Responding to Local Needs in a Global Economy: Community Colleges and Their Mission

272 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005.The study focuses on the perceptions of community college leaders about how their colleges must adapt and change to remain relevant in the 21 st century, based on a recognition that globalization is affecting nearly every level of education, society, and the economy. The investigation is grounded in Systems Theory, where globalization, in the external environment, can be distinguished from the many other inputs and pressures within the college system. The Central Illinois Community College is the case in a multisite, interpretive case study that analyzes these perceptions and includes short survey data in an attempt to gain rich data from the Illinois colleges involved. The concluding chapters interpret the respondents' interview and survey data in light of current trends in the community college, and globalization theory, in order to develop recommendations for increasing the community college's relevance in the 21st century.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD