“We Are on Our Own, and We Like It This Way”
Abstract
The proportion of teaching faculty in higher education has shifted globally in the last couple of decades—from mostly full-time faculty as the dominant members in the teaching context to part-time faculty. This substantial shift toward part-time teaching faculty has been found to be contrary to institutions’ policy considerations. This mixed-method case study accordingly examines a group of part-time English as a Foreign Language (EFL) lecturers’ perceptions regarding the support that they have received from their workplace; additionally, the administrators’ perceptions of the policies and practices targeting part-time lecturers are also explored. The findings point to opportunities for the workplace to leverage part-time lecturers’ work conditions through providing and supporting professional development opportunities in terms of learning and teaching (e.g., funding models and resource allocation); systematizing recruitment procedures; articulating expectations concerning lecturers’ rights, responsibilities, and entitlements; recognizing and rewarding good practices; and involving these lecturers in decision-making processes. The findings also reveal that it is not only administrators that have excluded part-time lecturers from the academic community and from policy considerations—the lecturers have at the same time marginalised themselves. This paper, then, also encourages further study on the complex phenomena regarding the part-time lecturer employment conditions and factors that catalyse part-time lecturers’ marginalisation.