Junior No More? Revisiting Historical Constraints on the Community College

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 11:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Towards Global Perspectives on Education

Abstract

This paper reexamines the origins of American community colleges, challenging simplified narratives by demonstrating that the junior college movement was initially a strategy for institutional restriction rather than expanding educational access. Historically, policy proposals reinforced hierarchies by constraining community colleges’ institutional autonomy and perpetuating stigmatization. Analysis of foundational texts and key mid-century documents like the Truman Commission Report and California’s Master Plan shows how early promises of mission expansion were curtailed by state-level policies. Arguing from a critical socio-historical and policy analysis perspective, the paper advocates removing current legislative constraints, supporting community colleges’ universal right to offer bachelor's degrees, and thereby advancing equity for underserved populations and affirming community colleges' autonomy within the American higher education system.

Author

• Ethan W. Ris, University of Nevada - Reno