The Revised Institution: The Community College Mission at the End of the Twentieth Century

Abstract

Seven urban and rural community colleges in the United States and Canada were examined using a qualitative multiple-case-study design to define changes in the colleges' institutional missions during the 1990s. Group site visits, personal interviews with administrators and faculty, and policy documents provided the data, which were analyzed using an analytical framework drawn from globalization literature. Two iterations of pattern coding and content analysis identified specific themes and patterns in documents, interviews, and observations. Observational data also provided support for emerging patterns. Although most of the interviewees perceived little change in their institutions' missions during the 1990s, the data collected indicated alterations to mission based on global economic concerns. The author summarizes the mission changes at each college and suggests that a new globally oriented vocationalism dominated the community college mission at the end of the twentieth century.