An Exploratory Study of Community College Baccalaureate Teacher Education Programs: Lessons Learned

Historically, community colleges have played a role in preparing teachers by strengthening articulation and transfer with university-based teacher colleges, hosting university center programs that provide upper division teacher education courses, and providing alternative teacher certification programming for holders of bachelor's and higher degrees. In the past several years, a growing number of community colleges have expanded their work in teacher education programs by developing and conferring their own baccalaureate degrees. Perhaps because these baccalaureate programs are so new, little has been written from the perspective of the practitioners who have implemented them. Their stories deserve to be told. Drawing on interviews with representatives from 10 community colleges or former community colleges, this article reports the initial findings of an exploratory study of what can be learned from the experiences of community college practitioners who have established bachelor's degree programs in teacher education.