While teaching occupies the primary role of faculty members in community colleges, the question remains: To what extent are community college faculty members engaged in research and scholarship? This issue focuses on:

the types of research and scholarship performed by community college faculty,

the forces that foster or impede the engagement of community college faculty members in research and scholarship,

specific examples of community college faculty scholarship that demonstrate the value of this work to the institution and to larger society, and

policies and practices at the institutional, local, and state level that support engagement in research and scholarship.

This is the 171st volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Essential to the professional libraries of presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today's open-door institutions, New Directions for Community Colleges provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinctive and expanding educational mission.