If adjunct faculty members want to improve their working conditions, they might be better off focusing less on bread-and-butter concerns and more on securing their place at the table, a new study suggests.
The study, being presented this week at the annual conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, examined 30 North American colleges at which full- and part-time adjunct faculty members had gained benefits or some other improvement in their workplace. It concluded that adjuncts had made the most progress at colleges where they tried to transform the campus climate to be more inclusive of them, rather than simply fighting to change one employer practice at a time.
"Contingent faculty leaders tend to focus on a narrow set of rights such as salary and benefits and tend not to focus on deeper issues such as climate and inclusion," says a paper summarizing the study's results.
But where the overall campus climate has been changed so that adjunct faculty members are valued and included in decision making, the paper says, colleges are "naturally drawn" to tend to adjuncts' concerns. Much of the resistance to improving their working conditions, especially from tenure-track faculty members, dissipates. Adjuncts at such colleges not only get better pay, benefits, and job security, but also often find their institutions taking other steps, such as paying them for office hours, adopting policies intended to protect their academic freedom and intellectual-property rights, and providing mechanisms for them to get on the tenure track.
The authors of the study—Adrianna J. Kezar, an associate professor of higher education at the University of Southern California, and Cecile Sam, a graduate assistant in that department—conducted their analysis mainly by reviewing employment contracts and interviewing faculty leaders at 14 community colleges, 12 four-year colleges, and four technical colleges, all of which had at least some policies favorable to adjuncts. They decided which colleges to examine based partly on the recommendations of officials of the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, and the American Association of University Professors.
The faculties were unionized at 22 of the institutions studied, but the researchers concluded that, when it came to adjuncts' working conditions, the differences between the unionized and nonunionized campuses they examined were few and minor.
The researchers' analysis placed colleges on a three-stage spectrum based on how much progress had been made in improving adjuncts' working conditions. In the initial stage, "mobilization," people on campus organize to demand change and publicize the need for it, but have not yet brought much about.
A college in the second stage, "implementation," has laid the groundwork for change and has adopted some new policies to improve adjuncts' work situations, but these may have amounted to only minor improvements in pay or benefits.
In the third stage, "institutionalization," concern for the welfare of adjuncts has firmly taken root throughout the college. It has moved from tending to the bread-and-butter concerns of adjunct faculty members to taking steps, such as offering mentors and professional development, to ensure that adjuncts feel included in the overall faculty.
On such campuses, the paper says. "there is no longer talk about tenure-track versus nontenure track, full-time contingents or part-time contingents." At one college studied, faculty leaders noted that the pictures of adjunct faculty members hang on the walls of academic departments alongside pictures of tenured faculty members.
Poor Self-Images
Of the 30 colleges examined by the researchers, 12 were in the mobilization stage. Some seemed to be stuck there because others at the college would not listen to adjunct faculty leaders' demands.
Ms. Kezar said she was surprised at the extent to which mobilization was hindered by adjunct faculty members themselves, many of whom had absorbed the negative images that full-time faculty members had of them and did not think they deserved better working conditions.
Another 13 colleges were in the implementation phase, where adjunct leaders continued to encounter resistance and gains were sometimes jeopardized by turnover in the administration or backlash from tenure-track professors.
The researchers placed just five of the colleges in the institutionalization stage. Unlike adjunct faculty members at other colleges, instructors at these five had focused, in mobilizing, on changing how others on the campus regarded them, a key step to overcoming any resistance from tenure-track faculty members. They also advocated a plan for broad change and rejected incrementalism.
And at all five, adjunct faculty members and their allies on the tenure track had won support for their cause by drawing connections between the working conditions of adjunct faculty members and the quality of the education they were able to provide students. Having something close to proportional representation on faculty senates also appeared to significantly help adjunct faculty members realize their goals.
Keith Hoeller, a longtime advocate for adjunct-faculty rights and co-founder of the Washington Part-Time Faculty Association, said he would like details on the colleges where action was taking place—names were omitted from the report—before accepting that adjuncts were making substantial progress anywhere.
"There just aren't monumental changes going on at a rapid pace right now," Mr. Hoeller said. "I wish there were."
Comments
1. 11317303 - November 03, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Thanks to Peter for covering the study. I did want to point out two major issues that were misstated. One - our study does not say there were not differences in working conditions between unionized and non-unionized campuses. Research clearly demonstrates unionized campuses have better working conditions. Our study found that non-unionized and unionized campuses did not differ dramatically in terms of processes to institutionalize change. Both campuses used similar approaches to improve working conditions.
Second, we found it difficult for contingent faculty to mobilize for an assortment of reasons - hectic schedules, heterogeneity of the group, lack of shared interests, and among the many reasons we found, one was an internalized poor self image, typically a result of tenure track faculty treating them as second class citizens. There are many active contingent faculty members trying to enact change, but for many campuses getting others to join can be difficult. While Peter states that our article found this as a major roadblock to mobilization, he misstates it as a major one rather than one among many.
We're hoping that this helps clarify.
Adrianna Kezar
2. smstreet - November 03, 2009 at 05:28 pm
Mis-stated or not, the insidious psychological effects of poor treatment by supposed colleagues can't be OVERstated, particularly when in the absence of clearcut evaluation criteria and job protections adjunct re-appointment can depend or seem to depend on the always ellusive "collegiality," i.e. the cheerful acceptance of whatever local norms and conditions prevail. The adjunct who with head held high does exceptionally well whatever's asked, asks for little in return, and otherwise demonstrates to tenure-line peers that he or she is their equal in every way except working conditions might indeed eventually change the culture -- but only by the same logic that handing over your wallet with a smile might inspire an attacker to reconsider the mugging lifestyle. In the academic industry as on the street, you need to either fight back or holler loud in order to change the situation enough to get out of it with more than bus fare home.
3. jkamighi - November 04, 2009 at 05:06 pm
It would be helpful to be given more specific tactics which have been used successfully or not, for mobilizing adjuncts and for gaining a seat at the table. We need more opportunities to share with each other. Here's my share: AFT FACE Legislation is attempting to gain parity for adjuncts through state legislation, FT faculty unions have been bringing adjuncts in at some colleges, but some nuts are especially hard to crack- for me- I find job security a serious issue. Colleges often feel that last minite class cancellation is just "part of the working condition" . Not only does this create painful income loss but reinforces the view of adjuncts as disposable.
What are approaches to take? Alternative job assignment requirements, unemployment benefit requests? What else?
Janet kestenberg Amighi VP adjunct rep Montgomery County Community College
4. laoshi - November 05, 2009 at 04:37 am
"'Contingent faculty leaders tend to focus on a narrow set of rights such as salary and benefits and tend not to focus on deeper issues such as climate and inclusion, says a paper summarizing the study's results."
An adjunct, by definition, is something joined or added to another thing but not essentially a part of it. Fighting for inclusion is like fighting for elephants rights to become pigs. Ain't gonna happen, no matter how much adjuncts starve themselves and wallow in offal.