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This study was conducted to explore how a yearlong topics-based faculty learning community targeted for developmental reading adjunct faculty affected faculty experiences, while helping developmental reading adjunct faculty shift their pedagogy from a skills- to a holistic-based approach to college-level literacy. This qualitative study collected data from adjunct faculty participants who engaged in a year-long topics-based learning community, with an emphasis on the shift in pedagogy within the field of developmental college-level reading classes. This qualitative study collected data from a focus group of the participants, individual interviews from each of the participants, and document reviews of participant syllabi and projects that focused on a single unit to demonstrate their understanding of the shift in pedagogy. The data demonstrate that topics-based learning community experiences provide significant support for adjunct faculty when shifting pedagogy from a skills-based approach to a holistic approach to college-level literacy in a developmental reading department. Additional findings include adjunct perceptions of marginalization within an institution, which can be ameliorated by professional development opportunities that are executed and implemented with thought and care.
Adjunct Faculty in Online Higher Education: Best Practices for Teaching Adult Learners is an essential handbook that delves into the pivotal role of adjunct faculty instructors in the booming realm of online higher education, with a specific focus on adult learners. As the demand for online education continues to soar, administrators, program directors, and adjunct faculty instructors alike are presented with unique challenges and opportunities. This comprehensive guidebook provides a wealth of knowledge and best practices for adjunct faculty instructors seeking to excel in online teaching roles. With a keen understanding of the competitive nature of the field, this book equips instructors with valuable insights that will set them apart in the ever-expanding landscape of higher education. University administrators and program directors will also find immense value in the book's content, which explores strategies for providing professional development to adjunct faculty and designing effective evaluations to support continuous improvement. Recognizing the paramount importance of the student experience, the book emphasizes the crucial role played by adjunct faculty in representing their respective institutions. Covering a wide range of topics, from the historical context of adult learners to the challenges associated with being an adjunct instructor, this handbook serves as a comprehensive guide for both aspiring and experienced adjunct faculty members. It offers practical advice on curriculum design, personnel development, and evaluation methods, empowering administrators and directors alike to make informed decisions in hiring and supporting adjunct faculty instructors.
As the debate regarding the increasing use of adjunct faculty in higher education continues to swirl, the voices of adjunct faculty themselves are rarely heard. Stories abound regarding the poor working conditions in which most adjunct faculty labor, yet many of those that employ adjunct faculty are unaware of how the conditions impact an adjunct's ability to teach effectively. Adjunct Faculty Voices gives a voice to this growing population. It shares the experiences and clear benefits adjuncts gain from having access to professional development opportunities. In spite of a shortage of resources, there are institutions offering development programs that target the pressing needs of this population.The first part of the book features the voices of adjunct faculty who tell their stories of finding professional development and creating or connecting with communities of colleagues for mutual support. These adjunct voices represent a range of disciplinary perspectives, career stages, and institutional types. In the second section, the authors draw upon a benchmarking study of adjunct faculty developing programs, examine specific challenges and highlight successful practices. Institutions can support adjunct faculty through teaching academies and faculty learning communities; mentor programs; conference support; and adjunct faculty liaison positions.Topics discussed include:• Best professional development practices that support and benefit adjunct faculty• Faculty social isolation and community-building opportunities• An overview of changes affecting the academic workforce• An outline of issues and working conditions• Current demographics and types of adjunct faculty• Survey results from adjunct faculty developers• Adjunct faculty narratives featuring their professional development and community experiencesTeaching and Learning centers across the country are responding to the growing adjunct cohort in innovative and efficient ways. Administrators, deans, department chairs, and adjunct faculty will all benefit by hearing the voices of adjuncts as they express the challenges faced by adjunct faculty and the types of professional development opportunities which are most beneficial.
There is mounting concern over the influence that hiring larger percentages of adjunct faculty has had on the quality of instruction delivered in higher education. Studies have noted these contingent workers are being hired as an economic resource or commodity rather than viewed as academic partners. This basic inductive study on adjunct faculty in northeast U.S. two-year colleges was important to add to the existing body of knowledge. Utilizing a basic inductive approach allowed the researcher to explore adjunct faculty experiences and to gather data through individualized, semi-structured interviews. Data analysis was examined through the lens of hygiene-motivation theory that explores the levels of satisfaction an individual has at work. This study yielded three super-ordinate themes: awareness of individual reasons to teach, reinforcement, and relationships. Results showed that participants felt a strong value for teaching and that they supported the belief that it was vital to provide students with a quality education. This study found that adjunct faculty experienced mixed emotions of joy, isolation, and need, among others, in their teaching role as adjunct faculty. Satisfaction and dissatisfaction shifted based on the participants' perception of the institutional support they received and what their primary motivation was to teach. The study revealed that the adjunct faculty who volunteered to teach were more often satisfied as work than those who needed the extra income to meet financial obligations. This study and subsequent recommendations are relevant for administrators and faculty coordinators who hire adjunct faculty, as these leaders attempt to advance quality pedagogy. Conclusions from this study recommend that additional research should be conducted to further explore adjunct faculty experiences and to find better ways to enhance their teaching and learning skills. This will help advance quality pedagogy.
Showcases proven initiatives at a variety of institutional types that help achieve the needs of adjunct instructors, while increasing their effectiveness within institutions' existing delivery systems.
