Examining how full-time and part-time faculty make sense of their professional experiences with, and relationships to, each other as faculty members at the same community college

Abstract

Higher education no longer consists of a traditional student body, a venue, a method of delivery and a single faculty population (Betts & Heaston, 2014). Colleges and universities increasingly depend on conditional, non-tenure track adjuncts who frequently lack resources, development and training (Smith, 2015, p. 236). Two-thirds of all college and university instructors in the United States are non-tenured or off-tenure track faculty, commonly referred to as contingent faculty (Gappa, 2000; Leslie & Gappa, 2002; Kezar & Sam, 2013). This increase corresponds with a decrease in full-time faculty positions at some higher education institutions.