Part-time teachers form a growing proportion of the global Higher Education (HE) workforce. Their backgrounds can vary from Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) teaching for the first time, to practitioners bringing workplace experience into HE and sessional teachers, all with differing professional development needs. This paper builds on previous…

During the 21st century Great Recession, college enrollments increased as displaced workers trained to advance their skills (Baum & Ma, 2012). At the same time, state funding to community colleges declined (Baum & Ma, 2012; Ehrenberg, 2012). Although higher enrollments increased tuition revenues, they were insufficient to cover the gap…

Universities in many countries are struggling to adapt to the competing forces of globalisation, new managerialism, entrepreneurialism and new technologies and quality agenda demands. Diminishing resources caused by restricted funding and an aging and diminishing academic workforce pose barriers. One solution to staffing shortages is the…

In the business division of the technical college in which this study occurred, there was a need to change the way part-time faculty prepared course syllabi. The implementation of a professional development workshop that focused on the components and necessity of the syllabus provided the teachers new information they needed to be prepared for the…

Social work faculty experience increasing demands to develop and maintain a research portfolio that includes external funding and publications. Given the increase in research expectations, more part-time instructors are needed to teach courses. In addition to the literature review, we briefly describe a pilot part-time faculty mentorship project…

This paper discusses the issues around the professional development needs of sessional teaching staff in the UK. The introduction of the UK professional standards framework for teaching and supporting learning in higher education in 2006 raised the issue of engaging the wide range of staff, faculty, and learning support in professional…

Universities of Technology (UTs) offer career-focused education in a wide variety of disciplines and fields. Traditionally, UTs recruited academic staff with relevant workplace experience, rather than academic qualifications. The result of this strategy was, while many lecturers possessed professional qualifications in their field, they did not…

A study was conducted at Marshalltown Community College to determine the professional development needs of part-time faculty at the college. A five-part survey instrument was sent to 39 instructors requesting information on personal characteristics, professional development needs and incentives, professional climate, and instructors' opinions.…

In spring 1984, a study was conducted at the University of Maryland's University College to evaluate the effectiveness of computer studies faculty. The student ratings of these faculty members were compared with the ratings given to mathematics faculty and to all other faculty teaching that term. On all three evaluation criteria (i.e., encourages…

A study was conducted to provide data that could be used in the conceptualization and development of a staff development model for part-time faculty at Clark Community College (CCC). The study involved a review of the literature on part-time faculty development and a survey of administrators and full- and part-time faculty at CCC. Based on study…

In 1987, a study was conducted to identify organizational patterns facilitating faculty development programs for part-time instructors in technical-community colleges. The study involved a review of literature and a mailed survey to 80 public technical-community colleges in Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas. A…

A study was conducted at Phillips County Community College to examine part-time students' and adjunct faculty members' perceptions of effective instructional behaviors and strategies. A teaching effectiveness survey was distributed to a random sample of 225 part-time students enrolled in spring 1984 and to 54 adjunct faculty members, asking them…

In order to assess the effectiveness of the faculty development program for full-time instructors and the orientation program for part-time instructors at William Rainey Harper College, a questionnaire was mailed to all 67 lead teachers, coordinators, and academic administrators; 23 (34%) responded. Half of the respondents indicated that the…

This study was conducted to determine the characteristics, qualifications, frustrations, and institutional involvement of part-time faculty at community colleges. The study involved a review of the literature on trends in and statistics on part-time faculty employment; the motivations, characteristics, advantages and disadvantages, quality,…

In 1990, a study was conducted at Fullerton College (FC), a large suburban community college in Southern California, to determine if the use of classroom research by part-time faculty would stimulate greater involvement in learning and increase the course completion rate of adult learners in evening classes. A group of 16 part-time faculty…