This issue offers multiple perspectives on the ways community college faculty fulfill their complex roles. The first chapters draw on data from national surveys to provide a broad overview of the contemporary community college professoriate. Chapter authors also focus on community college faculty's central responsibility: teaching. The volume next examines the practices and attitudes of particular groups of instructors, including part-timers, female faculty, and faculty of color. The concluding chapters explore faculty professional development, the formation of community within the community colleges, and the development of the professoriate as a profession.

This is the 118th issue of the Jossey-Bass series New Directions for Community Colleges.