

school breaks. They viewed this as essential for keeping up with the changing skills,

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procedures, and technology in their fields. Matt explained one of the advantages he found
to continuing to work in the hospital.

For instance, one of the companies just came out with a new ventilator. It won’t

be in the textbooks for another two years. My co—worker won’t know anything

about it for two years until he reads about it in the book. I’m working with it
already in the hospital. It is a huge advantage staying in the hospital.
Besides the advantages of enhancing their clinical expertise, several participants
mentioned how their continued vocational practice had symbolic significance for their
students. Madeline worked in a clinic some weekends and summers and said, “I think that
is important because I think students put more weight in what people say when they are
out there doing what they are teaching.”

Two of the faculty felt that their technical skills had actually improved since they
had started teaching. Nicole told me that because she was responsible for teaching the full
range of sonography skills, she felt she was a better sonographer than when she worked
in a clinic and was only involved in one aspect of scanning. Similarly, Carlos talked
about how he had more time to learn about new trends now that he wasn’t working
twelve-hour shifts in industry.

There are things are things that I didn’t have time to do in industry because there

wasn’t the demand for it, not the time for it. I was in a production setting. Here we

have the time to do it, so I have bettered my skill since I have been here.

Again, the attentions of career education faculty were focused outside the

community college more so than that of their liberal arts colleagues. Their involvement

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with the workplace was critical to their understanding of curricular needs and to their
efficacy as instructors.
Relationships Within the Institution

While the last section focused on the participants’ continued connection to the
“outside world” of the workplace, this section examines their relationships within the
institution. This includes both their experiences as individuals within the college as well
as their sense as part of the group of career education faculty.

Individual Relationships

People outside academia are often surprised that instructors often perceive
themselves as isolated. Although faculty are regularly engaged with students, their
contacts with colleagues can be limited. That was the reported experience of all the
participants.

Several participants at Midwest Community College mentioned that their division
chairs and assigned mentors were people to whom they turned for assistance, but the
interactions seemed to be confined to solving specific problems. Also at Midwest, the
teachers met regularly with their fellow department members. This varied from scheduled
weekly meetings to lunches out to informal encounters. However, most of the
departments were quite small, consisting of two or three teachers. Hallway conversations
with faculty in nearby offices also occurred, but overall the number of interactions was
limited. Matt told me that he communicated most frequently with the other instructor in
the respiratory therapy program.

And even that is once a week. It’s not like an every day thing. My mentor who,

she instructs in radiography. I see her about once a week. There a girl in physical

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therapy. And we hired in at the same time and probably speak once a week or

every other week.

The faculty at Multi-Campus Community College seemed, if anything, to have
even fewer interactions. Henry said it was difficult to for his department to meet.

No one can sit down and actually talk for an hour because as you are sitting, you

are grading papers and doing triptiks and doing your taxes, and it is a

tremendously problematic situation to sit down with six people and all be on the

same page.
Carlos reported that the only people outside of his students that he regularly interacted
with were his office partner and the adjunct faculty that he supervised. Similarly, Randy
observed,

Oh, if you are teaching a class you are alone. But I mean, just like, today, OK I

see two or three instructors. Monday it will be different instructors around.

Depending upon what their schedule is. And next semester will be totally

different again because, it’s like, well it’s loads again. It’s not like eight to five

you are sitting next to each other every day. It’s just, hey, it’s this guy one day a

week, twice a week.

As Randy noted, schedules were blamed for the lack of opportunities to build
relationships. Matt pointed out, “If my class starts at eight and I don’t come back down
till two, unless they walk through my classroom, I’m not going to see them too much.”
The problem was compounded for the health careers faculty who had to spend some of
their days off campus at clinical sites, further reducing opportunities for interactions with

their colleagues.

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Contact with teachers outside their departments, and particularly with faculty
from the liberal arts departments, was even more restricted. Geographic separation played
a role in this regard. Carlos said, “We are working isolated over here. The faculty that we
see are the ones that come into the restaurant.” In fact, geography and proximity seemed
to be the prime determinants of faculty interactions. Conversations were more likely to
occur around clusters of offices. Nicole observed, “So what I found, it tends to be not so
much the who’s in the division that you get to know each other, and we do because we
meet monthly, but it’s the little clusters seem to come from the halls.” At Midwest
Community College some of the office bays mixed faculty from different divisions, so
that acquaintances were made across divisional boundaries. But for the most part the
casual hallway conversations stayed within the discipline.

The primary avenues for meeting faculty outside their departments were
committee meetings and workshops. Nicole said, “But I have found that until you get out
there and actively working in some of these larger committees, it’s hard to get to know
people. A large institution, like I said, we are all kind of on our own track with varied
schedules.” Angela, in particular, extolled the advantages of committee involvement.

So I have been on several different search committees the past three years. Really

that is the only way you are going to learn the culture of the community college.

Because when you come in and you get in your discipline, you get focused on

doing your thing and then, before you know it, twenty years goes by, and you

have just been in that one area. So it does give me an opportunity to learn how

other divisions and other disciplines do things. And also to meet other people that

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you might not normally meet, because we are all in the classroom. It is not often

that we get a chance to do a whole lot of interacting outside of the classroom.
The participants who were not actively involved in committees had very little contact
with faculty outside their departments or office areas.

Relationship with Liberal Arts Faculty

A sense of division between the career education and the liberal arts emerged
from the conversations with the participants. As was discussed in the last section, there
was little contact between these disparate faculty. Geographic separation on campus,
conflicting schedules, and involvement in their own disciplines —— all contributed to the
disconnection between the two groups. Each of the participants commented on some
aspect of the relationship between career and liberal arts education.

There was general consensus that the job of the career education faculty member
was different from that of the liberal arts teacher. Matt stated flatly, “I know that they
have a difficult job, and I know that it is almost completely different than my job, I
think.” Several of the participants felt that the liberal arts faculty had little understanding
or awareness of the career education programs. Theresa noted this lack of awareness.

I think there are a lot of people on the rest of the campus that have hardly ever

been to that [technical] wing and don’t know what goes on in that wing. People

that teach in other divisions. I think a lot of them aren’t even aware of what
courses are offered over there.
Henry was particularly vocal about the differences between the career and general
education programs. He felt that he understood the workings of the general education

classes, but that understanding was not reciprocated.

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Yes, because everybody had to go to college to get here. So there is the unique
thing, the fact that the person who teaches plumbing for most time has at least a
joumeyman’s card or bachelor’s degree. So at some time you had to attempt
college to get a degree. Whereas the person who is teaching history certainly
didn’t have to come down and learn welding.
Participants identified some of the differences between the groups. Nicole
discussed the advantages she felt she had as an occupational instructor.
First of all, we have the same students and carry them through the program.
Whereas the gen ed teachers, they have a group of students, half of them probably
don’t even know what they are doing yet. They don’t have a focus to focus on,
other than they have to get these students to learn what ever the class is. But I
have a group of students and I have a focus, and that focus applies to every class
that I teach. Yeah, in abdominal sonograpy my focus in on the abdomen and
everything they need to know, but beyond that I am still trying to turn them into a
sonographer.
Matt commented on how he works with the same group of students for two years and is
able to develop relationships with them, in contrast to most liberal arts instructors who
often have the students for only one semester. Ginny thought she benefited from having
more hands on work in her instruction, making classes more inherently interesting.
I think a lot of times it is much more difficult for them to convey what they need
to teach than we do, because we have so much hands on. So I think it allows

students a different mode of learning.

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So although they sensed differences between their experiences and that of the liberal arts
faculty, they saw advantages to their situation. Nicole summed it up. “I’m glad I’m on
this side where I am a professional, but I am also teaching.”

There was, however, a sharp contrast between the two campuses. At Midwest
Community College the career education faculty felt themselves to be equal partners to
their liberal arts counterparts. Theresa said, “I think we are accepted as equals for the
most part. We are not looked on as just, oh just occupational people or something like
that.” They discussed how students in the career education programs had to take general
education courses, thereby creating enrollment for the liberal arts departments and how
essential the prerequisite skills were that their students gained in those classes. The bonds
developed by working with liberal arts faculty on committees were noted. Theresa
observed,

But it is wonderful to have the relationship with the people from the other

disciplines. And I think it makes us work well together. We always try on our

committees, you know these ad hoc committees that I am working on for
assessment, we try to get people from all these other disciplines. So it’s nice to
work with people from the other disciplines.
So although the participants at Midwest Community College noted differences between
the career education and the liberal arts, they also saw the connections between the two
groups within the institution.
At Multi-Campus Community College the tone was very different. Henry stated

his perception bluntly.

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On the downside, if there is one, is the fact that, by and large, I don’t think the
tech areas are revered as being as good as the liberal arts. I think there is maybe,
to use a term, a caste system — the lords and the commons if you will. There
certainly is a split.
Other participants from Multi-Campus spoke of competition and division between the
two groups. Carlos commented on that.

Sometimes the college feels divided. It doesn’t seem like everybody is working

on the same ultimate goal or whatever. It seems that it is a little bit divided, that

everybody is protecting their little, I don’t know. That’s the sense that I have
when I go to different college things, or meetings or days that we have.

