Theses and Dissertations

Advisor

Coats, Linda

Committee Member

White, Carol

Committee Member

King, Stephanie

Committee Member

Oswalt, Kaite

Date of Degree

8-12-2026

Original embargo terms

Immediate Worldwide Access

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Community College Leadership

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Education

Department

Department of Technology, Leadership, and Design

Abstract

This study examined mid-level community college administrators’ perceptions of professional development. Despite the extensive educational literature focused on higher education, limited research has explored mid-level administrators employed at community colleges. The purpose of this study was to understand how Texas community college mid-level academic administrators perceive the professional development opportunities available for their positions. A quantitative, non-experimental approach was used, involving mid-level academic administrators employed at public two-year colleges in Texas. Data were collected using a virtual survey and analyzed using a one-factor ANOVA, and two separate two-factor ANOVAs. The results indicated that the size of the community college employer had no statistically significant effect on the respondent’s perception of professional development. Additionally, there was no statistically significant interaction found between years of experience as a community college administrator and community college size in relation to the administrators’ perception of professional development. The results also indicated there was no statistically significant interaction found between gender and community college size in relation to the mid-level leaders’ perception of professional development. While informative, the findings from this study have an overall small effect size due to the small sample size. This limitation stemmed from the lack of access to a third of the Texas community colleges because of institutional policies and decisions and a low response rate to the online survey. The findings of this study can be used in the design and expansion of professional development curricula for mid-level community college administrators. Future research should replicate and expand this study to community college systems in other states to add to the educational research focused on mid-level leaders employed at two-year higher education institutions.

Download

Share

COinS