Public education has a similar contingency workforce called "substitute teachers." Both groups of workers will work for peanuts for years on end hoping they will get permanent positions.
Despite the cost-cutting benefits cited by colleges and universities, relying on adjuncts poses a significant problem for students and institutions as a whole. Lack of institutional support and poor working conditions for contingent labor are a pressing issue, and critics argue that better environments for contingent labor could result in better student outcomes. For example, adjunct faculty often have trouble connecting with students because they lack office space, and thus can’t mentor struggling students. Their fragile position as contract workers also means they are less able to be outspoken about campus reform and improvements, and less able to advocate for their students when administrative issues arise.
Jane, currently an instructor and adjunct at a large Midwestern university who is making the rare transition to a tenure-track position, shared her experiences in higher education to illustrate the many problems with relying on contingent faculty as the main teaching force in the university setting. “I was never really taught to teach,” Jane says. “There’s remarkably little oversight of my courses apart from student evaluations.” She adds:
This is a terrible system — it creates perverse incentives to please students (with good grades, a certain personality, entertaining content) rather than push for harder course material. In contingent positions, evals are all important to what courses you’re assigned, whether you’re given more courses as an adjunct, etc. Before I started teaching two new classes this semester, no one asked what content I’d cover, what books I was using, or whether my assignments and grading standards met curricular goals. It’s astonishing the trust there is, but also the lack of attention to ongoing pedagogy.
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