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Tenure-Track Employment Opportunities at the Community College Level: A View from the Job Candidate's Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 May 2002

Donald Kent Douglas
Affiliation:
Long Beach City College

Abstract

This article provides additional information on community college tenure-track opportunities for job candidates in political science who might be considering expanding their searches to include posts at two-year colleges. I write from the perspective of the successful community college job-search candidate, and provide reflections and advice relating to three areas of the community college job search and teaching environment. In the first section I discuss my decision to seek a position at a two-year college and I address the dilemmas of professional self-image that may face new Ph.D.s considering community college employment. The second section recounts key strategies and practices that I found successful as a candidate on the community college market. In the final section I describe what I have learned during my first year as a community college instructor, focusing on the specific adaptations I have made in creating a classroom environment that is academically challenging for advanced students yet not rigidly inaccessible to students with limited basic skills.

Type
The Profession
Copyright
© 2002 by the American Political Science Association

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Footnotes

The author thanks Michael Gordon, Charlotte Joseph, Vesna Marcina, Russ Mardon, Christopher Nelson, and Paul Savoie for their helpful comments on the community college job-market, and also the editors for PS: Political Science & Politics.