Transformational Change in Community Colleges
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Transformational Change in Community Colleges

Becoming an Equity-Centered Institution

Christine Johnson McPhail, Kimberly Beatty

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eBook - ePub

Transformational Change in Community Colleges

Becoming an Equity-Centered Institution

Christine Johnson McPhail, Kimberly Beatty

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About This Book

From the foreword by Walter G. Bumphus, President & CEO of AACC: "Becoming an Equity-Centered Higher Education Institution is a significant contribution to the on-going struggle to find practical approaches to implementing an equity agenda in higher education."

The authors had three main goals for this text:

Relevance: This book is the result of many years of teaching, leading, researching, and coaching individuals and institutions about equity inside higher education. The authors place a clear emphasis on awareness and teaching skills first, but also ensure that those skills are based on practical application in the field.

Practical Application: To describe and explain equity and transformational change concepts, this book provides step-by-step implementation approaches that can be used to integrate equity-centered principles into practices and policies to implement or improve equity work into the organizational culture.

A Purposeful Approach: The authors defined the act of becoming an equity-centered institution in terms of a transformational change approach using Kotter's Eight-Stage Process. Kotter's Model and AACC's Leadership Competencies for Community College Leaders are introduced in Chapter 1 and integrated throughout the book. This integrated framework allows practitioners to place the intersectionality of equity, transformational change, and requisite leadership competencies into the larger context of higher education. While using Kotter's 8-Step Change Model, the authors emphasize that operations and situations inside higher educational institutions are not linear as implied in Kotter's model. They show how the stages of change may occur at different times and different situations at different institutions, and demonstrate what leadership competencies are recommended for each stage in the change process.

