To determine the differences between the professional attitudes of full- and part-time instructors, this study was conducted on a national sample of community college faculty. The study's research design examined the attitudes expressed by faculty members on five dimensions discerned from the sociological literature on professionalism: knowledge acquisition, integration, application, and practice (scholarship); service ethic; autonomy; commitment to a calling; and integrity. Every third college listed in the 1995 American Association of Community Colleges Directory was invited to participate in the study, with a random sample of faculty chosen from participating community colleges. Surveys recorded participant attitudes toward professionalism, individual and demographic details, teaching positions, and allowed for comments. The response rate was 73%. Results suggested that part-time faculty have lower levels of involvement in knowledge acquisition and other forms of scholarship, higher expectations for students, less autonomy from the institution, and make less effort to maintain educational integrity than full-time faculty. There were no differences between full- and part-time faculty regarding service orientation to students and commitment to the occupation. Contains 40 references. (YKH)