Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
Stan Hannah
Committee Member
Diane Bryant
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
Academic Senate, adoption, community of practice, consideration, Contra Costa College, criteria, data collection instrument, developmental methodologies, discussion, environmental scan, evaluation, evaluation methodologies, faculty, faculty governance, formative review, implementation, knowledge capital, knowledge preservation, literature review, model, participation, procedural steps, professional development, project, prospective members, reflection, research questions, summative review, virtual consultation, World Wide Web
Abstract
Currently the Academic Senate at Contra Costa College does not have a recognized formal mechanism to preserve its knowledge capital, or cultivate the growth of prospective and current Academic Senate members. The purpose of the project was to develop a community of practice for the Academic Senate at Contra Costa College along with plans for its evaluation. The community of practice was designed to support faculty in sharing and evolving their governance practices and would allow faculty to virtually visit and consult one another through the use of a link in the Academic Senate’s World Wide Web page. The community of practice would also help preserve knowledge and enable each faculty member to find his or her own path to continued professional growth and development through participation, discussion, and reflection.
There were four research questions for this study. These questions inquired about the criteria needed to develop a community of practice; the criteria used in formulating a community of practice for the Academic Senate; how the developed plan for a community of practice could be implemented into the Academic Senate; and how should the community of practice for the Academic Senate be evaluated. The developmental and evaluation methodologies were used in this project. There were 25 procedural steps that were used in this project to address the four research questions. Procedures included reviews of related literature, an environmental scan, formative and summative committee review, development and administration of a data collection instrument, and development of a community of practice for the Academic Senate inclusive of implementation and evaluation plans.
As a result of this study a model for a community of practice for the Academic Senate at Contra Costa College was developed along with plans for its evaluation. The developed community of practice was recommended to the Academic Senate for its consideration and adoption.