The importance of the study lies within the gap in practice where online education focuses primarily on the student experience and technology, leaving little focus on the successes and challenges of the instructors. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to look at the perceptions of adjunct faculty towards the successes, challenges, and…

Institutional reliance on tenure-line faculty reached a historic low after the Great Recession in 2009, remaining at approximately a third of all faculty through 2022. Postsecondary institutions have steadily increased their reliance on full-time adjunct faculty over the last two decades. Part-time adjuncts, meanwhile, were hired in great numbers…

A gap in the literature exists pertaining to the impact of academic entitlement on instructor performance evaluations. This study evaluates the relationship between academic entitlement and other variables on instructor performance evaluations. Through use of Amazon Mechanical Turk, 200 United States participants who finished a college-level…

While traditional faculty mentoring programs exist across higher education institutions, support is typically delivered to mentees in a one-way format, resulting in mentoring that does not promote ownership of improving instruction. To study the problem, a conceptual framework incorporating constructivism teaching theory and post-modern…

This basic qualitative study explored the perceptions of industry expert adjunct faculty on writing-in-the-disciplines to support students' development of professional writing skills. Theoretical foundations for this research were formed through a social constructivist lens, with threads of co-constructions of knowledge, active participation, and…

This paper considers the state of contingent laborers, Ph.D. holders, lovers of robust scholarship, and hopeful academics who toil away in the neoliberal university in the search for the academic good life. The author argues that the academic good life is a fantasy and agrees that the fantasy is cruel, i.e. not attainable or livable, but does…

Adjuncts continue to be an integral part of higher education; however, they are rarely onboarded at higher education institutions. Onboarding involves systematically introducing a new employee to an organization's values, processes, and procedures. For adjuncts, they also need formalized training in pedagogy. Without onboarding adjuncts, higher…

Within the work of teaching, college faculty can develop stronger understandings of both their subject matter and their students' socio-cultural understandings of that subject matter. Such learning is particularly important for faculty that teach today's students, who bring unprecedented racial, ethnic, socio-economic and age diversity to higher…

This article investigates the working conditions and career aspirations of adjunct professors (Aps) in Italy. It is based on the results of a national survey carried out in 2018 collecting information on a representative sample of 5556 respondents distributed across all Italian universities, on semi-structured interviews with 35 APs, and on an…

This phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of adjunct faculty working in business schools across the New England region. The five participants of this study taught at 4-year, non-profit, public, or private institutions. Multiple interviews were conducted using Seidman's (2013) interview protocol. The responses were transcribed…

This article discusses the importance of developing a system of communication with a large adjunct faculty population. An active faculty roster was developed in order to maintain an accurate and convenient process to remain in constant communication with the adjunct faculty population. By developing a consistent and adaptive process, communicating…

This paper provides an overview of the literature exploring the realities of contingent faculty at U.S. universities and colleges with a focus on STEM. We focus our review of the literature by exploring the experiences of Latinx/é contingent faculty in STEM and propose a series of conceptual frameworks that can be used to explore the hidden…

Despite the fact that precarious modes of employment have become increasingly common in academic careers, studies have shown that precarious contracts are often hidden and masked within higher education structures. This has important implications for the identities of those on such contracts. This paper uses Goffman's work on stigma, 'spoiled…

Attaining the rank of faculty in higher education is much like being inducted into a secret society. Institutional and professional knowledge are shared like secret passwords and handshakes…to new tenure-track faculty. Those on the tenure track receive orientation and participate in mentoring and professional development programs during their…

This historical exploration of the development of the academic workforce in the UK and France was triggered by the observation of significant similarities in contemporary debates on casualisation, and segmentation despite their distinctive HE systems. We develop a quantitative history of academic staff to understand why the differences in the two…