Date of Award

4-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

Education

First Advisor

Roger Mitch Nasser Jr.

Second Advisor

Elizabeth Melick

Third Advisor

Sherrie Wisdom

Abstract

Conference attendance is often framed as an individual choice, but this community college-focused study found it operates as a system. Institutional supports, signals, and constraints either make attendance more feasible or reinforce barriers to attendance. Using a convergent mixed-methods design, I integrated a faculty survey, policy document analysis, and faculty panels (moderated small-group interviews) to identify what most consistently separates attendance from non-attendance and what institutions can change. Survey results included 56 complete responses (analytic n = 54) from full-time faculty working at Missouri community colleges. Faculty reported moderate to moderately high perceptions of institutional support, professional value, and belonging connected to conference attendance, and they reported a greater likelihood of attending when personally invited or encouraged. Prior attendance was nearly split (26 had previously attended and 28 had not previously attended). Barriers were common, with respondents selecting an average of 2.68. For the next convention, the most common reason for not attending was scheduling conflict (48.2%), followed by lack of relevant content (26.8%) and financial concerns (12.5%). Logistic regression models did not identify statistically significant predictors of prior attendance; tenure was the most consistent correlate. Document analysis explained why favorable attitudes do not automatically translate into attendance. Ten institutional artifacts from Missouri community colleges were scored using an Institutional Support Index, with totals ranging from 1 to 12, showing substantial variation in how explicitly policies support conference attendance. Across institutions, the clearest policy signals emphasized travel procedures, pre-approval steps, and reimbursement logistics. Explicit language framing conference attendance as valued, encouraged, or integrated into faculty work appeared less consistently. Panel findings showed convergence on the same structural constraints: midweek timing, missed class time, workload coverage, and uneven visibility of funding and approval pathways. Attendees emphasized realized value through peer community, practical ideas they could use immediately, and informal exchanges that strengthened professional identity. Non-attendees described similar potential value, but highlighted conference appeal and institutional culture and communication as decisive for first-time attendance. Overall, the findings point to a practical conclusion: increasing attendance is less about persuading community college faculty that conferences matter and more about reducing friction; strengthening encouragement pathways; and making support processes clear, predictable, and easy to access. These results offer levers for leaders and organizers to expand attendance without coercion.

Research Highlights

  • The Problem: Full-time community college faculty attendance at the annual Missouri Community College Association convention is highly inconsistent and has faced a steady decline over a 10-year period.

  • The Method: The study employed a convergent parallel mixed-methods framework grounded in Etienne Wenger's Communities of Practice theory, combining a survey of 56 full-time instructors, an Institutional Support Index evaluation of 10 multi-institutional policy documents, and three semi-structured faculty panels containing both conference attendees and non-attendees.

  • Quantitative Finding: Prior conference attendance among survey respondents was split between 26 attendees and 28 non-attendees; instructors selected a mean of 2.68 barriers, identifying scheduling conflicts as the top reason for future non-attendance at 48.2%, followed by a lack of relevant content at 26.8% and financial concerns at 12.5%; while logistic regression models showed no statistically significant attitudinal predictors of attendance, an ordinal chi-square test demonstrated a significant positive association between tenure and prior attendance (p-value of 0.0039); Institutional Support Index scores across the evaluated colleges varied significantly from a low of 1 to a high of 12.

  • Qualitative Finding: Formal institutional policy documents primarily highlight regulatory travel procedures and compliance rules rather than framing conferences as spaces for professional collaboration or belonging; faculty perceive the genuine value of conference attendance as emerging through informal affinity conversations, immediate practical instruction strategies, and professional renewal; structural barriers, such as mid-week timing, high school partnership requirements, and instructional text coverage, frequently render participation constraints fixed rather than negotiable.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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