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This book explores the evolution of community college leadership imaginaries. Drawing insights from cultural political economy and critical discourse studies, it defines leadership imaginaries as constellations of meanings used to navigate a complex institutional reality. The main thesis of the book is that during the second half of the 20th century, leadership imaginaries evolved in relation to ideological contests and political-economic crises. Chapters on topics such as leadership, mission, vision, and crisis interrogate the unwritten rules about what administrators must do to be good leaders. Once these unwritten rules are made explicit and connected to ideological processes, it becomes apparent that leadership work does not have to be the way it is. Problematizing the status quo, we call for community college leaders, mentors, researchers, and other stakeholders to reimagine leadership and leadership work.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Historical Overview.- Chapter 3: Theory and Method.- Chapter 4: Leadership Imaginaries: Cultural, Political, and Economic Contexts.- Chapter 5: Mission: The Evolution of a Contested Organizational Genre.- Chapter 6: Vision: Knowledge or Prophecy?.- Chapter 7: Imaginaries and the Legitimation of Community College Responses to the Energy Crisis.- Chapter 8: Conclusion: Reimagining Leadership.
About the author
David F. Ayers
is associate professor of community college leadership at NC State University, USA. He is editor of
Community College Review
. He received the 2017 Senior Scholar Award by the Council for the Study of Community Colleges.
Allison L. Palmadessa
is Chair of the Department of History, Professor of History at Greensboro College, USA. She is the author of
Power, Discourse, and the Purpose of Policy in Higher Education: A Genealogical Study of the Higher Education Act
(2023, Palgrave MacMillan) and
National Failures and the Condemnation of US Higher Education: Points of Crisis from 1958 to 2024
(2025, Palgrave MacMillan).
Summary
This book explores the evolution of community college leadership imaginaries. Drawing insights from cultural political economy and critical discourse studies, it defines leadership imaginaries as constellations of meanings used to navigate a complex institutional reality. The main thesis of the book is that during the second half of the 20th century, leadership imaginaries evolved in relation to ideological contests and political-economic crises. Chapters on topics such as leadership, mission, vision, and crisis interrogate the unwritten rules about what administrators must do to be “good” leaders. Once these unwritten rules are made explicit and connected to ideological processes, it becomes apparent that leadership work does not have to be the way it is. Problematizing the status quo, we call for community college leaders, mentors, researchers, and other stakeholders to reimagine leadership and leadership work.
