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The Challenges Of Minoritized Contingent Faculty In Higher Education, Edna Chun, Alvin Evans

Navigating Careers in Higher Education Series

The Challenges of Minoritized Contingent Faculty in Higher Education offers a probing and unvarnished look at the employment challenges of these faculty members in four-year institutions. With dramatic shifts in the faculty workforce and nearly three-quarters of instructional positions in United States institutions now off the tenure track, contingent faculty have become the essential, frontline workers of higher education. Remarkably little research attention has focused on the experiences of minoritized contingent faculty in this new academic underclass. Based on in-depth interviews coupled with extensive research, the book highlights the double marginalization that can occur due to secondary employment status in …

“The Amount Of Labor We Do For Free” And Other Contradictions: A Collective Inquiry Into The Pedagogical Choices Of Cuny Adjunct And Graduate Student Instructors Who Taught With Free Of Charge Materials During The Year 2020, Sami Disu, Joanna Dressel, Jamila Hammami, Marianne Madoré, Conor Tomás Reed

Publications and Research

A collective of five CUNY researchers developed and conducted a survey-based study of how CUNY adjunct and graduate student faculty taught with free of charge materials during the year 2020. A total of 152 respondents filled out the survey. Four themes emerged from the analysis of their responses:

1. Adjunct and graduate student faculty who taught with free of charge materials at CUNY in 2020 were motivated by economic, logistical, and pedagogical benefits. They invested considerable amounts of time in both creating and selecting material.
2. Their pedagogical choices about learning materials were formed in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the …

The Pandemic, Contingent Faculty, And Catholic Colleges And Universities, Jason King

Academic Labor: Research and Artistry

In this paper, we explore the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on contingent faculty in Catholic higher education. As a baseline for comparison, we draw on our 2019 essay which traced the increasing reliance on contingent faculty in Catholic higher education from 2001-2017. When compared to 2020, we find three significant results. First, Catholic colleges and universities responded to the pandemic by reducing all employment – administration, staff, tenured/tenured track faculty, and contingent faculty. In this general reduction, contingent faculty was reduced by 2.6%. Second, the reduction in employment was particularly pronounced in small Catholic schools. At these schools, contingent …

“Drown[Ing] A Little Bit All The Time: The Intersections Of Labor Constraints And Professional Development In Hybrid Contingent Faculty Experiences, Courtney Adams Wooten, Brian Fitzpatrick, Lourdes Fernandez, Ariel M. Goldenthal, Jessica Matthews

Academic Labor: Research and Artistry

Faculty teaching during COVID-19 have been asked to adapt to a wide range of instructional modalities that have often increased the labor they experience without commensurate compensation. Hybrid courses, which were already popular pre-pandemic, have become even more common as schools and universities have rushed to adapt instruction to students’ needs. This article reports on interviews with faculty teaching hybrid courses to investigate their perceptions of the labor involved in teaching in this instructional modality, drawing connections to the labor many faculty are experiencing as they adapt to hybrid or other, similar instructional modalities. It then argues that targeted professional …

Studenting And Teaching With Chronic Pain: Accessibility At The Intersection Of Contingency And Disability, Beth Greene

Academic Labor: Research and Artistry

While much attention is given to undergraduate students with disabilities, far less is devoted to graduate students, particularly those who also act as faculty: Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs). This article discusses issues of accessibility encountered by these contingent faculty members, specifically GTAs who have invisible disabilities, and how approaching discussions of contingency and disability with an ethos of transparent vulnerability—a level of transparency that necessarily leads to vulnerability—can help combat the stigma that continues to surround contingency and disability in higher education.

Center For Teaching And Learning Impact On Adjunct Job Satisfaction: Examining Their Lived Experiences, Winsome S. Brooks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Adjunct faculty have become a significant part of the collegiate workforce in times of financial constraints; however, they are not supported like their full-time counterparts and have lower career and job satisfaction. Some institutions have responded to the increase in dependence on adjuncts by developing support systems in the form of teaching and learning centers. This phenomenological case study’s purpose was to explore the lived experiences of adjunct faculty using a center for teaching and learning (CTL) and explore the impacts the CTL has on adjunct job satisfaction. A purposive sample of six adjunct faculty, two CTL leaders, and one …

First Class Teachers, Second Class Citizens: A Mixed Methods Investigation Of The Predictors Of Organizational Commitment Among Non-Tenure Track Faculty, Melissa Altman

Dissertations, 2020-current

This mixed methods study explored the experiences with, as well as the levels of and predictors of, organizational commitment amongst non-tenure track faculty (NTTF) members. 652 NTTF members from mid-size public comprehensive university with a teaching focus in the SACS COC accrediting region received a confidential electronic survey measuring organizational sense of belonging, dependence on NTTF income, level of underemployment, and engagement with the faculty development center. Control variables included demographic characteristics, length of time in a contingent position, type of appointment (FT or PT), discipline, and possession of a terminal academic degree. The dependent variable was affective organizational commitment …

