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Theses/Dissertations

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

2015

Teacher Education and Professional Development

Community College

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Education

College Mission Change And Neoliberalism In A Community And Technical College, Christine Mollenkopf-Pigsley Jan 2015

College Mission Change And Neoliberalism In A Community And Technical College, Christine Mollenkopf-Pigsley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Administrators of 2-year colleges are working in an environment where they seek to balance the social development of the student and the community's demand for a trained workforce to achieve economic development. This balance has resulted in ambiguity about the mission and purpose of 2-year colleges. The purpose of this case study was to explore a community college's experiences with mission change by exploring the interaction between a neoliberal public policy environment and the traditional social democratic mission of academia. Harvey's conceptualization of neoliberalism was used as the theoretical framework. Data were collected through 15 semi-structured interviews with members of …


Why Latino American Community College Students Drop Out After One Semester, Rosa Delia Smith Jan 2015

Why Latino American Community College Students Drop Out After One Semester, Rosa Delia Smith

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate why many Latino America students at an urban community college in the state of Maryland who were enrolled at least part-time and were U.S. citizens or permanent residents did not continue their education into the second semester. Guided by Tinto's model of student integration and student persistence, this study explored the reasons these students dropped-out using the students' words to describe barriers to success, factors that influenced their decisions not to return for their second semester, and what they believed could have made a difference in their decisions. Five Latino …


Exploring Online Community College Course Completion And A Sense Of School Community, Kathleen Stone Jan 2015

Exploring Online Community College Course Completion And A Sense Of School Community, Kathleen Stone

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have found low online course completion rates to be a complex problem in higher education. Meanwhile, theory on adult learners' online persistence highlights the importance of a sense of school community. At the small, rural focus community college (FCC) for this study, general education online course completion rates are lower than the national average. FCC has not addressed the low online course completion rates. Using Rovais' composite persistence model as the conceptual framework, this instrumental case study examined how students' experiences and perceptions of a sense of school community contribute to their ability to complete online general education courses. …