Sharing power in the classroom: community college professors who facilitate student character development
Date
2009
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Abstract
College faculty can try to increase student character development by offering more choices and by sharing some of their power in the classroom. Power sharing is a participative gesture, and participative teachers can encourage students to be engaged in their own learning processes. This requires students to make decisions about how they will learn and to be responsible for their choices. Through the practice and habit of making decisions about power and assessment of learning, students may be able to promote their own character development. To facilitate this development, faculty members may focus on awareness, care, student engagement, academic integrity, and a sharing attitude. This phenomenological study examined the reflections, values, relationships, challenges, and successes of community college teachers who try to promote student character development. Using qualitative research methods, a complex picture with findings that were textural and meaningful was created. Seven community college faculty members who teach using a developmentalist focus in an attempt to facilitate student character development were chosen for the study. The essential theme of building up emerged from my reflections of the data gathered from the face-to-face interviews. The common themes were self-identity, diversity, commitment, sacrifice, and becoming.
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Subject
building up
character development
community college
participatory
self-actualization
shared governance
student character development
community college education
adult education
curriculum development