Table of Contents: Community College Historians in the United States

Improving History Teaching and the Status of the Community College Historian

Charles A. Zappia

Copyright© 1999
The Organization of American Historians
ISBN 1-884141-03-X

It is not very surprising that community college history teaching is now a topic of more professional focus. After all, many if not most Americans who take college-level history courses do so at community colleges. Nevertheless, community college historians have often labored in isolation from the profession's mainstream. It sometimes seems as though community colleges exist in a world entirely separate from the rest of higher education. Likewise, relatively few community college historians have been active in the two major national professional historians' organizations, the AHA and the OAH. But as Sandria Freitag (executive director, AHA) and Arnita Jones (executive director, OAH) began prodding their organizations to devote more attention to history teaching in community colleges, that situation has started to change. In recent years more two-year college historians have become active in both the AHA and the OAH and have been participating more fully in the organizations' efforts to improve history education at all levels, including the nation's expansive network of community colleges.

The OAH Survey

In early 1994 the OAH created an ad hoc task force on community colleges. The group was comprised of community college and university faculty from around the country. In addition to Nadine Ishitani Hata (El Camino Community College), who chairs the task force, and myself, the task force benefited from the efforts of Elizabeth A. Kessel (Ann Arundel Community College), John M. McLeod (Miami-Dade Community College), George Stevens (Duchess Community College), Myron Marty (Drake University), and Lawrence W. Levine (George Mason University). One of the first realizations of the community college historians on the committee was that we knew remarkably little about our colleagues teaching in colleges other than our own. Consequently, the task force set several preliminary goals, the first of which was to gather as much information as possible on the current composition of the community college professoriate.

In October 1994 the task force sent an ambitious survey to community college historians across the nation. It asked for responses that would provide a coherent description of the community college historian and his or her institution, program, and responsibilities. The survey also attempted to determine what community college historians liked about their professional lives, and what particular problems they faced. Because there is no central or even regional listing of community college historians, and because most historians are members of multidisciplinary departments whose composition and designation vary widely, we sent multiple copies of our survey, along with a cover letter, to the presidents of the nation's community colleges, asking them to pass the survey on to the appropriate department chair and through him or her, to the institution's historians. The response was gratifying. By early January 1995, we had received completed surveys from 512 faculty representing 264 institutions, or about 18 percent of the 1,469 community colleges in the United States. The regional distribution of the sample was excellent: we received responses from 46 states and one territory (American Samoa). Some of the respondents teach in very large multicollege systems, while others teach in small and intimate single-campus settings. Although we did not specify that the surveys should be directed only to U. S. historians, both the title of the sponsoring agency and the nature of several of the questions doubtlessly limited the participation of non-Americanists.

Faculty Profile

The first three pages of the survey elicited information on faculty professional background and career paths, areas of interest, institutional factors, teaching loads and conditions, professional service, scholarly work, and professional development. Forty-three percent of all respondents held PhDs, with another 5.2 percent holding DAs or EdDs. Very few (only 1.8 percent) characterized their educational status as ABD. The largest single cohort listed the MA as their highest earned degree (46 percent). A closer look at the first 78 responses revealed that of the 39 PhDs, 30 (77 percent) were granted by major research universities (those categorized as such by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching).

When asked how many years they had taught at their present institution, 44.2 percent reported 20 years or more, while 22.7 reported less than 5 years. The polarized distribution of those responses suggests a generation gap among community college historians, a probability supported by many written comments. Regarding security of employment, 77.5 percent of the faculty surveyed were tenured, 12.8 percent were on the tenure track, and only 9.7 percent held part-time, temporary positions. One alarming statistic is that 14.1 percent of our respondents teach in systems that do not grant or recognize tenure.

