ABSTRACT
Th e current state of both the literature on the community college and contemporary understandings of the institution suggests a hiatus-research and scholarly literature of the past four decades have run their course. Th e schools of thought about the community college, whether the institution is indeed “democracy’s college” (Diekhoff , 1950), “the contradictory college” (Dougherty, 1994), or “neo-liberal college” (Levin, 2007), have not advanced understanding about behaviors and actions of the institution to the extent that the research literature refl ects conceptual thinking and theorizing. Th at is, the research literature in general does not uphold theoretical or conceptual understandings of the institution and thus is thwarted in breaking new ground.
