Sustainable justice: Community connections, lower debt, and the process of becoming a work college

Abstract

This study presents the findings that emerged in a qualitative policy-oriented case study of an institution's transition to a work college in the United States of America. Researchers collected 32 individual interviews, along with other observational data and institutional archives to understand the appeal of federal policy and government investment in the institution's transition to a work college. From this data, two findings emerged that promoted the sustainability of the institution: Educational Justice Promotes Cultural Sovereignty and Academic Activism and Political Connections. What emerged in the analysis of the findings was that notions of access, affordability, dignity, sovereignty, and justice are all expressions of sustainability in higher education, which is one part of a societal ecosystem. The institution's movement toward a work college model created a more sustainable educational model that allowed the institution to access federal policies and government investment inclined toward employability, promote its community, and develop significant political connections and advocacy. Throughout the transition, the institution exhibited profound ethical vision of higher education. This ethical vision-justice through education-stretched beyond the boundaries of the institution and into its adjacent neighborhood, city, and nation.