Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Objective:

As institutions of higher education experience decline in state funding, researchers have highlighted the significant effect it has had on faculty and students. This study examines differences in job satisfaction between contingent and non-contingent faculty and their demographic and personal characteristics of gender, race/ethnicity, academic discipline, and academic achievement at a large public 2-year college district in Texas.

Methods:

This study investigates how class (contingent vs. non-contingent faculty), gender, and race/ethnicity interact to predict job satisfaction, indexed by responses on the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS). Intersectionality served as a theoretical framework in order to explore the complexities of faculty experiences as they relate to broader, overlapping patterns of societal oppression.

Results:

The findings reveal statistically significant differences between the job satisfaction scores of contingent and non-contingent faculty. Significant differences also exist between the job satisfaction scores of faculty based on academic discipline. Additionally, class and gender interact to predict job satisfaction.

Conclusions:

Systemic steps should be taken for legislative insight, and executive leadership teams should consistently empower contingent and non-contingent faculty groups to be advocates for themselves and embrace the principles of shared governance. These faculty groups can provide discipline-specific, industry, and operational insight that may not be obvious to leadership teams. Such insight will help students achieve their goals and will allow the State of Texas to compete effectively in the dynamic global economy.

Keywords

contingent faculty adjunct faculty job satisfaction community college tenure gender

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

American Association of University Professors (AAUP). (2018). The annual report on the economic status of the profession, 2017–18. https://www.aaup.org/sites/default/files/ARES_2017-18.pdf

American Association of University Professors (AAUP). (2022). The 2022 AAUP survey of tenure practice. https://www.aaup.org/file/2022_AAUP_Survey_of_Tenure_Practices.pdf

Ashraf

Aydin

(2009). Revisiting the gender earnings gap in academia: Evidence from new data. Southern Business and Economic Journal, 32(3/4), 1–10.

Astin

A. W.

(1999). Student involvement: A developmental theory of higher education. Journal of College Student Development, 40(5), 518–529.

Bakley

A. L.

Brodersen

L. A.

(2018). Waiting to become: Adjunct faculty experiences at multi-campus community colleges. Community College Journal of Research & Practice, 42, 129–145. https://doi.org/10.1080/10668926.2017.1279090

Baldwin

R. G.

Wawrzynski

M. R.

(2011). Contingent faculty as teachers: What we know; what we need to know. American Behavioral Scientist, 55(11), 1485–1509. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764211409194

Bhopal

(2020). Gender, ethnicity, and career progression in UK higher education: A case study analysis. Research Papers in Education, 35(6), 706–721. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2019.1615118

Bickerstaff

Ran

F. X.

(2020). How did six community colleges design supports for part-time faculty? A report on Achieving the Dream’s Engaging Adjuncts project. (CCRC Report). Columbia University, Teachers College, Community College Research Center. https://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/publications/six-community-colleges-supports-part-time-faculty.html

Bowden

R. G.

(2009). The postsecondary professoriate: Problems of tenure, academic freedom, and employment law. Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, 13(3), 17–36.

10.

Browne

Misra

(2003). The intersection of gender and race in the labor market. Annual Review of Sociology, 29, 487–513. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.29.010202.100016

11.

Caye

J. S.

de Saxe Zerden

(2014). Development of promotion materials for social work non–tenure track faculty: Internal and external factors. Journal of Social Work Education, 50, 535–547.

12.

Cech

E. A.

(2022). The intersectional privilege of white able-bodied heterosexual men in STEM. Science Advances, 8, eabo1558. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abo1558

13.

Charlier

H. D.

Williams

M. R.

(2011). The reliance on and demand for adjunct faculty members in America’s rural, suburban, and urban community colleges. Community College Review, 39, 160–180. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091552111405839

14.

Coalition on the Academic Workforce. (2012, June). A portrait of part-time faculty members: A summary of findings on part-time faculty respondents to the coalition on the academic workforce survey of contingent faculty members and instructors. http://www.academicworkforce.org/CAW_portrait_2012.pdf

15.

Collins

P. H.

Bilge

(2020). Intersectionality. John Wiley & Sons.

16.

Corneille

Lee

Allen

Cannady

Guess

(2019). Barriers to the advancement of women of color faculty in STEM: The need for promoting equity using an intersectional framework. Equality Diversity and Inclusion An International Journal, 38(3), 328–348. https://doi.org/10.1108/edi-09-2017-0199

17.