As the number of adjunct faculty teaching online courses remotely for their institutions continues to increase, so do the unique challenges they face, including issues of distance and isolation as well as problems pertaining to motivation, time, and compensation. Not only are these higher education faculty geographically isolated from each other and their colleagues at flagship campuses, but they also lack adequate institutional support and resources necessary to perform their roles. As institutions continue to rely heavily on this group of under-supported and undertrained instructors who teach the majority of online courses offered across the country, institutions need models and strategies to tap the expertise and perspectives of this group not only to improve teaching and learning in online programs but also to retain this critical talent pool. More consideration is needed to create institutional affinity and organizational commitment, build community, and create opportunities for remote adjunct faculty to be included as an integral component to their academic departments. The Handbook of Research on Inclusive Development for Remote Adjunct Faculty in Higher Education is a comprehensive reference work that presents research, theoretical frameworks, instructor perspectives, and program models that highlight effective strategies, innovative approaches, and unique considerations for creating professional development opportunities for remote adjunct faculty teaching online. This book provides concrete practices that foster inclusivity among contingent faculty teaching online as well as tangible practices that have been successfully implemented from faculty developers and academic leaders at institutions who have a large population of, and heavy reliance on, remote adjunct instructors. While addressing topics that include faculty engagement, mentoring programs, and instructor resources, this book intends to support remote instructors in the post-pandemic world. It is also beneficial for faculty development professionals; academic administrative leaders; higher education stakeholders; and higher education faculty, researchers, and students.
The definitive career guide for grad students, adjuncts, post-docs and anyone else eager to get tenure or turn their Ph.D. into their ideal job Each year tens of thousands of students will, after years of hard work and enormous amounts of money, earn their Ph.D. And each year only a small percentage of them will land a job that justifies and rewards their investment. For every comfortably tenured professor or well-paid former academic, there are countless underpaid and overworked adjuncts, and many more who simply give up in frustration. Those who do make it share an important asset that separates them from the pack: they have a plan. They understand exactly what they need to do to set themselves up for success. They know what really moves the needle in academic job searches, how to avoid the all-too-common mistakes that sink so many of their peers, and how to decide when to point their Ph.D. toward other, non-academic options. Karen Kelsky has made it her mission to help readers join the select few who get the most out of their Ph.D. As a former tenured professor and department head who oversaw numerous academic job searches, she knows from experience exactly what gets an academic applicant a job. And as the creator of the popular and widely respected advice site The Professor is In, she has helped countless Ph.D.’s turn themselves into stronger applicants and land their dream careers. Now, for the first time ever, Karen has poured all her best advice into a single handy guide that addresses the most important issues facing any Ph.D., including: -When, where, and what to publish -Writing a foolproof grant application -Cultivating references and crafting the perfect CV -Acing the job talk and campus interview -Avoiding the adjunct trap -Making the leap to nonacademic work, when the time is right The Professor Is In addresses all of these issues, and many more.
The employment of adjunct faculty is often what allows community colleges to offer excellent yet affordable education; however, this group is often deprived of the professional development and basic amenities enjoyed by their full-time colleagues. Academic administrators are those charged with hiring and supervising adjunct faculty, and this book provides them with examples of successful programs that highlight the important connection between teaching quality and effective hiring, orientation, acculturation, and professional development practices for their constituency. These models come from community and technical colleges across the United States and can be implemented into any two-year system. Through the use of research, case studies, and hands-on how-to guides, checklists, and samples, this volume’s expert contributors explain how to understand part-time faculty— how to motivate them and value them as members of the academy. They go on to offer practical advice for recruiting, integrating, supporting, and retaining these great teachers.
Many researchers have documented an increase in adjunct faculty members due to the increasing amount of people going to college (Jacobsohn 2001; Schell and Stock 2001), the increase in the amount of people completing PhD programs and needing employment (Anson and Jewell 2001; Schell and Stok 2001), and the increase in universities needing cheaper labor (Dobbie and Robinson 2008; Gappa and Leslie 1993; Jacobsohn 2001; Schell and Stock 2001). This growing group of faculty in the university is characterized by lack of representation in department decisions, lower pay, lack of benefits, and poor job security (Anson and Jewell 2001; Jacobsohn 2001; Lipson and Voorheis 2001; Peled et al. 2001; O'Grady 2001; Wyles 1998). In this research I asked: how do adjunct faculty perceive their work, how do adjunct faculty perceive their positionality in the university, and how do adjunct faculty who support unionization differ from adjunct faculty who are against unionization? I found that adjunct faculty felt their job was to bring specialized knowledge, skills, and work experience into the classroom. They also felt their purpose was to fill gaps in teaching and to be cheap labor for the university. Adjuncts described their working conditions as isolated. They talked about how they were isolated because they had no interactions with other people in their departments, they were excluded from department meetings, and they received little to no feedback on their work. Their isolation made them feel invisible and insignificant in their departments. Finally, I found three groups of adjuncts, those who were pro unionization, unsure about unionization, and mostly against unionization. Those who were unionized hoped a union would bring them better pay, job security, an organized voice, and someone to fight for them. Those unsure about unionization acknowledged that unionization would be good for adjuncts who rely as their sole source of income, they felt the union would not be beneficial for them, and they had a lot more questions about unionization before they could decide. Only three participants in my sample were mostly opposed to adjunct unionization. My hope for this research is that it can be used to improve the working conditions of adjunct faculty members.
Lyons is a senior consultant with a firm helping universities, colleges and instructional departments to improve their accountability outcomes, and is the co-author of an earlier work for aspiring and newly appointed part- time instructors, The Adjunct Professor's Guide to Success (Allyn and Bacon, 1999). His newest work builds on the previous text, but shifts the focus to experienced adjuncts wanting to improve their teaching effectiveness and course management efficiency. The text also includes brief testimonials from successful American adjunct professors and a new chapter on incorporating technology into one's teaching. Annotation 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).