Some of this sense of status difference seemed to stem from the career education
faculty themselves. Henry had originally intended to become a science teacher. He told
me,

I really didn’t want to be a vocational teacher. Because I had done it so long in the

field. It is not a glamorous profession. Maybe none of teaching is, but I think that

some are better than others. And working in an industrial climate is usually less
than clean. You’ve got a lot of grime and dirt and smoke. Obviously you see this
room right here and it looks like a factory. Most of the time you come to work
wearing work clothes rather than a suit and a tie. So there’s certain impressions
that I myself had, that I thought maybe it would be fun to go to the other side.
Both Carlos and Ginny were sensitive about their lack of academic credentials. Ginny

noted similar feelings among her colleagues.

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So I think from that standpoint that most of the career and tech ed faculty, unless

they are degreed, highly degreed, whether it is a master’s or PhD, they feel very, I

don’t want to say inadequate necessarily, but almost a chip on their shoulder

where they have to prove themselves more to arts and sciences. And I do, I don’t

feel that 1 have to prove anything, but I do want to further my education so that I

am not looked at being career and tech ed faculty. That makes it a little more

uncomfortable.

The perception of competition between the liberal arts and the career education
programs was heightened by the downturn in the economy. Ginny described the career
education faculty as beleaguered.

Well, I would say right now, if I had to sum it up in one word, I would say

discouraged and factioned. And that is one thing that we are really trying to

overcome. It seems that with the way that the economy is going, it is really hard
to stay positive. I think that everyone is very down, very, very down.

The different climates on the two campuses had an impact on the collaborations
between faculty with regard to program offerings. At Midwest Community College
Nicole described her need to have a physics class offered under different format for her
program. She worked with a member of the physics department.

And he said, “You know, we are here to help you folks, your program in our

specialty areas. That’s what we’re here for.” And we worked out a schedule, and

it is going to be very good. And I think that that is true, that we help each other

0111:.

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In contrast, at Multi-Campus Community College Ginny described a situation
involving the liberal arts physics department and the pre-engineering program on the
career education side. Both departments wanted to teach the statics and dynamics class.

Physics got it and now everyone’s got an attitude. I said we should put this in our

program because that would help our students. No, no, no, we don’t know if it is

going to transfer and until they do something about it, we don’t want it in our

program. We are just shooting ourselves in the foot, and we are here for the

students not for us. But I think the instructors just want a niche for themselves.
The distrust between the two groups resulted in a program that was less beneficial for the
students.

The participants reported an initial sense of isolation when they began working at
their colleges that was, for some, a contrast to their prior work experiences. Building
relationships with colleagues and learning how to wend one’s way through the informal
social networks on campus is problematic for all new faculty, both liberal arts and career
education. The difficulty is compounded for career education faculty, however, by
schedules that include extended class sessions and off-site clinical assignments that offer
fewer opportunities for informal meetings. When this is combined with the orientation of
career education faculty toward the work world outside the college setting, it is easy to
see how the career education faculty would have increased difficulty integrating into the
fabric of campus life.

The participants at both schools perceived themselves as a collective entity
distinct from that of the liberal arts faculty. And as a part of this group, they saw their

work and roles to be different from that of the liberal arts faculty and largely not

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understood by them. There was a qualitative difference between the perceptions of the
teachers at the two campuses, however. The faculty at Multi-Campus Community
College saw themselves to be in competition with the general education departments and
relegated to the role of lower class citizens. At Midwest Community College the
participants did not express the same degree of separation. This difference in cultures is
significant because of the ramifications on college-wide issues that require collaboration.
Summary

In this chapter I have presented the experiences of the participants as relayed in
our conversations. These experiences have been presented as four distinct general
themes, but the themes are interrelated. Together they tell the story of the participants’
lives as career education faculty and how they struggled to find their places within their
colleges. The first theme, “Perceptions of Expectations,” described their basic
understandings of their roles and the variety of activities that fill their workdays. The path
that led them from occupational practitioner to occupational teacher was discussed in the
second section, “Development as Educational Professionals.” The ways in which the
participants’ vocational backgrounds influenced their understandings of their roles and
approaches to their work were covered in following section, “The Role of Occupation in
Mediating Perspectives.” The last theme, “Relationships Within the Institution,” related
the perceptions of some of the interpersonal dynamics that affected their work. Taken as
a whole, the four themes paint a picture of teachers engaged in multiple activities,
pragmatically oriented, outwardly directed, and unified by their distinct identity as career

education practitioners.

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CHAPTER SIX
Discussion and Implications

The intent of this study was to penetrate the lived experience as career education
faculty of a small group of community college instructors. It began from the premise that
these faculty shared some similar experiences and perspectives, and it aimed to identify
those commonalities. And, as was seen in the last chapter, there were indeed many
common themes that emerged from the interviews. Equally striking, and unexpected,
were the differences in the experiences of the participants that were bound up in the
cultures of their respective colleges. I begin this chapter by returning to the research
questions posed at the start of this study and in the process summarize the underlying
core of common experiences of the participants. 1 will then examine how socialization
and structuration help us understand the commonalities and differences that emerged
between the two campuses.

Research Questions
1. What do career education faculty come to understand as their professional roles
within community colleges?

The short answer is that of teacher. And as teachers the participants perceived that
their primary role was to prepare students for the world of work. The ultimate arbiter of
career education faculty’s success was their students’ ability to measure up to employer
and licensure demands and find employment.

In order to assure that their students had the skills mandated by the workplace, the
faculty had to maintain contact with their vocational fields. Changing technologies and

shifting job requirements can make programs obsolete in short order if faculty fail to note

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market trends. This fostered in the career education faculty a fundamentally different
perspective on their work than one might anticipate is held by their liberal arts
counterparts. Whereas the liberal arts faculty have traditionally adhered to norms
established within their disciplines and largely enforced by the colleges and universities
to which their students transfer, in essence, standards internal to the educational
enterprise, the career education faculty had to look outside academia for validation of
their curriculum and programs.

This occupational lens had a number of ramifications for the work of the
participants. They had to develop and nurture conduits to the workplace. Advisory boards
and even adjunct faculty who have full-time jobs in industry became important sources of
information about current practices and developments in the field. Some of the
participants, especially those in the health careers, continued to work in their vocational
fields on a part-time basis. They pursued this additional work not only for the added
income but also to maintain currency within their occupations and credibility as
instructors of those occupations.

Very direct links to the workplace had to be cultivated by the career education
faculty who arranged and supervised clinical or apprenticeship experiences for their
students. This was particularly true for the faculty in the health careers, but the faculty
teaching in the industrial technology fields also had programs directly linked to industry.

In addition, the career education faculty tended to have a great deal of
involvement with their students outside of class. Because their programs are elective, in
contrast to most general education classes which are required for other programs or for

transfer, career education faculty had a vested interest in actively recruiting students and

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making sure that those students were properly advised. Recruiting activities took the
career education faculty to high schools and businesses and again required them to
engage with the world outside of their colleges. Once students were admitted to their
programs, the faculty had continued contact with them through academic and career
advising. The technical nature of their programs and their knowledge of the workplace
made the advice of the career education faculty more valuable to students than that of
general advisors. In addition, because the career education faculty focused on preparing
their students for employment, their advice to students ranged beyond what is necessary
to be successful in classes to what the students needed to be successful in their future
jobs.

Although the primary role of the career education teacher is that of teacher, this
role requires the instructor to wear many hats. Besides actively preparing and teaching
classes, the career education teacher must serve as recruiter, advisor, and mentor for
students and simultaneOusly must keep an eye on the steadily changing technologies and
requirements of the marketplace. Although the participants in this study considered
themselves now to be more teachers of their occupations than practitioners of their
occupations, the role responsibilities did not allow the career education instructors to
ignore their ties with the work world.

Within their colleges, the participants had clear allegiances to their particular
programs. The extent to which they felt themselves to be an integral part of the larger
college community, however, seemed to be function of personal preferences and campus

milieu in keeping with the perspective of structuration theory that structures, such as

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roles, result from the interaction between individual agency and institutional resources.

This will be explored in greater detail in a latter section.

2. In particular, how do career education faculty develop their understanding of
their roles as teachers?

The faculty’s ideas about teaching were mostly based on their experiences prior to
working at their colleges. A couple of the participants had intended to become teachers
and had pursued education degrees. They had developed understandings of pedagogy,
course management, and curriculum and had engaged in student teaching as part of their
educational program. For the rest, however, teaching was a profession that they rather
stumbled into along their career paths. Their initial teaching efforts were largely informed
by their own experiences as students.

Adjunct instruction was the primary entryway into community college teaching
for these teachers. For the health careers faculty this was mainly in a clinical setting
where they had an opportunity to work with students on a more individual basis and hone
their skills of direction and explication. The other participants found themselves rather
abruptly thrust into a classroom with little or no time for preparation and minimal
institutional support.

With no formal training and little direction from the college, the participants as
new adjunct faculty had to rely on their own ideas about teaching. These ideas were
based on their own learning experiences, in some cases actually using their class notes
taken as students, and shaped by their vocational employment. Adjunct faculty are

usually quite isolated within community colleges and have little contact with other

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faculty. Consequently, there would have been few opportunities for the participants to
discuss pedagogy and expand their views on teaching and learning.

