Constructed Worlds of Community College Administrators

• In Event: Roundtable Session 30
  In Roundtable Session: Leadership at Multiple Levels

Abstract

In light of changing institutional missions within community colleges relative to internal and external pressures, we examine administrator understanding and construction of identity within their respective institutions. In order to explain the construction of meaning and subsequent action for community college administrators, we analyzed data from thirty-one community college administrators in four states. We use cultural identity and figured worlds as frameworks to conduct narrative analysis. This investigation draws upon the concepts of “relational” and “positional” identities of the participants in order to determine the figured world constructed by these participants. As a result, we identify three typologies of college administrators based on varying degrees of flexibility, student affinity, and behavioral activity.

Authors

• Michael J Hoggatt, Saddleback College

• John S. Levin, University of California - Riverside