Department Structure and Course Offerings

A majority of our respondents (58.5 percent) teach in institutions that have academic rank, and most are members of interdisciplinary departments: only 35 percent reported that their college had a history department as a separate unit. Departments tended to be small, regardless of the institution's size: more than 71 percent teach in departments or subdepartments consisting of five or fewer tenured or tenure-track historians, another 13.1 percent of the departments have between 6 and 10 members, and 13.3 percent of our respondents teach in departments with no tenured or tenure-track historians. Similarly, most departments regularly employ five or fewer part-timers, while only 3.1 percent offer classes taught by 15 or more part-time faculty.

The number of history sections offered by the community colleges in our sample averaged about 30. The average class size was 30 students. Our respondents wrote that only 9.8 percent of the classes that they teach enroll more than 40 students, while 13.4 percent had fewer than 20 on their rosters. The standard teaching load in the community colleges is 30 units, or 10 classes a year.

Professional Activity

As our survey indicated, community college historians spend most of their professional time engaged in teaching or teaching-related activities. Most of our informants teach both halves of the introductory U.S. history survey. In fact, 43.6 percent teach nothing but the survey, while 79.3 percent devote less than 20 percent of their teaching time to more specialized courses. Most do not teach nonhistory classes, though a significant minority (roughly 38 percent) spend some of their time teaching outside the history discipline, usually in related fields like political science. Forty-four percent of survey participants have two different teaching preparations; 33.9 percent have three. The majority (66.7 percent) teach summer classes, with 46 percent of those teaching two courses and 23.5 percent three or more. The practice of teaching "overload" classes during the regular academic year is common: nearly half (45.6 percent) of our respondents reported teaching additional classes, usually one a semester.

As for nonteaching professional activity, most of the historians in the survey reported some committee responsibilities and other kinds of college service. Relatively few spend more than 10 percent of their time in research and writing. Still, 49.6 percent reported that they had authored some work within the past five years, most often an article in a professional publication (55.7 percent of that group), though 29.7 percent of that group had published a book. More than half (55.8 percent) have presented papers at professional conferences, and 56.9 percent are engaged currently in research projects. Sources of support for research projects undertaken by community college historians are limited. Sixty percent of our respondents teach at institutions with regular paid sabbaticals; but most (57.9 percent) have not had any financial support for research since they completed their graduate education. One of the most recent surveys of the attitudes and activities of higher education faculty indicates that the community college historians responding to our survey are only slightly less engaged in research and scholarship than are most faculty in all colleges and universities. The American College Teacher: National Norms for the 1989-90 H.E.R.I Faculty Survey, published by the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute, reported that the largest cohort (27.9 percent) of the nearly 36,000 faculty surveyed stated that they spent no more than 10 percent of their weekly professional time in research and writing. The average teaching load in all institutions is between 9 and 12 hours a week, compared with 15 for community college faculty. Only 55.7 percent of all college and university faculty published professional scholarship in the two years before the UCLA survey; the percentage of our community college informants publishing within the past five years was just less than 50 percent.

Roughly one-quarter of the historians we surveyed belong to the OAH, with a similar percentage listing AHA membership. Smaller numbers belong to several community college organizations (such as the Community College Humanities Association), while even fewer belong to special interest organizations and state and local history societies. Most reported some regular journal reading: the Journal of American History (220), the American Historical Review (196), the OAH's Magazine of History (58), and the History Teacher (58) attracted the largest blocks of readers. Many also read regional, state, and local historical journals, such as the Journal of Southern History and California History. Several OAH executive board members expressed surprise when informed that our sample of community college historians much preferred reading the scholarly journals to the teaching-oriented magazines. The data suggest that community college historians are most interested in remaining conversant with the latest scholarship, not in reading about pedagogical issues after 15 hours of teaching survey courses each week.

Selecting among four kinds of professional development opportunities that community college faculty might find most helpful (individual research grants, faculty seminars, master teacher seminars, and other), our respondents overwhelmingly identified individual research grants as first on their wish list. When asked to rank several kinds of services that a national professional organization might offer to community college faculty, participants showed much interest in regional meetings of community college historians and in the establishment of an information clearinghouse (including information on funding possibilities). There was moderate interest in a teaching alliance of university, college, and precollegiate historians, and in the production of a directory of community college historians. Very few people supported the suggestion that there be a regular community college column in the OAH Newsletter.

