ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the discussion related to colleges and universities is extended to the American community college. Included in this discussion are the democratic purposes of higher education, the impacts of market ideology on institutional structures and decision-making, the decline in faculty shared governance, the increase in professional management, and the overall impact the neoliberal ideological framework has had on these institutions over the past four decades. Also included in the history of US community colleges is consideration of their adaptability and pliable mission. Attention is given to the increased alignment of these institutions with providing education and workforce training which are supported by both state and corporate interests, and which are associated with an increasing vocationalization of the community college curriculum. Importantly, attention is given to the population of US residents most likely to attend a community college and thus to encounter curriculum with a greater focus on vocation and workforce training. This discussion leads to the critical question of whether these factors indicate a propensity for the subalternization of community college students, providing a different educational experience to some students based on the type of higher education afforded them by their life circumstances.