Crenshaw

(1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039

18.

Crenshaw

K. W.

(2012). From private violence to mass incarceration: Thinking intersectionally about women, race, and social control. UCLA Law Review, 59, 1418–1472.

19.

Creswell

(Ed.). (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches (5th ed.). Sage Publication.

20.

Cronin

Smith

(2011). Protest, exit, or deviance: Adjunct university faculty reactions to occupational rank-based mistreatment. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 41, 2352–2373.

21.

Croom

Patton

(2011). The miner’s canary: A critical race perspective on the representation of black women full professors. Negro Educational Review, 62/63(1–4), 13–39.

22.

Curtis

J. W.

Thornton

(2013). Here’s the news: The annual report on the economic status of the profession, 2012–13. Academe, 99(2), 4–86.

23.

Diegel

B. L.

(2013). Perceptions of community college adjunct faculty and division chairpersons: Support, mentoring, and professional development to sustain academic quality. Community College Journal of Research & Practice, 37, 596–607. https://doi.org/10.1080/10668926.2012.720863

24.

Eagan

M. K.

Jaeger

(2009). Effects of exposure to part-time faculty on community college transfer. Research in Higher Education, 50, 168–188.

25.

Eagan

M. K.

Jaeger

A. J.

(2008). Closing the gate: Part-time faculty instruction in gatekeeper courses and first-year persistence. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2008(115), 39–53.

26.

Ellegood

W. A.

Bernard Bracy

Sweeney

D. C.

Duncan

Burns

(2019). Measuring the impacts of administrative policies on student performance in higher education. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 43(3), 418–433. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877x.2017.1363386

27.

García-Ros

Pérez-González

Cavas-Martínez

Tomás

J. M.

(2019). Effects of precollege variables and first-year engineering students’ experiences on academic achievement and retention: A structural model. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 29, 915–928.

28.

Gazioglu

Tansel

(2006). Job satisfaction in Britain: Individual and job related factors. Applied Economics, 38(10), 1163–1171.

29.

Hesli

V. L.

Lee

J. M.

(2013). Job satisfaction in academia: Why are some faculty members happier than others? Political Science and Politics, 46(2), 339–354.

30.

Hooks

(2003). Teaching community: A pedagogy of hope (Vol. 36). Routledge.

31.

Hurlburt

McGarrah

(2016). Cost savings or cost shifting? The relationship between part-time contingent faculty and institutional spending. American Institutes for Research.

32.

Jacoby

(2006). Effects of part-time faculty employment on community college graduation rates. Journal of Higher Education, 77(6), 1081–1103.

33.

Jaime-Diaz

Ramos

D. C.

(2023). Testimonios of Mexican American students along the community college pathway: Intercultural conciencia as an act of responsiveness. Community College Review, 51(2), 173–192. https://doi.org/10.1177/00915521221145315

34.

Johnson

I. Y.

(2011). Contingent instructors and student outcomes: An artifact or a fact? Research in Higher Education, 52, 761–785.

35.

Jolley

M. R.

Cross

Bryant

(2014). A critical challenge: The engagement and assessment of contingent, part-time adjunct faculty professors in United States community colleges. Community College Journal of Research & Practice, 38(2-3), 218–230. https://doi.org/10.1080/10668926.2014.851969

36.

Kezar

Sam

(2013). Institutionalizing equitable policies and practices for contingent faculty. Journal of Higher Education, 84, 56–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2013.11777278

37.

Kirk

F. R.

Spector

C. A.

(2009). A comparison of the achievement of students taught by full-time versus adjunct faculty in business courses. Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal, 15(2), 73–81.

38.

Kisker

C. B.

Cohen

A. M.

Brawer

F. B.

(2023). The American community college. John Wiley & Sons.

39.

Lee

J. A.

(2010). Students’ perceptions of and satisfaction with faculty diversity. College Student Journal, 44, 400–412.

40.

Machado-Taylor

M. D. L.

White

Gouveia

(2014). Job satisfaction of academics: Does gender matter? Higher Education Policy, 27(3), 363–384.

41.

Major

J. C.

Godwin

(2018). Towards making the invisible engineer visible: A review of low-socioeconomic students’ barriers experiencing college STEM education. [Paper presentation]. IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, San Jose, CA. https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2018.8659241

42.

