Adjunct Faculty Voices : Cultivating Professional Development and Community at the Front Lines of Higher Education

As the debate regarding the increasing use of adjunct faculty in higher education continues to swirl, the voices of adjunct faculty themselves are rarely heard. Stories abound regarding the poor working conditions in which most adjunct faculty labor, yet many of those that employ adjunct faculty are unaware of how the conditions impact an adjunct's ability to teach effectively. Adjunct Faculty Voices gives a voice to this growing population. It shares the experiences and clear benefits adjuncts gain from having access to professional development opportunities. In spite of a shortage of resources, there are institutions offering development programs that target the pressing needs of this population.

The first part of the book features the voices of adjunct faculty who tell their stories of finding professional development and creating or connecting with communities of colleagues for mutual support. These adjunct voices represent a range of disciplinary perspectives, career stages, and institutional types. In the second section, the authors draw upon a benchmarking study of adjunct faculty developing programs, examine specific challenges and highlight successful practices. Institutions can support adjunct faculty through teaching academies and faculty learning communities; mentor programs; conference support; and adjunct faculty liaison positions.

Topics discussed include:

• Best professional development practices that support and benefit adjunct faculty
• Faculty social isolation and community-building opportunities
• An overview of changes affecting the academic workforce
• An outline of issues and working conditions
• Current demographics and types of adjunct faculty
• Survey results from adjunct faculty developers
• Adjunct faculty narratives featuring their professional development and community experiences

Teaching and Learning centers across the country are responding to the growing adjunct cohort in innovative and efficient ways. Administrators, deans, department chairs, and adjunct faculty will all benefit by hearing the voices of adjuncts as they express the challenges faced by adjunct faculty and the types of professional development opportunities which are most beneficial.

Roy Fuller has taught in adjunct capacities for over twenty years. He currently teaches in the Department of Comparative Humanities at the University of Louisville where he also works in faculty development, specializing in supporting adjunct faculty.

Marie Kendall Brown works in faculty professional development with a focus on teaching, learning, and educational innovation. She received her Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Michigan.

Kimberly Smith received her Master in Counseling and Personnel Services with a concentration in College Student Personnel from the University of Louisville.

Adrianna Kezar is a professor of higher education at the University of Southern California and codirector of the Pullias Center for Higher Education. Kezar is a national expert of student success, equity and diversity, the changing faculty, change, governance, and leadership in higher education.

Kezar is well published with 18 books and monographs, more than 100 journal articles, and more than 100 book chapters and reports. Recent books include Envisioning the Faculty of the 21st Century (Rutgers University Press, 2016), How Colleges Change (Routledge, 2013), Enhancing Campus Capacity for Leadership (Stanford Press, 2011) and Organizing for Collaboration (Jossey-Bass, 2009).

She is the project director for the Delphi Project on the changing faculty and student success and was just awarded a grant from the Teagle Foundation for institutions that better support faculty and create new faculty models.