Other than having had more experience in the classroom, the same set of
circumstances prevailed when the participants became full-time faculty. Given this
background, it is not surprising that the participants’ description of their teaching
practices, particularly as they recalled their first experiences, reflected a combination of
transmission and apprenticeship perspectives (Pratt & Associates, 1998). The participants
talked about their efforts to improve their delivery of information. They revised their
classes by supplementing lectures with PowerPoint presentations, breaking the material
into smaller “chunks,” and being clearer about expectations. The teachers placed a high
premium on maintaining their own content expertise. All are characteristics of the
transmission perspective which is “primarily ‘teacher centered’ with an emphasis on first,
what the teacher does in the process of teaching and second, how well the content has
been planned, organized, represented, and transmitted” (Pratt & Associates, 1998, p. 41).
This perspective is the most traditional approach to teaching and probably represents the
bulk of the participants’ experiences as students.

The second influence on the participants’ teaching orientation was the
apprenticeship perspective. Faculty were not only transmitting the subject matter but also
were preparing their students to join the ranks of employed practitioners. They tried to
inculcate in their students the values and practices of their occupational fields. Their
former and, and in some cases, current work experiences in the occupation were viewed
as important teaching credentials. Much of their classroom instruction involved modeling

the particular skills of the occupation, followed by opportunities for the students to

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practice the procedures. All these aspects are in keeping with Pratt’s (1998) description of
the apprenticeship perspective in which:

Teachers are expected to embody the knowledge and values of their community

of practice [and that] what they know (and wish to teach) cannot be learned in

any authentic way if it is abstracted or removed from the place of its application,

that is, its context. (pp. 43 — 44)

The teachers’ previous employment and work orientation very likely heavily influenced
their apprenticeship perspective.

For the most part, the participants did not modify their basic views about learning
after they began working in academia. They improved their instrumental teaching skills,
focusing on clearer delivery of their content and student management issues, but
assumptions about how students learned went unexamined. This should not be
unexpected because there were few prompts that would encourage the faculty to do so.
Conversations with colleagues about teaching generally focused on resolving issues
pertaining to students or aspects of course management or class presentations. Most of
the feedback received by the participants was in the form of student course evaluations.
While they did modify their practices based on these evaluations, the changes were
instrumental, such as allowing students to retain tests or providing more opportunities for
review.

Only two of the participants, Madeline and Nicole, talked about trying to foster
“deep learning” in their students. In both instances it appeared that they had been
motivated to explore their ideas about learning by professional development activities. In

Madeline’s case her coursework for a master’s degree in education had clearly influenced

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her thinking, while Nicole had benefited from professional development workshops
offered at Midwest Community College, particularly a “Writing Across the Curriculum”
course. Without such formal intervention, the participants maintained their basic
orientations to teaching and learning.

Although cuniculum integration is considered to be key to strengthening
occupational education, the participants displayed limited involvement with it. At both
schools curriculum integration was tied up with general education requirements for their
programs. Because the teachers at Midwest Community College had to complete
checklists for each course indicating which of the general education outcomes they
addressed in that class, they were more conscious of incorporating liberal arts skills in
their teaching. However, they viewed this as more of record keeping for activities already
included in their classes, such as, written nursing plans, than as actual motivation to
change their practices. The participants from Multi-Campus had even less involvement
and believed that the liberal arts skills were and should be taught in the separate general
education classes required of students for graduation.

The career education faculty displayed an orientation to teaching that combined
the transmission and apprenticeship perspectives. Their basic understandings of teaching
and learning were developed as students and then as practitioners of their occupations.
Although their instrumental skills as teachers improved over time, primarily through trial
and error, their basic ideas about learning were largely unchanged. The career education
faculty also did not demonstrate a great deal of commitment to or even awareness of the

sort of curriculum integration activities advocated by vocational education leaders.

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3. What events, actions, and interactions influence the sense-making process as
career education faculty come to find their places within community colleges?

The experience of the participants as adjunct faculty provided them an
opportunity to gain confidence as teachers, but it did not prepare them for their roles as
full-time teachers. Their first years were grueling experiences of long hours and hard
work as they sorted through the various demands placed upon them. Several of the
participants remarked that they would not have continued in the job if subsequent years
were like the first.

New faculty in four-year colleges and universities are often not given much
direction and have a fair amount of autonomy in adjusting to the new job (Boice, 1992;
Dunn, Rouse, & Seff, 1994; Rosch & Reich, 1996), and the experiences of the
participants at their community colleges were similar. The colleges did have some formal
structures that helped the faculty make sense of their new jobs. Both colleges had
instituted new faculty orientation sessions, although many of the participants had been
hired before the programs were in place. All the participants, even the ones who did not
attend, viewed these orientations as very helpful to the new employees. Not only did the
faculty learn about the organizational structure of the college and reviewed matters
related to tenure, but they also had an opportunity to meet other new teachers.

The orientations, however, provided a global description of the roles and
responsibilities of the new faculty members and still left unanswered the myriad
questions that the participants had about the day-to-day activities that made up their work
lives. At Midwest Community College the department chairs and appointed mentors

helped to address some of the new teachers’ concerns, but the participants had to be

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assertive about finding out the specifics of their work. Office partners, colleagues in
nearby offices, and fellow department members were the primary sources of information
about classroom matters, student issues, and the mechanics of their jobs. These
relationships were of particular significance to the participants at Multi-Campus
Community College where there were no formally appointed mentors and the department
chairs had less direct involvement.

Tenure is a source of much concern and confusion for new faculty at four-year
colleges and universities (Tierney & Bensimon, 1996). The participants in this study did
not express much concern or confusion, but the requirements for tenure and promotion
did shape their understanding of their roles. Because both tenure and promotion reviews
at Midwest Community College evaluated an instructor’s contributions to the college and
professional development activities in addition to teaching performance, the participants
there undertook committee work and were engaged in graduate study or on-campus
faculty development workshops. They viewed these activities as part of their work
responsibilities. Neither professional development nor college contributions of teachers
were evaluated for tenure at Multi—Campus Community College, and faculty received no
additional compensation for participating in either. This reward structure may not been
the cause, but none of the participants from Multi-Campus viewed professional
development or college involvement as a required part of their work. Several did
participate in such activities but did so because of their own interests.

Like all new employees, the career education faculty had to clarify the
organizational expectations of their new positions and determine how to accomplish their

duties. Intentional and planned strategies in the form of orientation programs, formal

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mentoring, and administrative assistance helped the faculty become acclimated to their
new environments. However, the informal conversations in the office hallways or
between departmental members provided the nuts and bolts information that the new
faculty needed to understand and enact their roles.

Although the same conditions and strategies for organizational entry undoubtedly
apply to all faculty, one might expect that the career education faculty would have a more
difficult time adjusting to the educational environment since their prior employment had,
for the most part, been in a non-academic setting. However, the participant reactions
differed by campus. The teachers at Midwest Community College noted differences
between their previous and current work environments and welcomed the changes that
academia had brought to their work lives. At Multi-Campus Community College the
participants also appreciated the flexibility and autonomy afforded by the college but
chafed at the lack of teamwork and slow pace of business that they experienced. So the
adjustment issues may be more related to the college context than to the prior background
of the new employees.

4. What are the particular issues and challenges that career education faculty face
in understanding and enacting their roles?

The career education faculty did face some issues that were unique to their roles.
Teaching classes that were part of an occupational program had some inherent benefits
but also carried with it some challenges. Unlike many of the general education courses,
students were not required to take the occupational classes unless they were enrolled in
the program. Consequently, the career education teachers reported that their students

were generally more motivated since they saw the direct application of the course

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material to their future plans. However, the lack of guaranteed enrollment meant that the
career education faculty’s programs, and, concomitantly, their jobs were subject to shifts
in the economy and local changes in employment opportunities.

The elective nature of their programs had several implications. First, the career
education faculty had to actively recruit students. But more significantly, they had to
maintain the attractiveness of their programs by ensuring that the curriculum met the
requirements of employers and certificating organizations. The faculty had to contend
with technology, processes, and external expectations that in most areas were steadily
changing. This meant that they not only had to continually upgrade their own skills and
revise curriculum, but more fundamentally they had to develop linkages to the workplace
outside their colleges. These contacts were the sources for information about current
needs, practices, and requirements of employers.

The career education faculty were in the position of having many audiences to
serve and satisfy. All college faculty have to provide learning experiences that meet the
needs of their students. But in addition to these duties, the career education faculty also
had to determine the current demands of employers and then adjust their curriculum
accordingly; find clinical sites for their students and then assure that the clinical site staff
were happy with the arrangements; and comply with the demands of accrediting agencies
and prepare students adequately for licensure exams. All of the additional obligations
pushed the focus of career education faculty toward the outside of their colleges.

This outward perspective was a reoccurring theme in the work lives of the career
education faculty. In a sense the faculty had feet in both worlds —- the vocational

workplace and academia. The longer that the participants were at their colleges, the more

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they identified as teachers as opposed to Occupational practitioners. But their outward
orientation remained of necessity.

The outward perspective was also reflected in the values about curriculum held by
the career education faculty. They judged curricular relevance on the basis of its
contribution to the future employability of their students. They tried to incorporate the
newest techniques, procedures, and tools used in industry. They introduced new topics
into their courses to prepare students for changing requirements of licensure exams. The
significance of a particular topic was judged pragmatically by its applicability to work
skills.

