The Central Role of Occupation to the Professional Identity of Contingent Community College Faculty

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 6
  In Poster Session: Division J Poster Session: Faculty, Curriculum, and Teaching 2

Abstract

The employing institution has been conceptualized as central to the development of a professional identity and directive of the professional behaviors of community college contingent faculty. An interpretive investigation utilizing ethnographic fieldwork methods found that this faculty group are able to develop a professional identity outside of the institutionally defined positions of the workplace, although identity development is initially institutionally oriented. Alternate locations for professional identity development are situated by occupation and national values which direct professional behavior that is overlooked in scholarship.

Author

• Leticia M. Pastrana, Imperial Valley College