Role Identity in Professional Community College Tutors

Abstract

ABSTRACT Learning assistance services offered by U.S. community colleges are vital to the academic success of many students, but the tutors themselves remain understudied. This paper attempts to narrow both the research and recognition gaps by exploring and categorizing prominent aspects of professional community college tutors. Using a small-scale, intrinsic case study, the researcher conducted four online interviews of full-time tutors working in a variety of academic disciplines (e.g., math, writing) for an established learning center in a North Carolina community college. Participant self-descriptions of experiences, ideals, and influences were analyzed and thematically coded according to a sociocultural framework of role identity. The trustworthiness of the coding frame was evaluated through intercoder agreement trials. The emergent themes, as well as several relationships between them, suggest the distinctiveness of the professional community college tutor role relative to more well-known instructional roles in higher education such as the peer tutors typically found in four-year institutions. The results could also serve as a guide for learning center directors in the recruitment, development, and evaluation of their professional tutors.