The new career education faculty had to negotiate the challenges of finding their
place within their schools largely on their own. Several participants noted how much less
interaction they had with their collegiate coworkers than at their previous employment.
This appears to be a common feature of academia, as new faculty at four-year schools
and universities also complain of isolation (Boice, 1992; Sorcinelli, 1992; Tierney &
Bensimon, 1996).

All new community college faculty share common challenges as they settle into
their new roles. They have to prepare to teach new classes, develop skills for handling
student issues, and learn the policies and procedures of their new institutions. And based
on this study it appears that at least the career education faculty are given little direct
guidance and supervision by college administration and have somewhat limited collegial
interaction. They have the added challenge of integrating the external demands that their
occupations bring to bear on their cunicula and programs. In addition, their vocational

perspective puts them at odds with the traditional values of the liberal arts. These

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differences lay the groundwork for a natural division between the career education and
liberal arts faculty. The extent to which the divide was bridged differed at Midwest
Community College and Multi-Campus Community College.

The next two sections will explore how the commonalities and differences
between the two campuses emerged. I will first focus on the process by which the faculty
adjusted to their new campuses using socialization theory as a guide. Socialization,
however, emphasizes how the similarities of their perspectives arose, so I will then turn
to structuration theory for insights into the differences.

Socialization and the Commonalities

Researchers have studied the process by which people become acclimated to new
work environments using the construct of socialization. Louis (1980) defined
organizational socialization as “the process by which an individual comes to appreciate
the values, abilities, expected behaviors, and social knowledge essential for assuming an
organizational role and for participating as an organizational member” (pp. 229-230). The
lens of socialization brings into focus many of the key events and interactions that
affected the meaning-making of the career education faculty as they found their niches in
their new schools. Although most of the published research about faculty socialization in
higher education has been limited to the experiences of faculty at four-year colleges and
universities (e.g., Corcoran & Clark, 1984; Olsen & Crawford, 1998; Reybold, 2003;
Rosch & Reich, 1996; Tierney & Bensimon, 1996), it provides a framework with which
to examine the experience of the career education faculty.

Analysis of the socialization process led early theorists to propose stage models

for organizational socialization (Feldman, 1976, 1981; Graen, 1976; Jones, 1983;

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Thornton & Nardi, 1975). These models have enjoyed widespread acceptance as
conceptual frameworks, although they do not have the empirical backing to qualify as
truly predictive models (Bauer, Morrison, & Callister, 1998). The models show
remarkable similarities, all essentially defining three stages of socialization. The first
stage, anticipatory, covers the period of time and all the activities leading up to the point
when the employee actually joins the organization. The entry or encounter stage begins
when the newcomer actually becomes a member of the organization. The final stage is
variously named by the theorists and involves a long-term process of role management or
adaptation. Although these stages are presented as sequential, there is not a clear
demarcation between the last two.

During the anticipatory stage the individual develops perceptions and
expectations about the new role and begins to adopt values and attitudes associated with
the new reference group. Researchers who apply stage theory to faculty in four-year
colleges and universities focus on graduate school as the primary component of
anticipatory socialization (Austin, 2002; Rosch & Reich, 1996; Tierney & Bensimon,
1996; Tierney & Rhoads, 1993). Graduate schools not only develop the disciplinary
knowledge and skills of the students, but also expose them to the values and attitudes of
academia. However, this was not the case for the career education faculty. Most had not
attended graduate school prior to working at their colleges, and a few only had associate
degrees.

The events more relevant to the anticipatory socialization of the career education
faculty were their experiences in the workplace as vocational practitioners and teaching

as adjunct faculty. The career education faculty’s knowledge and skills were honed on the

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job, and the values and attitudes to which they were exposed were that of the workplace,
not academia. The faculty came to the community college predisposed for an outwardly
directed, occupationally oriented perspective.

For most of the participants, their introduction to an academic career was as an
adjunct faculty member. The amount of direction and support offered to them was
startlingly scant, particularly considering their lack of prior training or experience as
teachers. Participants described being handed little more than a text and course outline
and then expected to begin teaching the class that evening or the next day. When asked
what information she had been given when she first started as an adjunct instructor,
Ginny responded,

This is the book. They literally handed the book to me. And unfortunately, and it

was quite a shock, the textbook was the book that they sent out to anybody who

ordered the software. It was a very thin manual and it was honible, absolutely
horrible. They didn’t give me a syllabus, I mean nothing. Literally, here is the
book.
Some of the health careers faculty had a somewhat more gentle entry into teaching as
clinical instructors where they had supervisory responsibilities for a few students but still
continued their regular jobs in the clinical settings. In neither situation, however, was
there ever any discussion of the aims or techniques of teaching. Once hired, adjunct
faculty had minimal interaction with supervisors or other instructors. Angela described

her experience as an adjunct faculty member at Midwest Community College.

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When you are here as an adjunct, you are here at night. You don’t see a whole lot
of people. So if you are fresh off the block with no experience, it is sort difficult
to find out about what you need, to find out about different resources.

These experiences as adjunct faculty members began to shape their perceptions
and expectations about teaching and the faculty role. Given the limited direction or
supervision that they received, it would be easy for them to infer that the school
considered them well qualified for the position and, consequently, that experience in the
workplace must be a sufficient credential for teaching. Also, there was little to suggest
that the institution expected anything more from their instruction than clear transmission
of the course content. They were given no evidence that other modes of instruction
existed and should be explored. Finally, since the adjunct faculty had limited opportunity
to interact with and observe the full-time teachers, there was little to counteract their
experience that that faculty work consists solely of class preparation and delivery.

Once the new employee formally joins an organization, the perceptions formed
during anticipatory socialization are put to the test. During the encounter stage
newcomers try to clarify their roles, establish new interpersonal relationships, and make
sense of their new surroundings (F eldman, 1981; Van Maanen, 1977). As noted earlier,
the newcomer to academia typically operates with a high degree of autonomy and is
given very little direction (Boice, 1992; Dunn et al., 1994; Rosch & Reich, 1996).

Formal orientation programs typically emphasize pragmatic issues such as
insurance benefits and college policies and tacitly assume that the new faculty have
mastered the skills associated with teaching and organizational membership prior to

entry. The new teacher academies at both schools were extended programs that stretched

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out over the course of a year but still focused on the structural aspects of the
organizations, leaving many of the day-to-day operational questions unanswered.

When formal socialization efforts are minimal, employees have to be more
proactive in seeking information about their new positions, and the influence of their
immediate workgroups become more significant (Dunn et al., 1994). Such was the
experience of the participants in this study, particularly at Multi-Campus Community
College where division chairs played a less active role in orienting the new faculty than at
Midwest Community College. Ginny talked about her “research” efforts to learn more
about her job and school when she started working at Multi-Campus.

It was really a lot of, you know, just trying to gather information and being in a

sense a researcher and finding out from the various areas of the college finding

out what I could and couldn’t do. And there were a lot of times I got burned, not
realizing that that wasn’t the proper protocol or the proper way of handling it. But
majority of it was definitely just by struggling through it and trying to find the
answers on your own.
Office partners, departmental colleagues, and teachers with nearby offices were the prime
sources of the day-to-day information the new teachers needed to understand their jobs.
Because these people were typically members of their own departments or other
occupational programs, the perspectives shared were those of other career education
faculty. This is useful for learning about the specific functions of their jobs, such as
recruiting, advising, and advisory committees, but also contributes to their insularity
within the college and promotes the prevailing orientations of their colleagues to the

college, roles, and instruction.

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In the final stage of socialization, adaptation or embeddedness, new employees
become fully integrated into the organization. During this stage the newcomer completes
mastery of the tasks of his or her job, adjustment to the norms and values of the new
organization, and resolution of any role conflicts (F eldman, 1981). Chao et. a1. (1994)
identified six content areas of socialization: performance proficiency; people, in terms of
establishing satisfying work relationships; politics, that is understanding the formal and
informal power structure; language particular to both the profession and to the institution;
organizational goals and values; and organizational history. These six areas offer a means
for gauging the movement of the new employee from “outsider” to “insider.”

Researchers have not defined specific behaviors or indicators that signal the
passage from encounter to adaptation. Nevertheless, researchers have tended to apply a
three to six month time frame to the encounter stage (Jablin, 2001). In the case of higher
education a longer time appears to be needed. The shorter span is perhaps more
applicable to situations where job expectations are more clearly defined and more
supervision is provided than is the case for faculty. The teachers in this study reported
that their first year on the job was spent in a frenzy of class preparation from which there
was little time to learn about or participate in other job-related activities. Even after two
years, the participants were still sorting out their responsibilities and roles. Andy
described how he figured out his job duties after several years.

OK, well then I hear, like you go up to your division meetings, and they are

talking about involvement in college committees and all this stuff and how it’s

required and how you need to be at commencement two out of three years. And

I’m like, wow who told you all this stuff and how did you know this? So, some of

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it is, you find out, the longer you are in the system, the more you find out. Oh, I

was supposed to be doing that? Or, oh, that was an expectation or that was a

requirement? And so sometimes you find these things out by accident. I was

informed of some of the things, like when I was hired, but I had no idea what they
were really taking about.