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Year
2021
ISBN
9781620369692
1
CREATE A CULTURE FOR TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE THROUGH AN EQUITY LENS
Chapter highlights: In this chapter, we create a foundational understanding of equity and the framework for transformational change in becoming an equity-centered institution is introduced.
There is a growing recognition of the importance of equity in higher education in the United States. Public higher education has encountered rising inequality and inequities, which are, in turn, partly responsible for the equity disparities we see in our institutions through student achievement gaps, programmatic and support services, and employee recruitment and retention.
Ready or not, diversity, equity, and inclusion issues have stepped inside the open door of the American community college. Hailed as democracy’s college, American community colleges are often regarded as the best in the world. However, recent community college reform initiatives (Achieving the Dream, Completion by Design, and Developmental Education Initiatives) implicitly suggest that the system could be much better if programs were in place to support and nurture a culture that hinges on programs and policies that support students of color and a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Community colleges are a microcosm of their larger communities, and they can be a focal point to address larger societal issues. Equity must be positioned in the front and center of the issues facing community colleges. As protests over racial tensions continue to capture the nation’s attention, it is increasingly important for community college leaders to pay deeper attention to what is taking place at the doors of and inside their institutions.
Although the majority of Black and Hispanic undergraduate students in the United States study at community colleges, Bill Moore (2006), a professor in the Community College Leadership Program at The University of Texas at Austin, declared his belief that discrimination was alive and well in community colleges. Moore believed that community colleges still operated in a “good-old boy” system, arguing that race is a difference that makes a difference. We agree with Moore and suggest that an equity-centered teaching and learning environment can be the difference that changes the game for underserved student populations in community colleges. While there is no recent research that discounts Moore’s 2006 arguments, some institutions have acknowledged achievement disparities and are now moving toward an understanding of equity as well as equality.
John Brooks Slaughter (2003), the first African American director of the National Science Foundation and a distinguished academic leader, suggested that American higher education is a microcosm of American society. He argued that American higher education is an evolution that must be guided and nurtured by those who understand the essential role that American colleges and universities play in improving our society.
The persistence of educational disparities in the community college sector makes the concept of equity urgently important, and equity conversations must be guided by those who understand the role of community college leaders at every layer of the institution. If community colleges are to be relevant to all students, equity values must be embedded in the culture, mission, and overall fabric of the college.
No longer can community college educators hide behind historic opendoor admission policies, suggesting that open access policies alone are sufficient to provide for the educational needs of all students. Today’s community college leaders must embrace equity in all aspects of their leadership. Community colleges can no longer be about only access and opportunity; today’s college leaders must examine how their students and employees are treated and what support structures are in place to accommodate their needs in order to improve success rates, retention, and close achievement gaps. In 21st-century institutions, management of issues related to equity is an urgent leadership imperative.
While equity in higher education may increasingly be respected as a fundamental characteristic, many community colleges have yet to link equity to the core values of the institution. Colleges can demonstrate equity-centeredness by engaging people from diverse backgrounds, treating them fairly, and including their perspectives in the way the college conducts its business. According to Bensimon (2005), the term equity-mindedness refers to the perspective or mode of thinking exhibited by practitioners who call attention to patterns of inequity in student outcomes. More and more community college leaders are adding equity to their strategic plans, and it’s long overdue. Outdated policies and practices prevent colleges from realizing the full potential of a diverse and inclusive institution—equity is the first domino in the plan for colleges to become diverse and inclusive institutions. Too many organizations are still focused only on counting the numbers (race); others are focused on the events (inclusion); yet until organizations focus on the core issue—equity—organizational cultures will not change.
Some higher education leaders pay lip service to equity and may not necessarily have institutionalized the policies and procedures to make these values real. Equity is more than measuring student and employee demographics and support for a few special programs and services. As the local communities served by community colleges have changed, the new populations of students and employees must carefully evaluate how the institution relates to them. If community colleges do not connect with them in a relevant manner, they will begin to question the institution’s authenticity and relevancy.
The higher education leaders who are bold enough to embrace equity as an institutional core value will reap enormous benefits in an improved institutional climate and with the success of students. When equity is practiced at the college, stakeholders’ behavior demonstrates engagement and support for the mission. A diverse and inclusive environment enables all stakeholders to contribute their full potential in pursuit of the college’s goals. The equity-friendly environment involves the celebration of various cultures, religions, and ethnicities. Colleges can sponsor cultural competence educational opportunities that provide students, faculty, and staff with skills and knowledge to become global citizens. But, let’s keep it real—equity is not an event. It is a fundamental core institutional value, and it is imperative that community colleges employ policies and practices that embrace and support diversity, equity, and inclusion as core values (American Association of Community Colleges, 2014).
Launching an equity agenda may inspire both positive and negative responses at a college. However, connecting with underserved populations requires institutions to alter their policies and practices. We argue that equity efforts also require the institutions to push for behavioral changes from its employees. Getting entrenched administrators, faculty, and staff to change is difficult. For some leaders, implementing programs to promote equity may bring about added concerns to an already full plate of competing programs and leadership challenges.
