A Comparison of Impostor Phenomenon in Community College and Public University Students

Impostor Phenomenon (IP) is a feeling of illegitimacy or fraudulence despite evidence to the contrary. Most people experience feelings of impostorism in their lifetime, and it has been associated with several outcomes in the literature. Although there is some evidence higher education may facilitate feelings of IP, community college students have been largely excluded from the literature. The current study expanded the research by examining the prevalence of IP in community college (CC) students and analyzing differences based on demographic variables: gender, under-represented minority (URM) status, first-generation status, Pell Grant eligibility, and disability. Comparisons were made between CC students and students in their first or second year at a public four-year university. The effect of demographic variables and possible interactions were also explored in the total college student sample. The relationships between self-reported grade point averages (GPA), intent to persist, and IP were investigated to see if IP or GPA were predictive of intent to persist. This study utilized a quantitative non-experimental design to examine survey data. The Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale (Clance, 1985) and a short demographic questionnaire were given online to 829 participants. The CC students comprised 63.3% of the sample, and they were from three different community colleges. A factorial analysis of variance was selected to examine group differences. A t-test was conducted to look at IP differences between CC and four-year university students, and a multiple linear regression with correlational analyses were utilized to look at the relationships and predictive power of GPA, IP, and intent to persist. Results showed most CC students indicated frequent feelings of impostorism. There were no significant differences between CC and the four-year university students. Students with a diagnosed disability had significantly higher levels of IP in both the CC and the total college student sample. There were also significant differences based on URM. There were no significant interactions. IP was correlated with intent to persist and IP levels were found to have some predictive value for intent to persist; self-reported GPA did not

Tangible and Financial Satisfaction Among Full-Time Faculty and Adjunct Faculty

The current study examines faculty data from the National Science Foundation’s 2015 National Survey of College Graduates on 4,311 full-time and part-time faculty. Little research exists investigating job satisfaction of adjunct faculty in higher education. Overall job satisfaction was divided into two scales: intangible (i.e., opportunities for advancement, intellectual challenge, degree of independence, job location, level of responsibility, and contribution to society) and financial satisfaction (i.e., job salary, job benefits, and job security). Researchers found significantly different results with full time faculty reporting higher levels of satisfaction when compared to part-time faculty. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/education_darden/1001/thumbnail.jp

Blending Credit & Non-Credit Courses: Best Practices, Opportunities, Barriers

Community colleges offer an array of programs designed to help students meet different goals. Noncredit education provides training for students seeking targeted, often shorter, courses for personal and professional enrichment (Cohen, Brawer, & Kisker, 2014). Many community colleges are now increasingly emphasizing noncredit workforce education as they support regional workforce development efforts and strive to meet the needs of their local industry partners (Van Noy, Jacobs, Korey, Bailey, & Hughes, 2008). Despite the millions of students enrolled in these courses and their potential to generate revenue for the institutions delivering programs, Voorhees and Milam (2005) refer to noncredit community college education as the “hidden college” and existing research on noncredit offerings is limited. Blending community college credit and noncredit programs with thoughtful and intentional strategies will benefit the students and the institutions. Van Noy, Jacobs, Korey, Bailey, and Hughes (2008) made five recommendations for strengthening noncredit education based on their research. They included the need to expand state funding with clear goals, to increase coordination of credit and noncredit offerings, to promote articulation of noncredit courses into credit programs, to establish non-degree forms of validation for noncredit programs, and to capture more information regarding employment outcomes resulting from noncredit training. These recommendations provide the framework for an analysis of current VCCS programming