ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION U.S. community colleges are complex organizations that are grounded in a broad mission that includes transfer preparation, developmental education, vocational education, workforce training, and community outreach and service (Bragg, 2001; Vaughan, 2006). In some quarters, transfer preparation is oft en understood to be a primary academic function of community colleges, which is refl ected in the historical image of the “junior college” (Frye, 1992; Vaughan, 2006). However, vocational education was present in the mission and function of community colleges beginning in the earliest stages of development (Cohen & Brawer, 2008). In particular, community college pioneers such as Walter Crosby Eells and Leonard Koos advocated early in the development of the community college sector for a broader academic scope that included vocational education as a more central feature (Bragg, 2001; Frye, 1992). Over time, vocational education helped distinguish the role of the community college as more than a preparatory resource for students seeking access to baccalaureate-granting institutions (Koos, 1970). Th e demand for vocational education increased during the Great Depression when students turned to community colleges for the training required for the few jobs that were available during this dismal economic period (Witt, Wattenbarger, Goolattscheck, & Suppiger, 1994). In the several decades following the Great Depression, soldiers returning from World War II in need of work, and the social and political progress made through the Civil Rights and Women’s Movements, signifi cantly increased the demand for higher education (Vaughan, 2006). During this period, the demand for higher education and the open-access mission of community colleges resulted in remarkable enrollment growth and the development of a more diverse student demographic (Vaughan, 1997). Th e vocational education function of the community college grew largely in response to increased student demand, federal funding initiatives to support workforce development programs, and the lobbying eff orts of the American Association of Junior Colleges (Cohen & Brawer, 2008; Townsend, 2001). By the 1970s, community colleges had
established the comprehensive community college model of the present, which includes a greater balance between the academic and occupational functions (Cohen & Brawer, 2008; Grubb & Lazerson, 2004; Vaughan, 1997). Th is chapter evaluates the literature that addresses the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of a primary aspect of vocational education: economic and workforce development (EWD).
