Faculty in the Closet: If Contingent Faculty Reveal their Part-time Status, are they Better Teachers?

• In Event: 3433 - Teaching (In)Justice

Abstract

The conditions of the part-time or contingent faculty have become a matter of much academic interest. The ASA recently addressed this issue with two task forces. This paper examines a complementary question: how the part-time professoriate manages their less than regular faculty role in their classes. The initial question is whether contingency is revealed to one’s students, then how that admission is managed to support one’s teaching and explain concepts.
A survey (n = 81) was conducted on-line and through personal interviewing with contingent faculty from August to November, 2018. The results demonstrate that being part-time/contingent/adjunct is considered a stigma which respondents assumed was not revealed to students by their colleagues, and a minority did not reveal it themselves. There was a significant association between revealing and reporting positive outcomes for their professorial role and for teaching subject matter. Positive use of personal experiences of injustice in the classroom were reflected in a wide variety of subject matters, not just poverty, inequality, and social justice. Revealing and accepting contingency as one’s identity and making use of it in the classroom is recommended. The ASA Task Force recommends more research. How professors manage their contingency as a research topic is recommended here.

Author

• Keith R. Johnson, Independent Scholar