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[katgut5]

At the state university where I've been an adjunct for 5 years, they recently hired a just-graduated student (bachelors) to teach an intro course. It seems insulting to all of us adjuncts with experience and degrees (I have a doctorate and have taught the same course), and below standards for a state institution. He was my student--he got a B.

Am I being unreasonable to feel this way? Or is it a perfectly normal hiring practice?

[nardo]

Welcome to life.  You've been upstaged by someone newer, younger, sexier, and cheaper.

[georgia_guy]

Someone teaching any college level course, 1000 level or higher, really should hold at least a master's degree. That school will have a really tough time justifying that instructor when accreditation rolls around.

[polly_mer]

This is insulting, but you are not the first person to whom this has happened.  Our department has an unwritten policy that beloved students are allowed to hang around until they find a job.  Whatever has to be done to keep them fed will be done. 

Sometimes this means that the ink is not yet dry on the BS before that person is shoved in front of a class room.  Frequently, that class is an upper-level class because that's the  one that no one wants to teach.  The administration won't pony up the money for a TA stipend so that new graduate gets to be an adjunct for a semester or two.

[case_insensitive]

Someone teaching any college level course, 1000 level or higher, really should hold at least a master's degree. That school will have a really tough time justifying that instructor when accreditation rolls around.

Yup. In my field, one must have at least 18 hours of graduate study in the subject to be allowed to teach even the first intro course. I taught my first course when I was in my last quarter of a masters program. I was, however, 22.

[larryc]

The age is not a problem but the lack of an advanced degree is unconscionable. A little bird should sing to the accreditors.

[case_insensitive]

Yup, in an accredited business school this would be a huge no-no.

[daniel_von_flanagan]

As a 1st-year graduate student, after two semesters of teaching as a TA, I taught a summer class with the official job title of "lecturer".  I was 21.  However, I didn't get a B in katgut's class.  - DvF

[katgut5]

Thanks, folks--I had a feeling this was less than kosher. However in reply to the poster that suggested I'd been upstaged by someone cheaper: I doubt it's the case. There's a set fee for adjuncts.

[polly_mer]

Thanks, folks--I had a feeling this was less than kosher. However in reply to the poster that suggested I'd been upstaged by someone cheaper: I doubt it's the case. There's a set fee for adjuncts.

Hint for the new person: Nardo is usually very snarky.  His post was primarily humorous.

Even if the situation is less than kosher, you probably can't do a lot about it without endangering your own position.  The threats of telling the accreditation board are probably very field specific.  In my field, it is common to let first year graduate students teach, even if a professor is listed as the teacher of record. 

[watermarkup]

I'm sure that the particular details make the situation you describe truly abominable, but based just on what you write, I don't see how it is fundamentally different from what goes on at major research universities everywhere. On the first day of their first semester in grad school, before the first official meeting of the "intro to teaching" pedagogy seminar, grad students in my field with only a BA to their name are sent into the classroom to teach 101. I am sure the accreditors are well aware of that fact.

I was 24 when I first taught 101, in my last year as an undergrad. In my favor, I had already taken the pedagogy course and done a semester interning as an occasional instructor with an experienced teacher. My first semester teaching on my own was still a disaster, but the second went better. I later taught the same course as a grad student, and as an adjunct, and as a visiting assistant. It got better each time, but everyone has to start somewhere.

[katgut5]

I'm sure that the particular details make the situation you describe truly abominable, but based just on what you write, I don't see how it is fundamentally different from what goes on at major research universities everywhere. On the first day of their first semester in grad school, before the first official meeting of the "intro to teaching" pedagogy seminar, grad students in my field with only a BA to their name are sent into the classroom to teach 101. I am sure the accreditors are well aware of that fact.

I was 24 when I first taught 101, in my last year as an undergrad. In my favor, I had already taken the pedagogy course and done a semester interning as an occasional instructor with an experienced teacher. My first semester teaching on my own was still a disaster, but the second went better. I later taught the same course as a grad student, and as an adjunct, and as a visiting assistant. It got better each time, but everyone has to start somewhere.

Many of you have valid answers concerning the practice of having young grad students teach. However, we have no graduate program and there is no department program or mandate to train young professors. In this situation, it's just taking work from the better-qualified.

[larryc]

If I were a Marxist I would point out that you have false consciousness.

[nardo]

If I were a Marxist I would point out that you have false consciousness.

All of the internet is false consciousness.

[yellowtractor]

No, the internet, like art, is ham.  Nardo, I thought you knew this.

Ham may or may not have false consciousness.  If it has any consciousness at all, I would say don't eat it, Marxist or not.