Part‐time faculty satisfaction across missions and disciplines

Abstract

This chapter explores community college faculty satisfaction related to four specific variables.

An Exploration of Contingent Faculty Experiences at a Private, Liberal Arts College

“…Such processes of exchange were magnified by contingent faculty's stories and examples of the dynamic social interactions played out by their individual experiences (Blau, 1960). Unlike other research that paints a confusing picture of contingent faculty experiences and relationships, individual exploration of their own relationships attributed the particularity of what each individual contingent faculty member has experienced and with whom (Wagoner, 2007). Their individuality allowed for specificity through their own storytelling.…”

Ethics of Employment: The New Adjunct Majority

“…I eagerly approached this project because I had been looking for a vehicle to move some of my work back toward part‐time faculty and my first thoughts and rough ideas were based on the work focused on part‐time faculty that was well‐represented in in the first decade of the twenty‐first century (Jaeger & Eagan, ; Levin, Kater, & Wagoner, ; Townsend & Twombley, ; Wagoner, Metcalfe, & Olaore, ; Wagoner, , 2007b, 2007c, 2007d), assuming that some of the conclusions and results of those studies would need to be updated. Given the lack of new empirical work cited above, that is not necessarily the case, but it certainly has driven home one of the reasons that I began to look at new community college questions after having devoted much time and effort to part‐time faculty: it seemed to me that it had all been said and done before.…”

“…Beyond that, scholars also agree that as a group part‐time faculty are heterogeneous by all measures and can/will never fit a single policy or set of policies—equality, equity, and fairness all come to play here and are central concerns of ethical decision‐making. They have different goals and expectations of their positions as well (Levin et al., ; Wagoner, ).…”

“…Perhaps the best way to sum‐up these differences was to accept that in many ways there were two distinct groups of part‐timers at community colleges: those who are trained and interested in a traditional academic discipline and career, and those trained and skilled in areas outside of traditional academics (business, professions, and technology). The former desire the relative stability of a regular full‐time academic position, and the latter teach at colleges for their own reasons with more lucrative and professionally fulfilling options located outside of academe (Levin et al., ; Wagoner, , ).…”

Job satisfaction of professional staff and administrators within the associated colleges of the south : a study of HerzbergÆs duality theory of motivation in higher education.

“…In 2003 the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that institutions of higher education in the United States employed over 750,000 full time non-academic employees (Smerek & Peterson, 2007) -an increase of more than 218% since 1990 (Johnsrud & Rosser, 1999 (Johnsrud, 2002). As discussed later in this paper, the literature is mixed regarding the effect of parttime versus fulltime employment on job satisfaction, and it can be argued that fulltime employees face different stressors than part-time employees (Landrum, 2009;Wagoner, 2007); therefore the two groups should be studied differently. In a meta-analysis of studies on the job attitudes of part-time and fulltime employees, Thorsteinston (2003) found results that indicated no difference, others that found higher levels of job satisfaction for part-time workers, and others that identified higher levels of satisfaction for fulltime employees.…”