Why are so many non-tenure-track faculty being hired? The answer may at first seem so obvious as to make the question itself seem absurd. Most department chairs, deans, and tenured or tenure-track faculty members would likely point to budget shortfalls, last-minute increases in enrollments, and the inability to win approval for new tenure-track…

Throughout U.S. higher education, non-tenure track faculty (NTTF) are experiencing tremendous growth. Traditionally part-time instructors, increasing numbers of NTTF are full-time faculty but have lower salaries, fewer benefits, and less integration into their schools than tenure-track peers. Although this general trend is reflected in schools of…

The purpose of this ethnographic study was to better understand the nature of student-faculty interactions particularly between Latino/a students and part-time non-tenure track faculty (NTTF) in an urban community college. A qualitative methodology provided an exploratory approach that used classroom observation and interviewing techniques to…

The demographic shift occurring in Serbia has had a profound effect on the education system. The student population has declined by 21 percent in primary schools and 13 percent in secondary schools since 2000, but the school network has changed little since then. This has resulted in many schools with few students. Furthermore, the total number of…

Documentary filmmaker and writer Linda Janakos describes the life of adjunct professors as "Teachers on Wheels." She teaches at various schools in California where adjuncts are also called "Freeway Flyers." The author calls this life the "Adjunct-a-go-round." They are anything but part-time, but they fall under what…

Allison G. Armentrout, an adjunct instructor at Stark State College, does not get paid by the hour. She earns $4,600 to teach two English composition courses. But now she carefully tracks how many hours she works on an electronic time sheet. During a recent week, she spent three hours preparing for her lectures, close to six hours in the…

This paper examines the effectiveness of a programme of weekly meetings between sessional staff and the unit coordinator of a large first-year class at an Australian university. Interviews with sessional staff indicate that, in addition to training and targeted professional development initiatives, management initiatives that promote engagement…

This article addresses the identity claims of part-time faculty at three types of higher education institutions. Using culture theory and professional identity theory, the article documents that part-time faculty members across institutions have a divided sense of identity. On the one hand, they perceive themselves as professionals based on their…

People are the most valuable assets of educational institutions. Exploring best practices for managing human resources in universities has become a challenge for university quality enhancement and competitiveness in order to attract and retain students. Enhancing students' experience became a priority by providing them the best education and…

There continues to be a lack of congruence in the attitudes of faculty and administrators with respect to online or distance education. The authors developed and administered a questionnaire to assess pertinent attitudes and perceptions of full and part-time faculty (n= 421) toward online instruction at their private university in a U.S. Middle…

With no physical walls, the online classroom has the potential to house a large number of students. A concern by some is what happens to the quality of instruction in courses with high enrollments. The purpose of this research was to examine online class size and its relationship to, and potential influence on, an instructor's performance.…

Advancing the development of good practice around the teaching team has been the focus of a recently completed, nationally funded Australian grant entitled Coordinators Leading Advancement of Sessional Staff (CLASS). The project focused on developing leadership capacity of subject coordinators to provide supportive contexts for sessional staff to…

Significant growth in online programs has created demand for online courses and therefore opportunities for employment for online educators. The vast majority of these employment opportunities have been filled by online adjuncts. A special category of online adjunct has surfaced that leverages the autonomy of working online with freedom from…

Are part-time faculty members satisfied with their roles in higher education? Data from part-time faculty responses regarding their experiences in higher education vary. Valadez and Antony (2001) analyzed data from 6,811 part-time faculty collected from the National Center for Education Statistics' (NCES) 1992-1993 National Survey of Postsecondary…

This article draws on qualitative classroom observation and interview data from a case study of one native-English speaker teacher (NEST) teaching in a Hong Kong kindergarten. Features of the NEST's teaching are identified, namely their professional limitations, their part-time involvement in teaching, and their limited collaboration with the…