The process of moving to full integration within the college took a number of
years. In this study the participants all identified more as teachers than as occupational
practitioners, so all had moved closer to “insider.” However, the participants who had
been working full-time at their colleges for a little more than two years still were not fully
embedded. In terms of the six content areas of socialization, this group had made great
progress in the spheres of performance proficiency, language, organizational values and
goals, and history. Notably, though, they were just starting to develop relationships
outside of a narrowly defined group within the institution. Madeline described how few
people she had met during her first couple of years of employment.

I’ve had great difficulty even getting out of this office, getting out of, you know.

When you say my connection with other people outside of my department, there’s

a man over here that I talk to, and there’s a kid over here that I talk to. And that’s

about all. There’s my committee that hasn’t met yet. And then there are our

division meetings, but those are all people that are within our division. So I know
them, but that’s in our division. But outside in the college I have met very, very
few people.

Undoubtedly because of these limited relationships, they also had a restricted

understanding of the college politics. The other participants who had been employed four

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or more years had a much clearer sense of their roles, their places within the institution,
and the people and politics that surrounded them. Based on this I would estimate the time
required for faculty to move past the encounter stage to be a minimum of a year and
closer to four years for full integration.

These socialization stages as useful analytic tools, but this perspective of
socialization emphasizes the efforts of the organization to mold and shape the newcomer
to the norms and values of the group. This implies that there is one set of values,
behaviors, and social knowledge that is generally understood, and that the culture that
these values, behaviors, and knowledge reflect is immutable and should not be questioned
with regard to its legitimacy (Tierney, 1997; Trowler & Knight, 1999). Antony refers to
this perspective as an assimilation and congruence orientation to socialization that
“requires the internalization or adoption of a profession’s norms, values and ethics so that
the neophyte’s own professional identity and self image are defined by them. This
internalization or adoption is, in reality, described as a replacement of one’s own norms
and values with those of the field one aspires to enter” (Antony, 2002, p. 368). Instead,
these theorists argue that not only does the newcomer change during socialization, but the
organization also changes as a result of the newcomer’s experiences, beliefs, and ideas.
Tierney (1997) writes, “Culture is not waiting ‘out there’ to be discovered and ‘acquired’
by new members. The coherence of an organization’s culture derives from the partial and
mutually dependent knowledge of each person caught in the process and develops out of
the work they do together” (p.6).

The fact that some distinct differences emerged in the perspectives of the teachers

at the two campuses illustrates that there is not one overarching set of values adopted by

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career education faculty and that individual agency plays a part in the development of
their understanding of their roles. Structuration is a theory that explains how the
interaction between the organizational structure and the agency of individuals combine to
create new structures. Whereas the stage theory of socialization helps to account for the
similarities in the perspectives of the participants, structuration is a tool that can be used
to analyze the source of the differences.

Structuration and the Differences

The participants shared many commonalities in their understanding about their
work and roles as career education faculty. However, between the two campuses there
was a rather sharp contrast in their perceptions about some dimensions of their
responsibilities and their integration into their colleges.

When asked to describe a colleague that they considered to be productive, all the
participants at Multi-Campus Community College told about faculty members who were
committed to their programs and engaged in activities that strengthened the programs. At
Midwest each of the participants responded to the same question by describing a fellow
teacher who not only contributed to his or her program but also was actively involved in a
variety of campus-wide activities and committees. The difference in the responses of the
two groups reflected how they situated themselves within their colleges.

At Multi-Campus Community College all the participants commented on the lack
of cooperation between departments and even among the faculty within their own
programs. The gulf between the vocational programs and the liberal arts departments
seemed wide. The participants expressed opinions of the liberal arts faculty that ranged

from irritation, for example, Henry’s sense of a “caste system” and characterization of the

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liberal arts faculty as the “lords,” to complete disengagement. The career education
faculty were wholly focused on their own programs and felt no pressure to join college
committees.

In contrast, the teachers at Midwest Community College considered college
committee involvement to be a regular part of their job responsibilities. Each was a
member of at least one and in most cases several college-wide committees, and a couple
of participants were the chairs of committees. They were committed to their individual
programs, but they were also connected to the college as a whole. The differences
between them and the liberal arts faculty did not seem so great. Although they felt that
their work was distinct from that of the liberal arts faculty and perhaps not understood by
them, the Midwest participants saw themselves as equal partners within the college and
the two groups as fulfilling complementary roles. Theresa commented, “I think we are
accepted as equals for the most part. We are not looked on as just, oh just occupational
people or something like that.” The proposal to make an hour of lab equivalent to an hour
of traditional class time in the computation of instructor load that was debated during the
time that I visited the campus illustrates this point. Although the discussion surrounding
the proposal was emotional at times and pointed to some differences in perceptions about
the nature of laboratory and clinical teaching, the faculty did vote to make the hours
equivalent. This agreement, which meant that all faculty had to forego an already agreed
upon raise, was affirmation of the equal status of the two groups.

How is it that the faculty at the two institutions, facing many of the same
challenges and constraints, having similar backgrounds and motivations, could position

themselves so differently within their schools? Why do relationships within the two

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schools differ? Structuration, used as an interpretive framework, can help to explain the
differences between the two campuses.

In structuration theory, Giddens (1979; 1984) defines structure as the rules and
resources that enable and constrain action. Rules are of two types: procedural and
normative. Procedural rules specify how action is to be performed. Normative rules are
the conventions that describe what constitutes appropriate behavior. Resources also are
broken into two categories: authoritative and allocative. Authoritative resources have to
do with issues of power, while allocative refers to material resources such as raw
materials, technology, and consumer goods. Using this characterization, role definitions,
tenure and promotion policies, and even the climate of interaction that affects
relationships within the college fall into the category of structure.

In traditional theories, organizational structures are viewed as defining constraints
on human behavior while interpretivist theories focus on individual agency as the primary
determinant. Structuration theory spans these two perspectives by viewing structure as
the recursive product of social interactions. Structure is both the medium that guides the
activities and interactions Of people and also the outcome of those actions and
interactions (Giddens, 1984). This means that while there are social structures —
traditions, moral codes, established ways of doing things, and for our purposes, roles —
that guide the actions and interactions of people, these very same structures get their
meaning and validity from their use in interactions and can be changed when people
begin to ignore them or interpret them differently. Structures themselves are not reified,

but exist in their “instantiation,” their use.

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Agency, or individual action, is both enabled and constrained by structure. People
draw upon their knowledge of local contexts and their knowledge of the understandings
of others in formulating their actions. Giddens (1984) stratification model distinguishes
among three levels of cognition and motivation. The highest level of awareness,
discursive consciousness, represents that which people are able to verbalize. Practical
consciousness includes the implicit knowledge that people act upon but may not be able
to articulate. At the lowest level are unconscious motives about which even awareness
has been suppressed.

The stratification model also points to three processes that form the basis for the
recursive nature of human social activities. First, people maintain a reflexive monitoring
of action in which they “not only monitor continuously the flow of their activities and
expect others to do the same for their own; they also routinely monitor aspects, social and
physical, of the contexts in which they move” (Giddens, 1984, p. 5). Second, people are
able to provide rationalizations for their actions and generally maintain a theoretical
understanding of the basis of their activities. Finally, at the root of action is the
motivation that prompts it. Motivation, often unconscious, provides the general plan of
action but generally does not prompt the everyday, individual actions. These processes
and the levels of cognition enable individual agency but also create barriers to totally
random acts.

Turning the lens of structuration upon the different reward systems at the two
campuses yields insights into the organizational dynamics of each. At Midwest
Community College the written tenure and promotion policies were part of the Senate

Handbook. The procedures specified that teachers would be evaluated on the basis of

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teaching, professional development, and college contributions. The policy gained its
power, however, from the meaning the faculty attached to it. All of the Midwest
participants told me about conversations they had about the tenure and promotion
procedures. They discussed it at the new teachers’ academy, sought preparation advice
from their department chairs, asked for clarification about requirements from their
colleagues, and shared the stories of their experiences with other faculty. Angela told me
about her efforts to figure out what was expected of her for promotion and tenure.

I’m still trying to figure them out. No, you get mixed views. You just kind have

sit down and talk to people. And actually when you are going through the process,

you find the people that are willing to tell you their story if you approach them.

And everybody has a different story. Everybody talks a little bit differently about

how their promotion and tenure process went. So just learning from other

people’s mistakes.
It was out of these discussions that the promotion and tenure “structure” evolved.

This structure shaped the perceptions that the faculty at Midwest Community
College had about their roles with regard to institutional contributions and professional
development. It was clear to all the participants that college-wide committee involvement
was an important part of their college responsibilities. Madeline told me that she realized
that she needed to become more active in activities outside her division. She advised
other new faculty to arrange their teaching schedules to accommodate the Wednesday
afternoon college meetings because these activities comprised a third of the promotion

and tenure evaluations. Given the meaning attached to the tenure and promotion

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“structure,” it is not surprising that the participants from Midwest Community College
included active college involvement in their descriptions of a productive colleague.

Similarly, the Midwest teachers considered professional development to be
another aspect of their work. Not only did they participate in campus workshops and
seminars, but most were also pursuing additional degrees. Matt told me that he did not
plan to seek tenure until he completed his master’s degree because departmental
colleagues had told him the degree would be necessary. Through the activities and
interactions of the participants, the “structure” of role at Midwest gained the dimensions
of college involvement and professional development.

