Predicting College Students’ Intergroup Friendships Across Race/Ethnicity,Religion, Sexual Orientation,and Social Class

This study seeks to expand the literature on predicting friendship diversity beyond race/ethnicity to include religion, social class, and sexual orientation. Survey packets elicited information regarding up to four close friendships developed during college. Additional measures assessed pre-college friendship diversity, participation in college activities and diversity education, intergroup attitudes, and interpersonal communication apprehension. A total of 588 friendships (213 intragroup and 375 intergroup) were reported by 151 college students. Pre-college friendship diversity was the primary predictor of college friendship diversity across each intergroup dimension. Implications for prejudice reduction are discussed.     

Shaping Democratic Identities and Building Citizenship Skills Through Student Activism: México's First Gay-Straight Alliance

In democratic societies schools play a large role in helping students learn the values and skills necessary for adult participation in a free and open society. This article is a case study of a group of students who started a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) at a private American school in México City. The students' struggle to form and keep their GSA, in light of opposition from a school board member and conservative parents, is analyzed within a framework of critical pedagogy, the goal of which is the expansion of rights for oppressed groups through activist education. The author was co-advisor to the GSA and offers suggestions for others working with similar student groups. This student-led struggle illustrates lessons about democratic values, navigating bureaucracy, effecting social change, and working with others who have diverging opinions.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Every so often, it is important to stand back and look at the whole context of our field of research and practice. In this article, I do this by shedding light on the ways we view the term vocations and the consequences of those views for education and training in community colleges and adult and community education providers of all kinds. I ask the question: What is Vocational Education and Training (VET) for? I ask this particular question because I know the answers are contested, staking out claims for territory in research and practice. The answer to the question that this article explores is that vocational education and training ''serve industry.'' Using Australia as a specific example of such a Western country, the article argues that the entrenched meanings for VET as serving industry have disenfranchised a large proportion of the population - especially small business and the rural sector. The article is pointing out that the resulting version of VET is gendered, classed, and urban-specific. This structurally entrenched position is then contrasted with data reported from empirical studies currently examining (among other things) the nature of vocations and work at a community level and the manner in which they are created there. The article raises three important implications: the convergence of Adult and Community Education with VET, learning pathways, and the effects on small business.     

EDUCATIONAL GOALS OF AUTOMOTIVE MECHANICS STUDENTS ATTENDING POSTSECONDARY VOCATIONAL INSTITUTES IN GEORGIA

The importance of vocational education has long been recognized in meeting society's need for trained workers. Since the early 1960s there has been a gradual shift in emphasis of federal vocational education priorities from specific programs (e.g., agriculture) to special populations, such as minorities, women, disadvantaged or handicapped individuals, and individuals with limited English‐speaking proficiency (Ohanneson, 1982). The Vocational Education Act Amendments of 1976 reinforced this emphasis by requiring that follow‐up information be collected, not just by the vocational discipline but by special population groups as well (U.S. 94th Congress, 1976). Subsequent vocational education legislation places emphasis on providing vocational education to all individuals who can benefit from such training (U.S. 98th Congress, 1984; U.S. 101st Congress, 1990).     

WOMEN PRESIDENTS DEFINE THE COLLEGE CULTURE THROUGH STORY

The concept of the leader's need to leave a record so that others know that she was present at a community college at a given point in time, working on behalf of the communities she served, is the theme of this article, which consists of stories from the lives of seven current and former community college chief executive officers, Vivian B. Blevins, Pamila Fisher, Sylvia Ramos, Carol Tatsey-Murray, Jerry Sue Thornton, Carolyn G. Williams, and Parker Williams give accounts of how they came to their positions as chief executive officers, the challenges and joys of that work, and the legacies they hope to leave. Their accounts as academic laborers are important tools for exploring the meaning of their roles and the roles of those they serve, for educating the uninitiated in the mission of the community college, and for reinforcing the value of that mission to the lives of community college students past, present, and future.     

Technology Usage Among Community College Faculty

Community colleges are increasing their use of part-time faculty who are taking a leading role in utilizing technology for instructional purposes. Part-time faculty are less likely than their full-time counterparts to use technology for instructional purposes and are less likely to teach non-face-to-face classes. For community colleges to be successful in expanding technology-based education, they must promote technology use by all faculty. This quantitative, national study reports factors found to predict faculty use of technology for instructional purposes.     

Rural Dislocated Women in Career Transition: The Importance of Supports and Strategies

Job loss researchers have focused on the physical and mental well being of White working and middle class men, their families, friends, and coworkers to with immediate reemployment as the outcome. This study focused on low-income rural women dislocated workers and their decision to enroll in community college for retraining or seek immediate reemployment. Participants were 125 women (86 white, 39 African American; x = 42 years) who held a high school diploma or GED and who were laid off from manufacturing jobs within the last 2 years. Differences between two groups of women based on demographic variables and Transition Guide and Questionnaire-Modified (TGQ-M) scores were examined. The TGQ-M was developed to assess an individual's ability to cope with life transitions, based on Schlossberg's (1995 Schlossberg , N. K. , Waters , E. B. , & Goodman , J. ( 1995 ). Counseling adults intransition: Linking practice with theory. , 2nd ed. , New York : Springer . [Google Scholar]) model of 4Ss (situation, self, supports, and strategies). One group enrolled in community college for retraining while the other group sought immediate reemployment. Findings revealed significant relationships between level of education and race/ethnicity and community college retraining. African-American women in this sample perceived themselves as having less support in coping with job loss. Women who chose community college had higher TGQ-M scores overall. Race/ethnicity and perception of support from others were the best predictors of community college retraining. Women, especially older women of color, have the hardest time finding quality employment after layoff. This study raised questions about the reasons why fewer African-American women in this sample enrolled in community college for retraining and had lower Supports scores than white women. Implications for counseling and future research are discussed.     

MENTORING BY THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE PROFESSOR: ONE ROLE AMONG MANY

The process of mentorship in relationship to the community college professor and the potential to improve and enhance the teaching and learning process is explored in this article. This article suggests that not all community college professors are psychological or intellectually disposed to being or becoming a good mentor. It is put forth that mentoring is a subrole of the community college professor. A framework for understanding the “complete mentor” process, as developed by Cohen (1993) Cohen, N. H. 1993. The development and validation of the principles of adult mentoring scale for faculty mentoring in higher education Philadelphia, PA Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Temple University [Google Scholar], is presented. Implications for practice are offered in a manner that connects the community college professor as mentor with enhancing the instructional process through the nurturing teaching perspective.     

THE FUTURE OF TWO‐YEAR COLLEGES: AN ADMINISTRATOR'S‐EYE VIEW

Individuals in eight different types of administrative positions in two‐year colleges were asked to rate the importance of a variety of external and internal issues in the next five years. The purpose of the study reported here was first to identify those internal and external issues that administrators viewed as being of high importance. A second purpose was to assess the degree of consensus among differing types of administrative positions. The third objective was to identify differences between public and independent two‐year college, between men and women, and minority and white administrators perceptions of issues identified as being most important. There was a high degree of agreement across administrative groups as to the importance of five external issues; and when asked to indicate the two most critical issues, administrators were almost unanimous in their assessment. There is less agreement on the two critical internal issues. Some differences by gender and racial/ethnic group were noted, but the differences were not as great as might have been expected.