Positive Aspects and Chronic Problems

On the last two pages of the survey form, community college historians were asked to respond as expansively as they wished to two questions: (1) What are the most positive aspects of teaching history at a community college? and (2) What are the most pressing problems and needs facing you as a community college history professor?

The most positive aspects of teaching history at a community college, according to our respondents, are the absence of pressure to do research and to publish, along with the fact that these institutions emphasize teaching above all other professional activities. Almost as frequently, respondents wrote that they enjoyed consistent interaction and close relations with students, and that through such contact they were able to encourage student success. Many felt that the community college environment enables them to awaken an interest in history in those who either dislike it or are poorly prepared to understand it. Community college historians praised the diversity of their student populations, expressing a particular satisfaction in teaching "nontraditional" and returning students, and often noted the rewards of working with "talented, dedicated colleagues." One professor wrote that she loved teaching in the community colleges because they were the only "democratic, proletarian institutions of learning."

Survey participants identified three main problems related to student characteristics, professional conditions, and the academic culture of community colleges. Many historians complained about the poor preparation and attitudes of their students. Several respondents said that their ability to find a comfortable teaching style is complicated by the wide range of abilities among their students.

Far more problematic for most of our respondents are the conditions in which they work. Many argued that teaching loads are so heavy that they make scholarship nearly impossible and are counterproductive to truly effective teaching. Insufficient time and support for research, writing, and general professional development were often cited. In fact, a number of faculty argued that community college administrators (and some senior faculty) see scholarship and teaching as being opposites rather than complements. In addition, many complained of the drudgery of teaching mainly survey courses and the lack of opportunity to teach electives. Several respondents noted increasing administrative responsibilities, poor physical plants, and little or no secretarial support as further damaging their instructional effectiveness.

Finally, many survey participants criticized the academic culture of community colleges. They wrote of administrators insistent on high class-enrollment minimums, increasing class sizes, and retention at any cost (including the lowering of academic standards). Many complained of the recent emphasis on models of "efficiency" and "productivity" that are ill-suited to educational enterprises. Additional difficulties mentioned were the overreliance on part-time faculty, an anti-PhD bias among some colleagues and administrators, a knee-jerk deference of many faculty to administrators, and some administrative and faculty incompetence. A few of the younger faculty criticized what they saw as the racism and general prejudices of their seniors, while several older faculty bemoaned the imposition of politically correct standards by their junior colleagues. Many, regardless of age or generation, complained of a general sense of isolation from the historical profession at large.

Indications and Recommendations

The results of the OAH survey of community college historians indicate that there is a large body of our colleagues teaching in the community colleges whose training and interests are very similar to those historians teaching in four-year colleges and research universities. Many want to function more as historians without diminishing their commitment to teaching. Nevertheless, their positions are so teaching-intensive that most feel they have insufficient time and support for the kind of scholarship essential to teaching history at the college level. In addition, they feel marginalized within their profession and harassed by administrators (and some colleagues) who fail to recognize or endorse the connection between scholarship and teaching.

Respondents also expressed their sense of freedom from the rigors of publication expectations and from an overemphasis on traditional methods of evaluating their professional worth. Throughout the surveys, the comments indicated the community college faculty's appreciation for the difficulties facing their students, along with a celebration of the special joy of instructing those who, more because of social circumstances than for lack of ability, will never grace the campuses of this nation's elite universities and colleges. Community college historians are dedicated to teaching history to the most diverse and poorly prepared student population in U.S. higher education.