The tenure policy and advancement policies at Multi-Campus Community
College were quite different from those at Midwest. As specified by contract, teachers
could achieve tenure after three years based on an annual review by a probationary
committee comprised of two faculty members and one administrator. The committee
determined the criteria on which the new faculty member was evaluated. College
involvement and professional development did not figure formally into the tenure
evaluation. There was no provision for post-tenure promotion, and salary increments
were accrued based on years of service.

The Multi-College teachers attached much different meaning to the tenure
“structure” than did the teachers at Midwest. Whereas all the Midwest participants
referred to tenure and promotion in our conversations, it was given much less salience by
the participants at Multi-Campus Community College. Ginny recounted how the peer

evaluation was completed perfunctorily without any actual classroom observations.

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Under the influence of the tenure and promotion “structure” at Midwest, college
involvement and professional development became part of the role definition of the
teachers there. At Multi-Campus these dimensions were not part of the tenure “structure,”
and they did not figure into the role definition of the teachers.

Giddens (1984) identified three processes, reflexive monitoring, rationalization,
and motivation, that contributed to the recursive nature of human interactions. The
influence of these processes on the actions of the participants concerning professional
development was evident. The participants at both schools had discursive awareness of
the norms regarding professional development. Both administrations encouraged such
activities. At Midwest Community College the participants were aware that their
colleagues were engaged in professional development and were conscious of collegial
pressure to participate themselves. They explained that their involvement, particularly
with regard to pursuing additional degrees, was necessary to satisfy requirements for
tenure and promotion, and they were undoubtedly motivated by the desire to achieve
tenure or promotion with its attendant benefits of increased pay and status.

The participants at Multi-Campus Community College also monitored the actions
of their colleagues, only here as Ginny said, “the famous words on the street is that ‘he’s
[the associate dean] not my boss. I don’t have a boss. I am an individual, and I run by our
contract, by the union.’” The teachers participated in professional development activities
as a matter of personal inclination, and the disincentive mentioned by several participants

for pursuing additional degrees was the lack of institutional monetary support and

reward. Ginny commented on that fact.

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I really would like to go back and get my education degree. And I would say the
biggest deterrent to that is probably the college, in that sense we don’t have any,
we don’t get a raise in pay. Not that it is pay motivated, but they also don’t
support furthering your education. There isn’t any sort of tuition reimbursement.

The differing role “structures,” the inclusion of college involvement and
professional development at Midwest and not at Multi-Campus, contributed to the
different climates of interaction between the career education and liberal arts faculty at
the two schools. The participants from Midwest Community College simply had more
contact with liberal arts faculty because of their committee work and through this work
had opportunities to work toward common goals. There was a context for interactions
between the two groups resulting in better understanding of each other.

Without regular involvement with the liberal arts faculty, the distrust and program
insularity experienced by the Multi-Campus participants were not challenged. Also, some
of their feelings of lesser status might be attributed to their lack of participation in
professional development activities, particularly with regard to continued collegiate and
graduate work. The professional development activities of the Midwest faculty, on the
other hand, were likely to enhance their sense of professionalism and contribute to their
sense of equal footing with the liberal arts faculty.

Implications

Teaching and learning is at the heart of the mission of all community colleges,
and colleges ideally should be organized to foster deep learning on the part of their
students. Both research and policy initiatives have provided guidelines for approaches

that would strengthen education. In the last three or four decades research has revealed

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much about how people learn with important implications for teaching. For example,
researchers have found that teachers can promote deep learning by covering fewer topics
in greater depth, and that teachers need to provide opportunities for students to reflect on
their progress and mastery of concepts because metacognition is an essential component
of learning (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000). In the arena of occupational education,
almost all policy initiatives in the last decade have advocated approaches that integrate
technical education with traditional academics in order to foster broader literacy and
thinking skills. Unfortunately, structural constraints in community colleges make
implementation of these ideas about teaching and learning difficult for all faculty, and for
career education faculty in particular.

The image that emerges from this study is of a group of career education faculty
who are engaged in multiple activities —— cuniculum development and revision, student
recruiting and advising, clinical or lab maintenance and supervision, cultivating and
sustaining links to the workplace, and, of course, teaching. These activities are performed
against a backdrop of changing technologies and externally mandated directives. The
career education faculty have been thrust into an academic setting with little or no
preparation for the role and of necessity maintain a pragmatic and outwardly directed
perspective on their work.

Given the sheer complexity of their responsibilities and their limited preparation
for collegiate work, the degree to which the career education faculty adapted to their new
roles was remarkable. They displayed an enthusiasm for teaching, commitment to their

programs, and concern for their students that their colleges can point to with pride.

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Nevertheless, there are clear impediments that inhibit fundamental changes in the modes
of teaching and learning within the career education classrooms.

Employer demands and licensure requirements limit the flexibility of career
education faculty to adapt curriculum to better accommodate their students’ learning
needs. Learning theory may suggest that deeper learning would be possible if students
covered fewer topics, but eliminating subject areas is difficult when faculty know that
those topics are included on the national licensure exams or that local employers will
only hire graduates who have those skills. And the broad spread of required topics and
skills that their students need discourages faculty from experimenting with new activities,
such as reflective exercises to enhance metacognition. New activities appear to diminish
already too short instructional time.

Curricular demands and class time constraints are not the only barriers to changes
in pedagogical modes. Faculty generally are not aware of the findings and
recommendations of the new science of learning. The career education faculty are by no
means alone in this regard, but their relatively limited formal educational background
compounds the problem. Few of the participants in this study had taken education
coursework. Most did not have a graduate degree when they started teaching, and a
couple had only associate degrees. Their prior experience working in their occupational
fields gave them expertise in their subject matter but did not provide insights into
pedagogy. Once hired as teachers, the press of responsibilities and the multiple demands
on their time left little room for exploration of alternate pedagogies. Their more
immediate concern was maintaining currency with the changing technologies and

procedures within their disciplines. Again, let me hasten to repeat that the same could be

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said of the liberal arts faculty. Liberal arts faculty, however, are more likely to have
graduate degrees and, consequently, more exposure to the norms and practices of
academia.

Finally, there is the matter of integration. The career education faculty themselves
feel that they form a distinct group within the college, and that their work is not really
understood by the larger community. This separate identity seems to stem from the
differences in some of their responsibilities, their occupational perspective on education,
and their outward orientation to the college. The existence of distinct subgroups within
the community college is not a problem in and of itself. It becomes problematic when the
boundaries between groups are not permeable, and distrust and territorialism mark
interactions between the groups. Working relationships built on mutual respect can only
help the institution achieve its goals. Bragg and Reger (2000) note how lack of
collaboration is an impediment to curriculum integration.

Problems with transferring applied academics courses and reluctance to commit

institutional resources to support collaboration between academic and vocational

faculty are indicative of deeper underlying differences. Political and
organizational structures that separate the liberal arts for transfer from vocational-
technical education for work, curricular approaches reinforced by external
agencies, and the traditional distribution of time, space, and money all work
together to perpetuate the schism between academic education and vocational
education. Until these larger forces over which individual faculty have little
control are recognized, it will be difficult to move beyond rhetoric calling for

more integration. (pp. 265 — 266)

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Collaborative working relationships require both liberal arts and career education faculty
to understand the perspectives and work of the other and to appreciate the contributions
made by the other group to the college’s mission. It does not mean that either group must
adopt the values and norms of the other. The faculty at Midwest Community College
illustrated that this was possible. Lack of cooperation between the two groups ultimately
affects student learning as was the case with the statics and dynamics course at Multi-
Campus Community College. The pre-engineering program, and the students enrolled in
it, suffered because the faculty could not agree on which faculty group would be
responsible for teaching the course.

The structural organization issues faced by the faculty in this study — external
curricular demands, limited formal educational background, multiple responsibilities, and
potential isolation as a group — suggest a variety of institutional responses that would
support the career education faculty in their work and strengthen the education offered at
community colleges. These suggestions are grouped in terms of applicability to the staff
responsible for faculty development, the department chairs, and the senior administrative
officers of community colleges.

First of all, two areas relevant to staff in charge of faculty development are
apparent from this study — new teacher orientations and workshops on various aspects of
pedagogy. Community colleges are complex organizations that can be confusing and
overwhelming for all new faculty. The new teacher orientations that both schools in this
study instituted provided the faculty needed and welcomed assistance in acclimating to
their new jobs. If already not doing 50, schools should implement programs that introduce

new faculty to organizational expectations, policies, and personnel. The orientations did

163

not address all the initial uncertainties of the faculty, however. They sought the assistance
of colleagues for the multitude of questions that arose on a daily basis. Schools can
facilitate this process by formalizing mentoring offered by supervisors and peers.

Learning how to teach was a particular concern for the career education faculty
since most had previously been employed outside academia. Without other influences,
the faculty tended to teach as they had been taught, relying on traditional transmission
approaches. Professional development programs that introduce faculty to different
pedagogical strategies and promote reflection about matters of teaching and learning are
needed to reshape instructional paradigms. Community colleges pride themselves on
being teaching institutions. Yet, if this claim is to be staked on quality and not just
quantity, the institutions will have to be deliberate in nurturing it.