Critical (En)Counters: A Girouxean Exploration Of Contingent Faculties’ Narratives On Laboring For Latinx Students In The Corporate University Using Critical Dialogue, Krystal Amaril Medrano

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the experiences of contingent faculty within the College of Education at a Hispanic Serving Institute on the Texas-Mexico border. This study makes use of a critical Girouxean lens of neoliberalism to explore both the classroom and work experiences of contingent faculty as they navigate the hopelessness of the corporate university. Tethered still to the hope of critical pedagogy and dialogue, I rely on dialogic interviewing and story circle protocol to create dialogic experiences in which our individual and joint narratives, including my own stories, set off an ongoing dialogue that will extend beyond this study to the …

The Metaphors Of Identity Among Adjunct Faculty, Melissa Ryan

Culminating Projects in Higher Education Administration

Adjunct faculty are an integral part of the higher education structure, allowing community college leadership to meet the instructional and financial needs on their campuses. Community colleges rely heavily on adjunct faculty to meet the changing needs of student enrollment at a low cost, with no long-term commitment to future employment. Research paying attention to the increased utilization of adjunct faculty in the community college setting has focused on topics including job satisfaction, student outcomes, and studies comparing part-time faculty and full-time faculty in advancement opportunities. This study was conducted to provide an opportunity for adjunct faculty members in the …

Examining Effective Teacher Practices In Higher Education, Toni Marie Paoletta

ETD Archive

Today, contingent faculty members hold the largest percentage of teaching positions in higher education in the United States yet very few receive any pedagogical or andragogic training prior to teaching. Studies have found there is a level of concern regarding the quality of instruction provided by contingent faculty and instructor rank has been linked to grade inflation. Some universities claim close to 90% of all college students receive inflated grades and this grade inflation is negatively impacting subsequent course performance (Fagan-Wilen, Springer, Ambrosino, & White, 2006; Robinson & Hope, 2012; Sonner, 2010). Contingent faculty members are mainly hired due to …

Diversity As Contingent: An Intersectional Ethnographic Interrogation Of And Resistance Against Neoliberal Academia’S Exploitation Of Contingent Faculty In General Education Diversity Courses, Kelly Louise Opdycke

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Since its inception in the late 1970s, neoliberal academia has increasingly relied in under-paid contingent faculty to carry its teaching workload. During this same time, neoliberal academia began to take up ‘diversity’ as a way to sell its brand. This dissertation stands at the crux between diversity branding and the exploitation of contingent faculty. Specifically, I explore how teaching General Education diversity courses through precarity impacts contingent faculty affectively and emotionally. Michel Foucault (1979) describes those who live in the context of neoliberalism as homo economicus, or entrepreneur of the self. As one becomes stuck in contingency, they begin to …

I Don’T Really Work Here: Part-Time Faculty And The Adjunctification Of Higher Ed., Maggie Cawley

West Chester University Master’s Theses

This critical action research thesis will explore the 40-year rise of adjunctification, the term coined to describe the increased reliance on adjunct and contingent labor in institutions of higher education. This thesis will examine adjunctification’s detrimental effects on teaching in higher education as a profession, on adjuncts and contingent teachers, and on students. Institutional overreliance on adjunct faculty as cheap, ad hoc labor flies in the face of the role that education should play in society: to develop student potentiality and capacity for critical thought. I believe that the casualization of teaching and the subsequent rise of adjunctification preclude these …

A Study Of Contingent Faculty Representation In Governance At The University Of Mississippi, Mariana Rangel Allushuski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Through interviews of members of the 2017-2018 Faculty Senate and of the Task Force, and in the chronological order in which events took place, the following topics were addressed: the role of contingent faculty on campus and in governance, contingent faculty experiences in their academic departments, major arguments for and against representation, Senators and Task Force members’ perspectives of the Task Force initial presentation to the Senate, and the successful outcome that followed. Through the discussion, this study addresses themes such as the role of the Faculty Senate, the future of contingent faculty in governance, the work that lies ahead, …

The Poor And Marginalized Among Us: Contingent Faculty In Jesuit Universities, Richard D. Clark, Carrie Buchanan, Christina Rawls

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

Faculty of institutions of higher learning have an opportunity to discuss, debate and discern how to create workplaces that are just and inclusive. As members of Jesuit institutions, we have a moral obligation to do so. How, then, can Jesuit universities justify the poor treatment of contingent faculty, who are now a majority not just in our institutions, but in the country as a whole? Tenure-track employment is a fading tradition in universities throughout the United States. The data also show that non-tenure-track faculty, particularly the growing number of part-time adjunct faculty, constitute a population of marginalized, often poor, employees …

