The community college concept in Tasmania : a case study

The study is an historically‚ÄövÑvÆbased account of the development of Alanvale Community College, Launceston, Tasmania. The decade from 1975 until the present represented a time of significant change for Tasmanian education, as new policies for post‚ÄövÑvÆ compulsory education were shaped. At the heart of this development was the concept of the community college. Alanvale Community College was to have been a prototype in this development. Planned initially as a Matriculation College for the Northern suburbs of Launceston, it incorporated into its early planning the notion of a broad‚ÄövÑvÆbased educational initiative catering for graduating High School students, local community interest groups and technical college students. Its development was supported by a number of major educational inquiries, and endorsed politically by the State Government of the time. Despite the broad approval and support for the community college concept, it was abandoned after a relatively short period of time. The collapse of the initiative represents something unusual for Tasmanian education, which has tended to be characterized by educational innovation and successful policy implementation. Alanvale Community College was used as a case‚ÄövÑvÆstudy to provide a descriptive and interpretive account of the forces that shaped the attempt to implement policy for the new colleges. It also provides historical evidence of the problems that were encountered in the attempt to develop these colleges. In particular, the kinds of conflict of interest that are associated with organizational mergers are traced and identified. The study represents an attempt to provide a realworld instance of serious intra-organizational dysfunction. Its interpretive direction allows the delimitation of contributing causes to the abandonment of both Alanvale Community College and the policy initiative itself.