Department chairs play a critical role in supporting and guiding the work of their
faculty. Career and technical education administrators need to mentor new faculty and to
support teaching improvement and curriculum reform. However, many of these men and
women are themselves drawn from the ranks from the career education faculty and do not
have a strong grounding in pedagogy and curriculum reform. Ginny recounted a
conversation in which she asked her dean if he would provide her some feedback on her
teaching.

On the other hand, talking candidly with our dean, he said, “I’m not an educator

either. 1 can come in and tell you if you are projecting your voice properly or

getting your point across. But in terms of actual teaching methods, I don’t have

anything to compare it to.”

164

Department chairs need to avail themselves of professional development activities so that
they can advocate for pedagogical practices and curricular reform that will strengthen
student learning.

Almost all the participants started as adjunct faculty. This initial teaching
experience was marked with little time for preparation and minimal support from the
colleges. Department chairs should develop better support mechanisms for adjunct
faculty. Adjunct faculty ought to be included in orientation programs, offered
opportunities to engage with full-time instructors, and encouraged to explore different
teaching perspectives. Adjunct faculty warrant this attention not only because they teach
a substantial percentage of the classes at most community colleges, but also since many
of the new full-time faculty are drawn from the ranks of the adjunct faculty. With large
numbers of community college faculty reaching retirement age, the need for new teachers
to replace them will be increasing. A pool of qualified and experienced adjunct faculty
will serve colleges well.

Finally, senior administrative officers need to address the barriers to professional
development and faculty integration. Given the press of their multiple responsibilities,
teachers are not likely to devote much time to reflection of their teaching beliefs and
practices unless structures exist that reinforce the significance of such activities. The old
adage, “if you build it, they will come,” does not seem to apply to professional
development programs. For career education faculty to include continued professional
development as part of their role definition, it appears to be important to build incentives
for such into the reward structure. Without institutional inducements, faculty participation

in these activities becomes a matter of personal options and interests. In addition to

165

improving instruction,» continued professional development has the added advantage of
potentially enhancing the career education teacher’s professional self-image as an
academic.

Senior administrators should also examine ways to encourage collaboration
between the faculty groups at their institutions. While the differences between the career
education faculty and the liberal arts teachers are probably inherent to their situations, the
extent to which these differences cause a rift between the two groups is not a given. The
faculty at Midwest Community College achieved an amicable, if somewhat distant,
working relationship with their liberal arts counterparts. This rapprochement seemed to
stem from their contact in college wide committees and activities. But as was also evident
from the experiences at the two colleges, integration does not occur automatically.
Colleges will need to provide some of the structures, such as incentives built into the
reward system, that will provide the prompts for collaborative interactions between the
two faculty groups. Community colleges have a daunting educational mission. Achieving
one aspect of it, preparation of students to enter the sub-baccalaureate labor market, will
require the creative efforts of the entire college.

Career education programs that address the latest job requirements are important
for preparing students for the current job market. With the rapid changes affecting the
workforce brought on by new technologies and globalization, however, the real challenge
is equipping students with the education and skills they will need for tomorrow’s job
market. Without forward facing education, students will be caught up in a cycle of
training and retraining. If colleges intend to address the changes in occupational

education advocated by researchers and policy makers, such as cuniculum integration,

166

administrators will have to be proactive in initiating the discussion of teaching aims and
methods.
Limitations

This research sought to clarify how a number of career education faculty at two
community colleges came to understand their professional roles. It provided much
information about this particular faculty group, but this study does not purport to
generalize to all career education faculty in community colleges. The faculty were drawn
from two large community colleges set in population centers of a midwestem state, so
their experiences may not be comparable to those of faculty at geographically and
demographically different colleges. At Multi-Campus Community College, an
administrator initially contacted the teachers, and so the selection of participants from
that institution may have been tainted. The participants in the study also may not be
typical of other career education faculty, even at their own institutions. Finally, all the
participants were relatively new to full-time community college teaching, having been
employed full-time between two and six years at the point that I interviewed them. This
was by design in order to determine the formative stages of faculty role development.
However, it is reasonable that faculty might come to different understandings about their
roles as they progress through their careers. I might have had different results if I had
included faculty who had a longer histories at their colleges.

As a phenomenological study, this research was designed to illuminate the
essences and meanings career education faculty attach to their experiences at their
colleges. I have presented a description of the understandings these faculty have about

their professional roles. Although in the discussion, I have suggested some explanations

167

that might account for differences between the two campuses, the study was not designed
to establish or determine causal relationships.

Finally, both the design of the study and the analysis of the data have been
influenced by my personal values and beliefs. Although I employed bracketing
techniques in order to reduce the impact of preconceived ideas and judgments, my own
experiences as a community college instructor. ideas shape my understandings and
interpretations of the academic world.

Directions for Future Research

This study focused on how the career education faculty developed a definition of
their roles within the community college. A similar study in which community college
liberal arts faculty were interviewed would help to determine if and how their role
definitions differed from that of career education faculty, and if their attention to
pedagogy differed.

Very little research attention has been devoted to the associate deans and deans in
the career and technical programs. A study similar to this one focusing on their roles and
responsibilities would clarify the types of skills and backgrounds these individuals should
have. For changes to occur in career education programs, strong leadership will be
needed. A good understanding of the roles and challenges of the career education
administrators would help colleges develop, select, and support talented leaders.

The different reward structures at the two schools appeared to play a role in the
role definitions of the faculty in this study. An examination of the different reward

schemes used at community colleges would be useful for college administrators,

168

particularly if it could be demonstrated what, if any, effects the schemes had upon faculty
role definition, productivity, and job satisfaction.

Finally, structuration is worthwhile point of departure for studying various aspects
of organizational life and behavior. As Giddens (1991) observed, the concepts of
structuration are helpful as “sensitizing devices, to be used in a selective way in thinking
about research questions or interpreting findings” (p. 213). Because the theory takes into
account both the effect of organizational structures and the individual’s interpretation and
response, it is a useful tool for understanding the complexity of organizational life. For
example, a study that used the lens of structuration to examine the effects of a
professional development program for faculty at a community college would be able to
move beyond a cause and effect analysis and gain a better understanding of the dynamics
that surrounded the program and its impact.

Such a study would necessarily focus on the actions and interactions of the
teachers involved in the professional development activity since, according to Giddens
(1984), “analyzing the structuration of social systems means studying the modes in which
such systems, grounded the knowledgeable activities of situated actors who draw upon
rules and resources in the diversity of actions contexts, are produced and reproduced in
interactions” (p. 25). In order to narrow the scope of the study, interviews could be
conducted within a department in which an activity, such as a learning circle, had been
introduced. Using a longitudinal approach in which three waves of interviews are
conducted over the course of a year would yield insights into the ways in which the
interactions become the basis of further actions and interactions — the recursive nature of

structure. According to Giddens (1979; 1984), the structuring of social interaction

169

involves the interplay of meaning, power, and norms. Analysis of the interviews along
these three dimensions would help to illuminate the evolving impact and meaning of the
professional development activity. This sort of analysis accounts for the complexity and
unexpectedness that occur in organizational life and that appear aberrant in more linear
descriptions of organizations.
Conclusion

Career and technical education is a vital function of the comprehensive
community college. Moreover, it is this part of the college that is particularly responsive
to the unique needs of its community. As Henry said,

But what really gives the community college its personality or its identity isn’t

English 101, because every college has English 101. It isn’t American history

prior to 1861, because every college teaches that. It is the career, tech areas,

because geographically throughout the US there are different jobs and different

sectors.
This aspect of the mission of the community college has become more critical now in this
period of changing economic conditions. Responsive and strategic technical education
can help communities adjust to the restructuring of jobs and industries that we are now
undergoing. It is the career education faculty who must design the curriculum and teach
the courses that will prepare their students not only for the current job market but also for
one that has yet to emerge. Understanding the challenges that these faculty face and the
perspectives they hold can help their institutions better support their work. The result can

only strengthen this crucial aspect of the educational mission of community colleges.

170

APPENDICES

171

APPPENIX A

Introductory Email

Dear ,

I am community college mathematics instructor and department chair working on a Ph.D.
in Higher, Adult, and Life-long Education from Michigan State University. My research
is focusing on the experiences of career education faculty as they adapt to their new work
environments and roles during the early years of their employment at community
colleges. Since you are a relatively new career education faculty member, I am hoping
that you would be willing to participate in the study

Of course you are wondering what participation entails. If you agree to take part in the
study, I would like to interview you twice in the next couple of months about your
experiences as a career education instructor. The interviews will be scheduled on your
campus at your convenience and each should last 60 to 90 minutes. At the first interview,
I will give you a brief questionnaire about your educational background and previous
work experience to complete. If I have your permission, I will tape and transcribe the
interviews. I will send you copies of the transcriptions that you may review for accuracy.

The information I collect will be treated with strict confidentiality. I will make every
effort to protect your anonymity. Tapes and transcripts will not be labeled by name, and
any statement that identifies you specifically will not be quoted in the dissertation.

You, of course, are not in any way obligated to participate. No one at your school will be
informed of your decision about participation in this study, and your decision will not
affect your relationship with your college. If you do choose initially to participate, you
are free to withdraw from the study at later point.

