How community college basic skills coordinators lead organizational learning

2012-07-27This qualitative study examines how basic skills coordinators at four California Community Colleges lead organizational learning at their campuses as part of the statewide Basic Skills Initiative (BSI). The BSI is a component of the California Community College Chancellor's Office Strategic Plan and addresses the goal of student access and success. Through benchmarking, planning, institutional self-assessment, and collaborative professional development, the BSI lays the foundation for organizational learning of effective basic skills practices. The BSI has measures in place to increase organizational learning at the system-wide, regional, and campus levels. The person central to facilitating organizational learning at the campus level is the basic skills coordinator, a role that did not exist at most California Community Colleges until after the creation of the BSI. Face-to-face interviews with basic skills coordinators and observations of campus basic skills meetings were used to develop four case studies that demonstrate how basic skills coordinators lead the BSI consistent with Huber's (1991) four constructs of organizational learning. This study explains how four basic skills coordinators acquired new knowledge, distributed information to others, interpreted information, and utilized techniques to increase organizational memory. This study also describes how basic skills coordinators relied on collective sensemaking to learn and carry out their roles. Each case study reveals how basic skills coordinators lead an initiative framed by the principles of inquiry, collaboration, and evidence and how they modified their role in response to organizational constraints