Book Review: Community College Faculty: At Work in the New Economy

Abstract

Levin, J. S., Kater, S., & Wagoner, R. L. (2006). Community College Faculty: At Work in the Economy. York: Palgrave Macmillian.DOI: 10.1177/0091552106293415This book offers a comprehensive examination of the work lives of faculty members in community colleges. The authors offer a well-written book that addresses a dearth in the research literature about community college faculty. Using a blend of research methods, the authors utilize national data sets, interviews, and case study materials to illustrate the work lives of faculty in community colleges. The authors aptly describe that, despite community college faculty representing one-third of all postsecondary faculty, there is an absence of empirical evidence to help us understand the work lives of these faculty members.The authors use theories from various disciplines to describe the changing landscape for community colleges. They describe community colleges as operating in a rapidly changing environment that requires these institutions to shift their educational missions and purpose to serve the interest of private interests and to manage faculty as a workforce that works toward increasing student enrollment, secures additional private sector funds, and develops innovative technology-centered curriculum for the consumer student. The authors argue that community colleges operate in a environment. In this new environment, community college administrators manage faculty members to increase institutional efficiency and to provide a utilitarian approach to increase institutional funding. Under this theory, the authors offer a candid view of community college faculty members. They offer empirical evidence that informs and goes beyond anecdotal evidence about community college faculty members.The authors' primary aim for this book is to reevaluate the work of community college faculty and determine how they fit into the New Economy in a complex and competitive higher education landscape. In an effort to reconceptualize how outside observers view community colleges, the authors highlight two key points: the organizational landscape for community colleges is more volatile and dynamic, and community college faculty roles and professional identities are also changing.In this review, I discuss the book in three primary sections. The first section presents the first three chapters, which offer a historical perspective and provide the theoretical framework of the book. In the next section, chapters 4 through 7 examine community college faculty roles in four distinct areas: governance, technology, employment status, and institutional mission and values. The final section presents chapters 8 and 9, which offer a candid qualitative description of community college faculty work identity and the reconceptualization of community college faculty members' professional identity.The first three chapters provide a broad view of community colleges in higher education. The authors detail how community colleges evolved to meet the changing demands of the local community. They suggest that community colleges no longer operate within a local but rather within a context that includes local, regional, national, and partnerships. The authors examine how community college faculty fit into this global approach. In addition, the authors rely on resource dependency theory, entrepreneurialism, managerialism, and corporatism as a theoretical lens to explain the new professional identities of community college faculty members.In chapter 1, the authors suggest that a neoliberal ideology is changing how community colleges function in their community and, more important, how community college professionals view the work and role of faculty. The provocative application of this concept seems to undergird the notion that community colleges are institutions that are willing to cater to the demands of the private sector. …