This dissertation examined how California Community College leaders have been engaging in responsive practices to create and sustain equitable and inclusive learning environments for students who have been historically excluded in higher education. Through a case study of five critical leaders of color, this research illuminated how these leaders…

This research seeks to answer the question of why sociologists teach at community colleges, how they view their choices and how they view the discipline of sociology. I theorize that contrary to community college teaching being a "fall back" position, many sociologists actively seek those positions deliberately to enact social justice…

Addressing the Student Success Center Network's newly adopted statement on racial equity and economic recovery, this chapter describes actions the student success centers and their affiliated college networks are taking to address policies and practices that perpetuate systemic inequalities and recommends additional steps to enhance educational…

Racism continues to persist in academia and institutions of higher learning play a central role in the actions needed to root it out. Leaders and employees at community colleges seek to do this by constructing initiatives, task forces, and learning communities that are dedicated to this cause. Little research has been conducted, however, on…

The factors of identities, positionalities, and ideologies are critical on how leaders lead, guide, engage, and communicate with their constituencies to create equitable learning experiences for students. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to gain understanding of the experiences of three Asian American community college presidents'…

Presidential assistants are important and trusted staff members to the president and the campus community at large. Despite their importance, little is known about the day-to-day of their jobs and how they may help advance equity and social justice goals and priorities at the community college level. This chapter attempts to rectify this gap…

This paper discusses the value of a Freirean liberatory perspective in community colleges, countering the traditional "second chance" or "social reproduction" viewpoints attributed by scholars to the education offered in these institutions, emphasizing its vital need in science and healthcare careers education. I explore the…

In this article, the author examined how arts integration affected the design, implementation of the learning and teaching experience in a course that incorporated anti-racist pedagogy (ARP) in a two-year community college in an urban area. Using an intrinsic case study method (Creswell & Poth, 2017; Miles et al., 2014), this study…

Even though the importance of technical and vocational education is acknowledged in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015, the university sector has dominated the discourse on the role of postsecondary educational institutions in sustainability. This comparative study widens the scope by highlighting…

Community colleges, who are dependent on state and federal funding directly and through need-based student grants, have limited power in higher education. Similarly, public universities continue to lose decision-making authority as the neo-liberal philosophy permeates higher education broadly. This is an opportune time for public community…

The work in this dissertation aims to support a more equitable science education culture that better supports students who have historically and continue to be inequitably pushed out of science. Our equity-oriented and anti-deficit research agenda led us to study community college and transfer students as well as their self-efficacy and…

This study examined the experiences of faculty of color in community colleges within the context of faculty diversification efforts. Community college students have become more racially and ethnically diverse, yet faculty remain overwhelmingly White. Ten faculty of color from diverse disciplinary fields were interviewed in this phenomenological…

This critical constructivist study was grounded in the belief that there is an urgent need to address attainment gaps between White students and students of color at community colleges, that equity-minded leadership is needed to address these gaps, and that the call for transformative leadership must be answered not solely by leaders with…

Community colleges hold a central piece in law enforcement training. Their curricula often based on mandates from state law enforcement boards. They had been gradually increasing their focus of these training programs on issues related to diversity, equity and racial profiling. This spotlight has led to changes (or potential changes) in areas like…

Autism-specific college support programs (ASPs) are emerging to create more equitable transitions into higher education for autistic students. Such programming is necessary to guide autistic students' journeys as they navigate academia with greater agency. This case study, drawing on the social justice model of disability, explores how an ASP…