Some entrenched educators may dismiss newly launched equity efforts because they have witnessed the development of numerous other special initiatives that did not go anywhere. They might see the equity agenda as just another passing fad. Further, in some cases faculty and administrators may view equity efforts as a path to lower academic standards in order to accommodate disadvantaged students. One of the first concerns that some leaders express when considering the prospect of adding an equity focus to the college’s agenda or strategic plan is fitting additional programs into an already underfunded environment. Unfortunately, many well-meaning equity initiatives fail because organizations push them only as a compliance issue. In other situations, equity-oriented programs are established as appendage programs that are never mentioned in the college’s strategic plan. Some institutions seek to develop college-wide programs to increase equity without necessary input and buy-in from stakeholders.
Leaders of public higher education institutions have decisions to make regarding the types of changes to make in order to institutionalize equity. The changes that higher education institutions will need to make can be based on the core values of their local institution (Alfred et al., 2009; Kim & Mauborngne, 2005). However, we acknowledge that institutional change is embedded in a network of influence and power from a variety of sources. Leaders cannot assume all sources will agree that equity-minded policies and practices are necessary. Leadership in this context calls for an effective analysis of resistance to equity and the barriers that need to be removed. What are the barriers, and where do they come from? Resistance to change can be viewed as the act of opposing or struggling with modifications or transformations that alter the status quo in the workplace (Kotter, 1996). Resistance to change can emerge from internal and external sources.
It is generally understood that managing resistance to change is challenging. Burke (2008) argued that organizations are striving to succeed in an increasingly complex global, political, and economic environment. He noted that organizations can experience different types of change. In our work, we have observed that resistance to change does not come in a single form. Change can emerge from groups and individuals within the institution, as well as from external groups. It can be covert or overt, organized or individual. In some instances, resistance emerges when there is a threat to something the individual values. For example, Evans (1996) discussed the human side of change. The author noted that real-life resistance may arise from a genuine understanding of the change or from a misunderstanding of the issues. Failure to adequately consider the complexity of the resistance can compromise the implementation.
Complex structures, policies, and processes can make it difficult to anchor equity into the organization’s culture. An organization can break this barrier by employing diligent, quality, and highly effective leaders to navigate the terrain. It is important to have leaders who understand the culture of the organization. When organizational changes such as equity programs are forced on the institution, stakeholders are likely to push back. When pushback or resistance happens, the best approach for leaders of change is to understand the reasons for the resistance and then strive to strategize around those issues.
The pushback is likely to occur because leaders do not take the time to assess the current state of their organization. Trying to introduce and implement an equity agenda without conducting an assessment and understanding the current blueprint of the organization is a common behavior in many organizations that prevents progress.
As community colleges take on the equity challenge in efforts to transform their institutions, they must understand the concept of equity, the institution’s culture, and committed leadership to accomplish the task. In some cases, the institution’s culture can be the strongest barrier to progress; however, by beginning with the end in mind, coupled with dedicated leadership, the cultural tide can change, but it will take time.
Frequently, higher education leaders suggest that they want to implement equity because they have the belief that equity-centered policies and practices will bring significant change to the institution as a whole. However, we argue that the primary objective for institutionalizing equity is that the change will improve the environment of the organization on a daily basis.
Framework for Leading the Equity Challenge
For the purpose of this discussion, we intend for leadership to refer to a board of trustees or regents, an executive leadership team, governance leaders (faculty and staff), and other leadership positions as defined by the individual college. For the purpose of developing a culture of equity that leads to institutional change, leadership refers to any person or group that can influence and mobilize the institution toward the desired outcome. The desired outcome in this case is for institutions to create an equity-minded student and an employee experience that leads to success, completion, and retention for students and employees. For many institutions, this will be a heavy lift! That’s why it is incumbent on the leadership team to set the tone for access and equity and make it a priority for the institution. Throughout the book, we integrated three concepts for institutions to use to become equity-centered institutions: (a) common definition of equity (Bensimon, 2005); change model (Kotter, 1996); leadership competencies (AACC, 2018).
Equity Lens Defined
In today’s society, and particularly in higher education, the term equity is often misunderstood and associated within the context of racial equality. It is essential that the college community understands the difference between equity and equality. Equity in higher education, according to Bensimon (2005), refers to access to and success in higher education among historically underrepresented student populations. The focus of these types of equity conversations are topics such as ethnic minority and low-income students.
Bensimon (2005) defines three components of equity: (a) representational equity, which refers to the proportional participation of historically underrepresented student populations at all levels of an institution; (b) resource equity, which takes into account the proportion of educational resources that are directed at closing equity gaps; and (c) equity mindedness, which refers to the priority that the institution gives to equity efforts. The concept of equity requires institutional leaders and staff to demonstrate both awareness and a willingness to address differences by instituting policies and practices to serve all students. Equality, on the other hand, refers to giving people the same opportunity.
It is generally believed that everyone has the same access to community colleges. However, it is unrealistic to assu...

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