Maxson

(2017). Full-time and adjunct faculty priorities for online instructional behavior. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 20(2), n2.

43.

Meixner

Kruck

S. E.

Madden

L. T.

(2010). Inclusion of part-time faculty for the benefit of faculty and students. College Teaching, 58, 141–147.

44.

Mueller

Mandernach

Sanderson

(2013). Adjuncts versus full-time faculty: Comparisons of student outcomes in the online classroom. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 9(3), 341–351.

45.

Murray

D. S.

(2019). The precarious new faculty majority: Communication and instruction research and contingent labor in higher education. Communication Education, 68(2), 235–245.

46.

National Institute of Health (NIH). (2019, October 9). Research topic contributes to persistent gap in NIH research grants to black scientists [Press release]. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/research-topic-contributes-persistent-gap-nih-research-grants-black-scientists

47.

Nelson

Monson

M. J.

Adibifar

Tinoca

(2020). The gig economy comes to academia: Job satisfaction among adjunct faculty. Cogent Education, 7(1), 1786338. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186x.2020.1786338

48.

Ochoa

(2012). Contingent faculty: Helping or harming students? Journal of the Professoriate, 6, 136–151.

49.

Okpara

J. O.

Squillace

Erondu

E. A.

(2005). Gender differences and job satisfaction: A study of university teachers in the United States. Women in Management Review, 20(3), 177–190.

50.

Ran

F. X.

Sanders

(2020). Instruction quality or working condition? The effects of part-time faculty on student academic outcomes in community college introductory courses. AERA Open, 6(1), 1–18.

51.

Rentz

(2010). Standing up for good teaching: The business communication academic as activist. Business Communication Quarterly, 73, 5–15. https://doi.org/10.1177/1080569909358677

52.

Rich

(2015). A worthy asset: The adjunct faculty and the influences on their job satisfaction. To Improve the Academy, 34(1-2), 156–170.

53.

Rosser

V. J.

(2004). Faculty members’ intentions to leave: A national study on their worklife and satisfaction. Research in Higher Education, 45(3), 285–309.

54.

Schutz

K. R.

Drake

B. M.

Lessner

(2013). Do community college full-time and adjunct faculties differ in their perceptions of rigor in assigning grades? American Journal of Educational Studies, 6(2), 59–79.

55.

Schwartz

J. M.

(2014). Resisting the exploitation of contingent faculty labor in the neoliberal university: The challenge of building solidarity between tenured and non-tenured faculty. New Political Science, 36, 504–522. https://doi.org/10.1080/07393148.2014.954803

56.

Spector

P. E.

(1985). Measurement of human service staff satisfaction: Development of the Job Satisfaction Survey. American Journal of Community Psychology, 13, 693–713.

57.

Spector

P. E.

(1994). Interpreting satisfaction scores with the Job Satisfaction Survey. http://shell.cas.usf.edu/~pSpector/scales/jssinterpretation.html

58.

Stenerson

Blanchard

Fassiotto

Hernandez

Muth

(2010). The role of adjuncts in the professoriate. Peer Review, 12(3), 23–26.

59.

Stripling

(2011 May 15). Most presidents prefer no tenure for majority of faculty. Chronicle of Higher Education. http://chronicle.com/article/Most-Presidents-Favor-No/127526/

60.

Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. (2015, July 23). Texas higher education strategic plan 2015–2030. http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/reports/PDF/6862.PDF?CFID=41531877&CFTOKEN=29618147

61.

Tinto

(1988). Stages of student departure: Reflections on the longitudinal character of student leaving. Journal of Higher Education, 59(4), 438–455.

62.

Umbach

P. D.

(2008). Gender equity in college faculty pay: A cross-classified random effects model examining the impact of human capital, academic disciplines, and institutions [Paper presentation]. Annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), New York, NY.

63.

Webber

K. L.

Rogers

S. M.

(2018). Gender differences in faculty member job satisfaction: Equity forestalled? Research in Higher Education, 59, 1105–1132. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-018-9494-2

64.

Wheaton

(2020). Shift happens: Moving from the ivory tower to the mushroom factory. Higher Education Research & Development, 39(1), 67–80.

Examining Job Satisfaction for Contingent and Non-Contingent Faculty at a Public 2-Year College District in Texas

Abstract

Objective:

Methods:

Results:

Conclusions:

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References