ABSTRACT
Community college faculty represent over one-third of all higher education faculty. As important as community colleges and their faculty are, they have received relatively little notice in the educational research literature. Consequently, the time is more than overdue for a comprehensive, national longitudinal study of community college faculty practices and attitudes. In particular, several studies can be used to provide useful criteria for gauging faculty professionalization. Results from the current study can be compared with these criteria to gain some insight into progress, or lack thereof, on faculty professionalization. For A. M. Cohen and F. B. Brawer, community colleges would not reach their full potential until their faculty had become “professional” and “mature”. Only one-fifth of all faculty and 15 percent of part-timers reported having taught jointly with a colleague outside the respondent’s department. In addition, some data reveal that faculty support changes in their compensation structure that would lead to indirect forms of self-management.
