How Community College Presidents Frame the Purpose of Higher Education

This study focuses on that tier of higher education in which philosophical understanding about educational purposes has been most contested: the community college. It is at the community college that the greatest and most explicit push has been made for higher education to simultaneously promote a democratic citizenry, create a more efficient labor force, and provide upward mobility (Brint & Karabel, 1989). Initiatives aimed at access; workforce development; individual, social and economic class mobility; and transfer to senior institutions openly compete for limited resources. Thus, it may be in the community college that the framing of purpose by the college president will be most apparent.