General education faculty support for the community college's role in workforce education

This study examined general education faculty support for the community college's role in workforce education in selected Florida community colleges. There were 386 community college general education faculty surveyed; 214 (55.4%) responded. Academic discipline, years of full-time community college teaching experience, and number of formal workforce education professional development activities attended were compared with responses to a five-subscale survey instrument, “The Community College General Education Faculty's Role in Workforce Preparation” (Appendix B). The five subscales were Principles of Workforce Education, Goals and Objectives of Academic Courses and Programs, Curriculum and Instructional Strategies in Community College Academic Courses, Integration of Academic and Technical Instruction, and Community College and High School Articulation.; On a Likert scale of one to five, (5 = Strongly Agree, 1 = Strongly Disagree) slight support (M = 3.29) occurred for the community college's role in workforce education. Faculty who had participated in the most workforce education staff development activities supported incorporating workforce education into the curriculum, mathematics faculty supported articulation between community colleges and high schools most, and faculty with the least teaching experience perceived workforce education professional development activities more effective. There were implications that general education faculty may have been overlooked by workforce education, the greater the familiarity with workforce education philosophy, the greater the faculty support workforce curriculum, and workforce education staff development may need to be individualized for each discipline.; Several recommendations included: discipline specific workforce education staff development be provided often to general education faculty, and an integrated general education/technical learning community be established for Associate of Science degree-seeking students. Also, remedial/workforce education learning communities be developed so students can connect the curriculum to the world of work. Also, community colleges should coordinate with workforce education programs, such as Tech Prep, to design general education articulation between them and high schools for those seeking Associate of Science degrees. The community college mission regarding workforce education should be communicated to general education faculty.