Thank-you for your consideration,

Lynne Hensel

Henry Ford Community College
5101 Evergreen Road
Dearborn, MI 48128

172

APPENDIX B

Participant Consent Form
“Strangers in a Strange Land:
Career Education Faculty Finding Their Places in Community Colleges”

The purpose of this study is to gather information about the experiences of career
education faculty as they adapt to their new work environments and roles during the early
years of their employment at community colleges. Specifically, I am interested in the
understandings these faculty have about their roles and responsibilities within their
colleges.

Your signature on this form indicates that you have agreed to be interviewed two times,
each for 60 to 90 minutes. This form outlines your rights as an interview participant.
Your privacy will be protected to the maximum extent allowable by law.

Participation includes the following:

0 You will be voluntarily participating in a doctoral dissertation research project
that focuses on the experiences of career education faculty in the early years of
their employment at community colleges.

0 There are no known risks associated with participation in this study. Nevertheless,
you can withdraw participation from this interview at any time. You can also
refuse to answer a question. If you withdraw your participation during the
interview, the audiotape will be immediately destroyed.

0 You can ask questions of the interviewer at any time during the interview process.

0 You identity will be confidential. Pseudonyms will be used in all written papers,
both published and unpublished, in order to protect individual identification.

0 This interview will be audiotaped and transcribed. After the transcription is
complete, all tapes will be destroyed. The researcher will retain the transcript of
the audiotape and will delete any reference that may identify you as an individual.
If you would prefer not to be audiotaped, the interviewer will take extensive notes
during the interview.

0 The transcripts and any other data will be stored in a file cabinet in the
researcher’s home office until the dissertation is completed. At such time, the data
will be destroyed. Only the researcher and the investigator will have access to the
data.

0 You consent to the publication of parts of the transcript and accept that any
information will be anonymous in order to prevent any identification.

173

c If you have any questions about this study, please contact the investigator, John
Dirkx, Ph.D., College of Education, 419 Erickson Hall, Michigan State
University, East Lansing MI 48824-1034, 517.353.8927, dirkxér‘tmsuedu. You
may also contact the researcher, Lynne Hensel, 26346 Wyoming, Huntington
Woods, MI 48070-1232, 248.545.4602, Lhensel@hfcc.edu. If you have questions
or concerns regarding your rights as a study participant, or are dissatisfied at any
time with any aspect of this study, you may contact -— anonymously, if you wish
— Peter Vasilenko, Ph.D., Chair of the University Committee on Research
Involving Human Subjects (UCHRIS) by phone at 517.355.2180, fax at
517.432.4503, email at uchrish@msu.edu , or by regular mail at 202 Olds Hall,
East Lansing, MI 48824.

 

Your signature below indicates your voluntary agreement to participate in this study.

You agree to have the interview audiotaped.

 

Name of Participant (please print)

 

 

Signature of Participant Date

 

 

Signature of Interviewer Date

174

APPENDIX C
Participant Background Survey

Thank-you for agreeing to participate in this study about career education faculty in
community colleges. Please complete this background questionnaire and return it to me
in the enclosed self-addressed, stamped envelope. It will provide me with demographic
information for the study and save time in our forthcoming conversation. Your answers
will be kept strictly confidential. If you have any questions, please call (313 845-6404) or
email (Lhensel@hfcc.edu).

 

 

 

 

 

NAME BIRTH DATE CURRENT DATE HIRED (full-
COMMUNITY time at current
COLLEGE school)
CURRENT JOB TITLE DEPARTMENT

 

 

 

POSTSECONDARY EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
List all formal schooling since high school, both degree oriented and post-degree
coursework/training

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COLLEGE OR DEGREE MAJOR DATES ATTENDED
UNIVERSITY

WORK EXPERIENCE
List significant prior work experience, teaching and non-teaching, from bachelor’s
degree to present
JOB TITLE ORGANIZATION DATES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please use the reverse side if you need additional space.

175

APPENDIX D
First Interview Protocol

Tell me about your job. What is it that you do here?
Probes:

0 Describe a typical workday.

o Is this what you expected the job to be when you first started working at
this school?
How did you find out what your responsibilities were?
How did you learn to do your job?
How has your perception changed about this place and what’s expected of
you?

Tell me about your connections with the workplace outside the college.
Probes:
o How do these connections affect your work at the college?

What is your involvement with the your college outside your department?
Probes:
o How would you describe (draw a picture showing) your place in the
college?
0 How has your college been affected by your presence?
0 What changes would you like to see in your college?

Let’s go back to your overall sense of your job here at the college. What do you enjoy
most (least) about your job?
Probes:
o What activities make the greatest demand on you?
0 Is there anything you would like to spend greater time on?
o How do you know if you are doing a good job?
0 What advice would you give to a new faculty member?

176

APPENDIX E
Second Interview Protocol

How have you learned to be a teacher?
Probes:
0 Why did you decide to become a teacher?
0 Describe a class session
0 How do you prepare for classes?
0 What would have helped you with your teaching when you first started at
this school?
0 How has your teaching changed since you started? Are there any changes
you would like to make in the future?
0 Tell me about conversations you have with your colleagues about
teaching.
What do you find to be the greatest challenge in teaching?
Do you think others at the college understand your work?
What would help you be a better teacher?
How do you keep up with your field?
Have you been involved in any curriculum integration efforts?
Do you see yourself more as a teacher or as a practitioner? Place yourself
on a continuum. Where were you on the continuum when you first started
at the your college? What has prompted the change (if any)?

Are there any changes you’d like to see in the college that would make it easier for you to
do your job?

Tell me about your students.
Probes:
o What have you enjoyed most about your students, found frustrating?
o Are the students different that you had expected?

I’d like to you to talk a little about your colleagues. With whom do you interact most
frequently on the job?
Probes:
0 What’s the nature of your conversations?
0 Tell me who you consider to be a productive colleague (and why).

Story telling: Depending upon time, ask for one or more of the following:
0 Tell me a story about your department.
0 Tell me a story about what it’s like to be a career education faculty
member here.
Tell me a story about how people interact here.
Tell me a story about your teaching that involves one or more of your
students.

177

What do you see yourself doing five, ten years into the future?

Probes:
0 Would you consider leaving the college and going back to work fulltime in
your field?

What do you think is the most important purpose of your college?

178

APPENDIX F
Bracketing

First of all, my initial take on the differences between career education faculty and the
liberal arts faculty. The career ed faculty:
0 Have more emphasis on the practical
Are impatient with academic process
Are more motivated by money
Are less rigorous
Use mostly hands-on instruction — learn by doing.

I say more motivated by money because it seems that most of the career ed faculty that I
know work the maximum amount of extracontractual every year — although that really
isn’t as true of the folks in the health fields. And then some, many?, have other jobs.
Sometimes it is teaching at other schools, but in other cases it is a small business or
moonlighting in their fields. Of course, I know liberal arts faculty that do the same. Quite
a few years ago, in contract negotiations, we put a cap on the number of hours of
extracontractual that people could work. At that point in time the liberal arts faculty were
held to a maximum of 18 credit hours per year, while the tech faculty had been teaching
quite a bit more, some 30 or more credit hours a year. It was not a popular decision when
the lower limits were imposed, and I know that that aspect of the contract still has to be
actively policed. On the other hand, there are plenty of the liberal arts faculty that now
max out on the extracontractual every year.

My feeling about less rigorous stems in part from my opinions of their tech math classes.
The classes are very “plug and chug.” With no explanation of why or trying to
communicate or require understanding of the process. Of course they see the tech math
courses that we teach as too theoretical and removed from the “real world.”

I think that the career ed faculty mostly learned teaching on the job. Few have
participated in the professional development activities sponsored by the CTEI. I had the
sense that they did not view the workshops, etc., as relevant to their fields.

There appear to be difi‘erences between the various disciplines within career ed. Business
and Allied Health seem more like the liberal arts classes. The more industrial, e.g.,
automotive, the more distinct from the liberal arts. The career ed disciplines seem to fall
on a continuum. What does it mean to be “more like liberal arts?” I guess more academic,
more classroom based, less hands on. Students are more likely to be in transfer programs.

There seems to be a gulf between the two groups. For the most part it is one of benign
neglect. They are in their world, the liberal arts faculty are in theirs, and there is little
overlap between the two. Mostly the two groups don’t know each other. There are few
career ed people involved in committees — although that may just be my perception.
There are fewer career ed teachers than in the liberal arts, so maybe percentagewise,
participation is not as different as I think.

179

Through the years there have been a number of career ed faculty who have had a high
profile organizationally. Several of these folks have been quite prickly — very defensive
of turf, very suspicious of the liberal arts side. It doesn’t seem that the newer people these
days are as grufl‘. It used to be that walking into the faculty area of the tech building took
some courage. It did not feel like a fiiendly place. The “tech boys” were not warm and
fiizzy. Since a number of the senior members have retired, the atmosphere has changed
somewhat. I wonder if the fact that there are more women over there is part of the reason.

This has been pretty focused on negatives — in part to get them out in the open. On the
positive side, the people I know best on the career side — the health careers faculty —
are some of the most dedicated, hardworking people on campus. They are very
committed to their programs, and are stretched quite thin in trying to keep them going. I
don’t know much about the programs over in the tech building, but demonstrations and
tours I have had have been quite impressive. The CNC stufl‘ with the Haas equipment and
the whole heating and cooling labs are so different fiom what I do.

180

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