Reac BorretiA Nov [Sle

Book Review

‘John D. Dennisonand Paul Gallagher, Canada’s Community
Colleges: A Critical Analysis. Vancouver: U.B.C. Press, 1986.
Pp. 360. Paperback $18.95

Dennison, doyen of Canadian college-watchers, and
Gallagher, formerly C.E.O. of Dawson College, Montreal,
and Capilano College, and currently President of Vancouver
Community College, have pooled their expertise to produce a
provocative and timely study of the Canadian Community
College System.

The first section of the book —a history of the emergence
of the college system, by province — draws on largely
unassembled documentation; it is a masterly synthesis. Of
greater interest, however, is the second section, where the
authors analyze the current state of the colleges and address
issues of the future.

The concerns identified are at one and the same time
pan-Canadian and particularly germane to B.C. The dominant
topic is the role of the colleges in the immediate future: in an
uncertain economy, beset with rampant unemployment,
should they train or retrain, or espouse a broader educational
mission? The authors predict that only radical changes in
self-image, in curricula and in instructional methodology will
allow the colleges to remain responsive to society in the next
few decades.

On the subject of college governance, the authors are
insistent that the university-type collegial model will not
work; but they press the case for the inclusion of students and
faculty in the governing bodies, citing the examples of Alberta
and Quebec.

On labour relations, their view is that the adversarial
mode of collective bargaining does not give sufficient recognition
to the distinctiveness of the college workplace in that it mutes
the professionalism of the faculty. Their solution is “unique
labour legislation for the college sector” — akin to that in
Alberta.

To achieve and maintain institutional excellence, the
authors are adamant that colleges engage not only in faculty
and instructional evaluations to ensure instructional and
operational accountability, but that they actively encourage

Books sought

‘professional development of their faculty in the areas of
instructional competence and discipline or teaching-oriented
research. Curriculum development is another sine qua non
for excellence; here general or “generic” education is seen as
indispensable if the colleges are to provide preparatory and
life-long education to their clientele.

The final call is for systems renewal; the original vision of
the 60’s may be blurred, but not irretrievably so; colleges can
re-focus by responding to the challenge of a society in
transition.

This is not merely a reference book but a critical survey of
the past, a stock-taking of the present, and prognosis of the
future. It should be compulsory reading for board-members,
administrators, faculty and concerned citizenry throughout
Canada.

Alastair Watt

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“Anyone wishing to help re-
stock the library should ‘con-.

_ garet Gooldrup, chairman of

tact the school for names of
needed reference material.

Phone 883-2727.

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