Based on my analysis of the OAH survey results, I have several recommendations for my colleagues teaching in two-year institutions:

•List your departmental historians' names and your history program's information in the AHA's Directory. Every spring, the AHA solicits entries from all U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities for its annual Directory of History Departments and Organizations. Yet, probably for a number of reasons, very few community colleges are represented in the Directory. Listing requires an Institutional Services Program membership, and that does cost (a relatively small amount of) money. Those of us at two-year institutions know that requests for funds of any amount for any purpose can result in considerable aggravation. Nevertheless, most community colleges have the resources to support at least a limited number of professional memberships. The problem has been that most of the available funds have been traditionally consumed by administrators. But they are available for faculty as well, and historians need to be more aggressive in claiming these funds. In addition, some community college faculty may be put off by the Directory's title reference to "History Departments," because few community colleges have separate history departments. The nomenclature, however, should deter no one. The departmental profile forms filled out by institutions submitting Directory entries include questions that, with two or three exceptions, are fully applicable to community college history faculty, regardless of the way they are organized within their institutions. For example, the Directory entry for San Diego Mesa College, where I teach, is headed "History Faculty, Social Sciences Department." Finally, the paperwork involved is minimal, a fact to be appreciated by over-extended community college faculty. Listing in the Directory is a simple statement of membership in the broader profession. I strongly suggest that two-year college historians insist that their institutions pay for and submit entries to the AHA's Directory. If an AHA solicitation does not make it to your college, contact the Institutional Services Program at (202) 544-2422 and request the appropriate information and materials.

•Remain active in the profession. Community college historians should attend professional conferences whenever possible, knowing that they will not be regarded as anything other than fellow historians. In recent years sessions on teaching in general and on teaching the survey courses in particular have become increasingly popular at both the AHA and OAH annual meetings. Although many of our colleagues at four-year institutions maintain far more active research programs than we are able to, they also teach, and often they teach at least one section of the basic survey course. The survey course is the specialty of the community college historian.(3) In other words, community college historians should attend professional gatherings prepared not only to draw new ideas from presentations of ongoing research in specialized fields but also to bring their special expertise to the entire profession.(4)

•Engage in scholarship. Whether in the traditional sense of original research or in the broader sense of the integration, application, and transformation of knowledge through teaching, community college historians must engage in scholarship.(5) Submit the results of your work for conference presentation consideration with the assurance that it will be judged on its merits and not on the fact that you do not hold a position at a major research university.

•Become more active in lobbying your college presidents, trustees, and state legislators. Community college historians need to urge them to endorse the importance of scholarship to effective teaching, and remind them that they cannot approach excellence in education without increasing the commitment of financial resources to our schools and colleges. Scholarly work and conference attendance, of course, require institutional support. Explain to them how community college students, like all college students, benefit from the increased involvement of their teachers in the larger concerns of their professions.

•Unionize. Finally, I urge those community college historians who have not yet unionized to do so. Unions in higher education are (or at least ought to be) both labor organizations and associations of professional educators. Thus their goals should be both to protect faculty rights and advance faculty rewards and to foster instructional and scholarly excellence. Faculty unions should be encouraged to bargain not only for higher salaries and better benefits but also for professional enhancements such as reduced teaching loads and more funding for scholarly work. Professional organizations like the AHA and the OAH must work in concert with faculty unions to prevent further reductions in community college funding, to protect tenure at all levels of public education, and to restore the promise of opportunity once heralded as the primary mission of this nation's community colleges.

Notes

1. James J. Lorence, "Teaching History at the Two-Year Institution: A Status Report and View of the Future," Perspectives 32, no. 7: 23. A revised version of his article is reprinted in this book.

2. Michael J. Galgano, Ed., "History in the Community Colleges," OAH Council of Chairs Newsletter (December 1994).

3. David Trask, "The Survey Course: The Specialty of the Community College Historian," OAH Council of Chairs Newsletter (December 1994): 5-7. A revised version of this article is reprinted in this book.

4. The recent affiliation of the Community College Humanities Association with the American Historical Association was predicated in part on the recognition by all historians of the significance of survey course instruction, regardless of the particular institutional environment. Please see David Trask, "CCHA Links with American Historical Association," The Community College Humanist (spring 1997): 3-4.

5. American Historical Association, Redefining Historical Scholarship: Report of the American Historical Association's Ad Hoc Committee on Redefining Scholarly Work (Washington, D.C., 1993), 5.