The Delphi Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success is a national effort to better support the professoriate. In 2018, The Delphi Project launched an award for campuses that had made significant efforts to better support their nontenure-track faculty, including exploring and implementing new faculty models that lead to more secure and…

Using data with detailed instructor employment information from a state college system, this study examines disciplinary variations in the characteristics and effects of non-tenure-track faculty hired through temporary and long-term employment. We identify substantial differences in demographic and employment characteristics between the two types…

The following exploration examined the impact of working conditions on faculty teaching for full-time faculty and non-tenure track faculty within an academic department at a large Midwestern university to determine whether employment status and working conditions potentially impacted student learning outcomes. Questions asked of participating…

This dissertation explores the perceptions of part-time and full-time non-tenure track (NTT) faculty at a Midwestern university with a focus on teaching. As NTT faculty are increasingly utilized to instruct a majority of the undergraduate courses in U.S. postsecondary education understanding their experience is essential to their integration into…

While much of the quantitative research on Black women faculty has taken a comparative approach to understanding their experiences, this study provides a counternarrative, centering their experiences as faculty. This large-scale, multi-institution glance at Black women faculty helps to give us an overview of these women across the country, looking…

Using critical race theory, this qualitative study examined the ways nontenure-track faculty members of Color (NTFOCs) experienced racism in their classroom environments. The sample consisted of 24 NTFOCs who worked at 4-year historically White colleges and universities. Findings revealed that NTFOCs experienced racism in their classrooms in three…

An increasingly neoliberal university means diminishing resources and labor security for those located in the lowest echelon, particularly those engaged in critical/radical/activist projects. The purpose of this study was to generate knowledge in an effort to sustain and advance critical pedagogical practices in college teaching. This study…

The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMA), a public research university, has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to improving working conditions for non-tenure track faculty (NTTF) with a 20-year track record of progressive policies to improve the support for them. This commitment is manifested through a series of improvements in policies,…

As the non-tenure-track (NTT) cohort of writing faculty grows, departments and programs need to provide equitable working conditions for all faculty, including reasonable workloads and protections against unnecessary changes; access to shared governance and curricular decisions; transparent and fair hiring, evaluation, and renewal processes;…

This article examines the costs faculty pay to gain status and security in the academy. Academics receive salaries for their work, but also "pay taxes" in order to maintain a positive trajectory toward the ultimate "prize"--promotion and tenure (PT). The psychology of narrative method is used to examine the articulation of the…

Contingent faculty in higher education markedly outnumber those considered tenured or on the tenure-track, with about 73% of faculty serving in nontenure-line positions (American Association for University Professors, 2018). The term contingent faculty refers to college and university instructors who may work part-time or otherwise off the…

In this collaborative self-study, we examined our experiences of oppression and exclusion as tenure-track assistant professors possessing intersecting outsider statuses. We found that oppression is the elephant in the academy. We used self-study methodology, along with narrative inquiry, and textual and discursive analysis, to analyze our…

Non-tenure track faculty are a growing majority in American higher education, but research examining their work lives is limited. Moreover, the theoretical frameworks commonly used by scholars have been critiqued for reliance on ideologically charged assumptions. Using a conceptual model developed from Hackman and Oldham's (1980) Job…

This study examines a major shift in the professoriate from tenure track to a non-tenure track faculty (NTTF), with two-thirds of the faculty now being off the tenure track. While some studies suggest negative outcomes as a result of students taking courses with NTTF, none of the studies examine the working conditions of the NTTFs. This…

In April 2013, "NEJHE" launched its "New Directions for Higher Education" series to examine emerging issues, trends and ideas that have an impact on higher education policies, programs, and practices. In this installment, DiSalvio interviews Adrianna Kezar, professor of higher education at the University of Southern California…