Terms Of Time For Composition: A Materialist Examination Of Contingent Faculty Labor, Jesse Priest

Academic Labor: Research and Artistry

Bruce Horner’s seminal book, Terms of Work for Composition: A Materialist Critique provided Comp-Rhet WPAs with a methodology for infusing our conversations about work and labor with a holistic understanding of how these reflect on the lived experiences of students, teachers and administrators. Drawing on empirical data including surveys of contingent faculty at a large northeastern research university, as well as textual analysis of teaching material and an NCTE position statement, I propose the inclusion of a materialist-oriented conceptualization of time to the discussion began by Horner and others. Using the lens of how time is allocated, I argue for …

Professor Who? A Phenomenological Exploration Of Working Professionals Who Feel Called To Teach As Adjunct Faculty, Molly A. Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study explores the meaning that those who feel called to teach make out of their adjunct teaching experience in higher education. In addition to understanding more about how these individuals describe their call to teach, the study explores how adjunct faculty characterize the relationship between personal identity, calling, and professional identity as a teacher. This study also explores how adjunct faculty articulate the relationship between their identity, teaching intentions, and professional practice. Five essential themes emerged as characterizing the phenomenon of feeling called to teach as an adjunct member in higher education, including (1) Enjoyment, (2) Alignment, (3) …

The Poor And Marginalized Among Us: Contingent Faculty In Jesuit Universities, Richard D. Clark, Carrie Buchanan, Christina Rawls

Carrie Buchanan

Called To Teach: A Mixed Methods Exploration Of Community College Adjunct Faculty’S Teaching Self-Efficacy, Christy L. Tyndall

Theses and Dissertations

Adjunct faculty teach over 50% of courses in U.S. higher education but little is known about them as educators. Strong evidence has been found in the K-12 literature demonstrating the link between teachers’ beliefs, instructional practices, and subsequent student outcomes. Teaching self-efficacy, beliefs in one’s capabilities to perform specific tasks in a particular context, is an important contributor to motivation and performance (Tschannen-Moran et al., 1998). This research advances teaching and learning literature in higher education and provides insight into an understudied population of educators by exploring adjunct faculty’s teaching self-efficacy and factors that influence those beliefs. In this mixed …

Panel Handout: Mica: Negotiating A First Contingent Faculty Contract At An Art School

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

No abstract provided.

Panel: Negotiating Over Job Security For Contingent Faculty - The Three Legged Stool, Judi Burgess

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

No abstract provided.

Negotiating Over Job Security For Contingent Faculty: The Cfa Experience, Jonathan Karpf

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

No abstract provided.

Part-Time Faculty: Semantics And The Meaning Of Contingent Teaching, Margaret E. Winters

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

The variety of titles for non-tenure-track, part-time, contingent faculty and their semantic meanings are explored. The terms are not random when looked at collectively, but rather form a pattern which is indicative of contemporary post-secondary academic employment and culture. More specifically, these titles reflect several characteristics of the faculty who bear them: among others, the fact that they are not in full-time employment, the fact that their contracts are for shorter periods of time than those of tenure-track faculty, and the fact that their contracts reflect an expectation of impermanence in employment. Also expressed in the titles are more nuanced …

Handout: University Of Hawai'i Faculty Contract, Richard Westbury Nettell

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

No abstract provided.

Countering Contingency?, Richard Westbury Nettell

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

The University of Hawai‘i Professional Assembly (UHPA) represents higher education faculty across the state, in a system that includes one major research university, two four-year colleges, and six community colleges. Qualification to be a member of the bargaining unit (and receive full health benefits) is 50% employment. Furthermore, the term “faculty” includes not only instructional faculty (including lecturers, who are by definition temporary, and instructors, who are longer-term but non-tenure-track), but also researchers, librarians, counselors, and others who come under the general designation of specialist. This basically means everyone working in the state’s higher education system is part of the …

Protecting Academic Freedom For Faculty Working On Contingent Contracts: Contract Language For Full-­‐Time Faculty At Wright State University, Rudy Fichtenbaum

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

No abstract provided.

Collective Bargaining Results Regarding Contingent Faculty, Rudy Fichtenbaum

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

No abstract provided.

Contingent Faculty In Higher Education, Ken Hawkinson

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Part-Time Faculty On Student Degree Or Certificate Completion In Two-Year Community Colleges, Hongwei Yu

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

No abstract provided.

The Delphi Project On The Changing Faculty And Student Success, Daniel Maxey

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

No abstract provided.

The California State University Bottleneck Courses Survey Report, Michelle Kiss

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

No abstract provided.