Questions to Discuss for #AdjunctChat on June 25

I am preparing for the #AdjunctChat discussion tomorrow, June 25, 4:00pm EDT. The topic that was voted on and selected is:

As #adjunct / part-time teaching is increasingly becoming the norm, how can we prepare for this shift in higher education?

The last one of these we had was an engaging and very rapid chat on “How do you keep current with your discipline? Do you feel a part of the larger disciplinary community” with more discussion than we previously had during this event, and as a result several participants suggested that we can improve upon this by structuring the Question and Answer aspects of the chat. Looking at the excellently organized #LrnChat discussions, perhaps this is a model to try out and see how it works? While I like the messiness of a varied chat, I realize that the very population of adjuncts who may be interested in this experience is most limited in time, so trying something a bit more focused may be helpful; we shall see and discuss!

With this said, this is the structure and format I am thinking of trying for tomorrow. I added a few things to get us started, though hope to get some comments and suggestions to add on to this and get input in the planning, structure, and discussion. What questions do you want to discuss? Please comment below or Tweet me about them.

  • Welcome – topic = “As #adjunct / part-time teaching is increasingly becoming the norm, how can we prepare for this shift in higher education?”
  • Introductions – Who is here? Where do you adjunct?
  • Q1 What shifts do you see related to adjunct work in higher education?
  • Q2 What are you doing differently as an #adjunct in response?
  • Q3 [SUGGESTIONS?] . . .

I want this to be a useful experience (for me as facilitator of this AND for me as adjunct!), and can only do this with the input from others (chats alone are not very fun, or helpful!). Please offer some suggestions based on the agreed-upon topic.

#AdjunctChat is Coming; What does that mean to You?

I have taught as an adjunct faculty member at New York University and Pace University since 2005 and 2009 respectively, and while I do it for the love of teaching and academic discourse, I also realize that my commitment to the universities is only for that semester in which I am hired to teach. There is little ongoing support or communication outside of my ongoing teaching appointments. While I do not expect anything more from the institutions–after all, adjunct faculty are effectively (highly educated) contract workers–I do have some needs for support and communication and sharing and discussing these experiences with others who may also be in the same or similar situations.

It appears I am not alone.

In fact, the Chronicle of Higher Education cites the number at 70% of higher education faculty as off the tenure track. While not all of them are adjuncts, a good number of them, or us, are.

After so much personal success and academic fulfillment while completing my PhD through the wonderfully supportive community that is #phdchat, I felt my needs begin to shift, leading to my thoughts about a similar chat for adjuncts, or those who generally teach less than full-time and are not on the tenure track. That is the initial idea behind #adjunctchat.

AdjunctChatWhile I know others seem to find this idea useful, I am not sure what it may mean in practice, so with that I am looking forward to a first synchronous #AdjunctChat on Twitter on  Tues, May 14, 4:00pm EDT.

All that remains now is to brainstorm what to chat about!