Identity-Trajectories of Early Career Researchers by Lynn McAlpine & Cheryl Amundsen

Author:Lynn McAlpine & Cheryl Amundsen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK, London

Limited-Term and Part-Time Teaching Positions

PhD graduates in the academy may also find themselves, for a variety of reasons, in teaching-only positions which are limited term or part time. These positions vary in structure. A position could be full time but for a limited time, for example, a year. This type of position is often created to fill in a teaching post when someone in a full-time research-teaching position takes a leave of some kind or retirement creates a need for courses to be taught on a temporary basis.

In a large-scale Canadian study, it was found that three-quarters of those in limited-term teaching-only posts wanted a full-time research-teaching position (Rajagopal, 2004).3 Individuals who continue in such limited-term positions with no hope of permanency have caused some universities to be held to task by academic unions or associations. In some Canadian institutions, policy has been developed allowing only so many contracts before the person is shifted to a full-time continuing position with the possibility of permanence. Of course, this policy can then lead to manipulations where departments only offer the maximum number of contracts and then move on to other individuals.

Positions with even less security than full-time limited-term contracts are part-time limited-term contracts or being hired to teach one or two courses at a time, often referred to in Canada as sessional teaching. This likely explains the situation of one of the participants in our research, Monika. After graduating and not feeling competitive for a research-teaching position despite her desire for one, she combined the occasional opportunity to teach a university course with part-time professional work in the public sector.

Even more than 10 years ago, limited-term and part-time teaching-only appointments were increasing faster than research-teaching positions in the United States and Canada in both the sciences and social sciences (Bland, Center, Finstad, Risbey, & Staples, 2006). The rising numbers of these positions alongside dwindling numbers of research-teaching positions has resulted in what some refer to as the ‘segmentation of the Canadian academic labour market’ (p. 228), most often credited to financial considerations. Some conclude this was done while ignoring the potential for damage to academic values, teaching quality, and research productivity (e.g., Bauder, 2006). Umbach (2007) also concerned about the unintended consequences of these changes in academia conducted a study drawing on secondary data from 131 institutions in the United States. He concluded that part-time teaching-only academics scored below research-teaching academics on all indicators of job performance related to undergraduate teaching. The profile, however, of full-time limited-term teaching-only academics was consistent with that of research-teaching ones. The authors conclude that full-time limited-term faculty had more similar commitment to the institution and their job than did part-time faculty.

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