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[thisroad]

Hello all!  I've been reading the forums for some time now and have just now joined as an official "poster."  Keeping things brief, I am about to get my master's from a well-regarded research university, and will potentially be leaving at this point.  After starting at a CC, I've held on to the notion of teaching full-time at this level.  There really is a difference in the classroom when switching from CC to uni!  For all the research I have done into this job track there are still some lingering questions; perhaps because there aren't any concrete answers?  At any rate, I was hoping some of you might be able to help.

1) Is it possible (or recommended) to be hired into a full-time instructor position straight from grad school?  Are a few adjunct teaching appointments necessary before I would be considered for full-time work, analogous to a postdoc position before entering the tenure track?  I have worked as a TA these last two years, and will be taking a (for-credit) course in university instruction this term.

2) Could I adjunct at a 4-year college or university with a master's degree, or do they solely hire Ph.D's for the job?  Online HR postings have been less than helpful with the details/requirements.

Many thanks!

[miss_m]

thisroad,

Welcome to posting life at the rich and wonderful Fora!

Now, let me begin with some reflective listening, you are finishing your master's, have TA'd courses but not served as professor of record, and are going to take a pedagogy course this spring.  Right?  You also want to teach at the CC level in part because that's how your own education began.

Okay, if all of the above is true, you don't likely have your own teaching evaluations to submit for jobs, syllabi you have written, etc.  Doing a full-time job search at any level seems to require these--at least in my humanities field.  If you are in non-humanities field, you may want to specify and ask for some advice from other folks that is field-specific and more useful to you.

Now, having never been on a search committee at a CC, I can't say if it would be required, but I will say I think you should spend a few semesters really teaching on your own before tracking yourself permanently into a heavy-load teaching job.  I myself have been teaching just shy of a decade: did the master's work, taught for a few years, went on to do the doctorate while teaching, and am getting toward done.  I know I love teaching because of the number of semesters I have been in the classroom on my own, but the idea of teaching that I started with is very different from the reality I know and love today.  Finding out more about yourself as a teacher--by teaching--may, in fact, be the best way to go.  Adjuncting may be the answer.  You can then undertake a job search for FT teaching-intensive positions when you can articulate a teaching philosophy, strategies for managing students, syllabi design, etc.  Of course, your pedagogy course may prepare you for such a search and you may want to try when all of that is fresh in your mind--and you know what you want to do and why, which is a great start.  (Again, it's worth noting that in my field, CC jobs are just as competitive as those at R1s--just on different grounds.)

In any case, OP, good luck sorting it all out!

MM

[thisroad]

Thanks for your thoughtful words, miss_m!  For some extra background -- I am in the sciences, and it's my understanding the CC job market in my area is on the competitive side.

It looks like I will be looking for adjunct positions that start in the fall; though the instruction course will help me with my teaching philosophy, there is wisdom in getting some teaching experience before applying full-time.

One final question:  Can anyone speak to the online adjunct experience?  I've seen some of the sites offering employment (Phoenix, Kaplan, etc.).  How much do they pay, how many students do they enroll per class, that sort of thing?

[miss_m]

Good luck with the philosophy writing, thisroad.  And remember to focus those job letters on teaching--what you have done, what you want to do, and why.  Some places start looking for fall adjuncts during the first half of this spring semester, so you should make sure to find out timelines of your local schools.  You faculty may be able to help--even make a call or two for you, depending.

As for online teaching, you may want to take a look in the online section of the "In the Classroom" forum.  I suspect you will get lots of feedback on different experiences. 

I have only taught combo classes (with web-supported, face-to-face instruction) and it required a lot of leg work and was a structure I wasn't really into.  But, after almost a decade in the classroom, I wasn't as happy teaching someone else's syllabus, written in their language, with their books.  (And this school only taught such classes--created by the program director.)  I have known newer teachers, however, to like the kind of structure. 

MM