Community college trustees and public engagement: A case study of National Issues Forums Institute network community colleges.

摘要

Public community colleges are experiencing unprecedented public scrutiny and expected to be more accountable for the decisions and policies of its leaders. To ensure public accountability of community colleges, the board of trustees has been given the responsibility of representing the community's interests and responding to the educational needs of the community. Serving as stewards of the public trust and a conduit for critical and meaningful connection to and with the college's community are a trustee's time-honored role. Trustees embody this connection when they first interact with the community and then act on behalf of the community they represent.; This case study examines and describes the public engagement practices of public community college trustees. There were two central research questions that guided this study: (1) What is the process by which community college trustees engage with the public? (2) What factors contribute to trustee public engagement practices? Trustees' public engagement perceptions were pursued through inquiry within five categories: (a) role and responsibilities, (b) definition of public engagement, (c) public engagement practices, (d) barriers to public engagement, and (e) how to make public engagement more effective.; Five major themes emerged: (a) trustee role, (b) relationship with the public, (c) administrative and organizational structures, (d) leadership, and (e) policy from the findings, which have implications for theory and practice. (1) Trustees identified serving and representing the community's interests as their role; this role has been performed with minimal meaningful contact with the community. (2) Trustees had no common nomenclature for the public, constituents, stakeholders, community, public engagement or public participation. (3) Trustee governance has not focused on public engagement in its relationship with the public. (4) Trustees' engagement practices are influenced by a priori assumptions about the public and public participation. (5) Trustees have no public engagement policy or framework linked to establishing policy or decision making.; A key finding of this study is that trustees do not identify deliberative public engagement as a role priority or a default priority. The role of trustees must be reframed and redefined to include democratic public engagement practices; and the public's role in democratic governance must be reclaimed.