At the Intersection of Community Expectancy and Critical Theory: Emerging Perspective to Support Student Needs

Communities continue to establish, promote, and monitor the educational outcomes of their citizenry through both explicit and implied norms. Community attributes influence the pursuit of education and level of education completed by individual citizens. The influencers within communities can be attributed to common constructs of communities including formal education bodies, civic agencies, informal associations, religious affiliations, and home life as identified by the Model of Community Expectancy. Although the influence of these common constructs is more understood through recent empirical research, one cannot help but wonder in what ways Critical Theory can be leveraged with this model to further understand community college students' growth and developmental needs. This manuscript explores how the two can be leveraged to address the norms of community that support or negate education among community college students.