Files
Abstract
Through engaging a constructivist worldview and interpretivist theoretical perspective this manuscript style dissertation explores the nature of collaboration between academic and student affairs units in community college settings. The three articles making up this dissertation explore this topic through three distinct qualitative analytic methods: discourse analysis, basic interpretive analysis, and comparative case study. These manuscripts correspond to the three research questions guiding this study: How do academic affairs and student affairs practitioners in community college settings define and discuss collaboration between their units? How do chief managers and their mid-level managers in academic affairs and student affairs units in community college settings practice collaboration? Are these practices similar or different? How are the experiences with, understandings of and basic nature of collaboration between academic affairs and student affairs units similar and different at community colleges of distinctly different sizes? In these settings, collaboration exists when individuals from each side engage in dialogue and practice, formally or informally, in an effort to meet the overall institutional mission of assisting students. Practitioners in these settings have a strong understanding of how their work contributes to the overall mission of the institution and are willing to execute their role without the insecurities and power plays that are historically associated with partnerships between these two units, as understood from studying such partnerships in traditional, four-year institutions. In the participating community colleges, collaborations manifested as one-on-one, one-time discussions between colleagues for the purpose of addressing individual student needs. This was more true the smaller the institution, as the decreased size allowed for practitioners to have closer interpersonal relationships with their colleagues due to more flat organizational charts. These findings add a unique perspective to the current scholarship on academic and student affairs collaborations by offering insights from a qualitative perspective and by setting this study in the community college setting, which has been previously unexplored.