Congratulations to Jennifer Miller, who on Monday, April 15, confidently and successfully defended her final dissertation. The title of Jennifer’s dissertation is: A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF HOW COMMUNITY COLLEGE LEADERS IMPLEMENT AND SUSTAIN GUIDED PATHWAYS ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE.
The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand U.S.-based, public, non-baccalaureate-granting community college pathways project leaders’ perspectives of guided pathways organization change. Drawing upon Kezar’s (2018) change macro framework theory on how colleges change, the study sought to understand how project leaders managed the ongoing change process using the sub theory of organizational learning. The research questions were: (a) How do community college guided pathways project leads describe implementing and sustaining organizational change, specifically guided pathways? and (b) How do community college guided pathways project leads use concepts from organizational learning in implementing and sustaining guided pathways? Data were collected via semi structured interviews from 16 pathways project leaders with a variety of titles and from colleges of varying sizes and geographic locations that participated in either a national- or state-based guided pathways institute model. The findings suggested guided pathways leads perceived that (a) reflection, both internal self-reflection and reflecting with others; (b) engaging with stakeholders, including engaging those internal to the campus and external college stakeholders, in the change effort; and (c) communication, both campus-wide communication and the guided pathways language used, mattered when implementing and sustaining guided pathways organizational change. Based on participant responses, Kezar’s (2018) tenets of organizational learning were also found to matter to varying degrees when implementing change in their college.
Dissertation Committee Chair:
Dr. Susan V. Iverson
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