Honored but Invisible: An Inside Look at Teaching in Community Colleges

Drawing on observations of and interviews with over 300 instructors and administrators, this book documents the idiosyncratic instructional practices of teachers who learn to teach primarily by trial and error. It argues that in order to realize their enormous potential, community colleges must take greater advantage of the many institutional influences on the quality of teaching, such as personnel policies, instructor training, and the culture established by administrators. Only then will colleges be able to successfully carry out their many roles in both mainstream education and in workforce development. Key topics discussed include approaches to pedagogy, complexities of instruction, best and worst approaches to developmental education, institutional challenges, funding and policy, and alternative futures of community colleges.