Theoretical Framework
To understand how community college mid-level administrators develop skills
and knowledge that will prepare them for the presidential seat, one must understand the
processes in which adults learn. In 1968, American scholar and educator Malcolm
Shepherd Knowles was credited with the contemporary introduction of andragogy (K.M.
Brown, 2006; Merriam, 2001). Much different from pedagogy, in which the learners are
dependent on the teachers for knowledge and the learners bring little experience to the
educational activity, andragogy assumes the learners are self-aware and able to apply
their knowledge and experience to the educational activity (Knowles, 1970).