Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between community college department chairs and their adjunct faculty. Methods: This was a descriptive phenomenological qualitative study that used individual semi-structured interviews of 14 department chairs from a purposive sample drawn from a midwestern community college.…

Community colleges rely heavily on their adjunct faculty to provide instruction; however, institutions often fail to fully engage and support adjunct faculty in the work of student success. Although adjunct faculty represent approximately two thirds of all faculty at community colleges (American Association of University Professors [AAUP], 2018),…

Community colleges are trending toward a decrease in full-time faculty and an increase in adjunct faculty. Using 2019-2020 IPEDS data from 853 community colleges, researchers explored the relationship between full-time faculty and community college student retention, and combined graduation and transfer rate. Results demonstrated that proportion…

Introduction: Millions of students enroll in public community colleges in the United States. They are often first-generation or first in their family to go to college. They are often culturally and linguistically diverse, with English not being their first language. They often choose a community college because of its high-quality, lower cost, and…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how adjunct faculty experienced transformative learning as a result of their efforts to teach information literacy for their classes at community colleges in New Jersey. Information literacy was defined as the ability to identify information needs and the skills to discover, evaluate, and…

This article focuses on how adjunct faculty at a large Midwestern community college enact pedagogies of care, which is a teaching philosophy and practice grounded in a deep and holistic care for students.

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore how community college adjunct faculty in the Southwest United States described the role of resilience in their lived experience as faculty while teaching during COVID-19. Phenomenological studies extract human perceptions of roles and are based on lived experiences told from the…

Research shows that engaged and continuously developing teachers are more effective in the classroom. However, with a significant proportion of adult English as a second language (ESL) instructional staff consisting of adjunct faculty, it is crucial to address issues such as high turnover rates, feelings of isolation and marginalization, limited…

Community colleges have become increasingly reliant on adjunct faculty members to deliver content to their students. The impact adjunct faculty members have on the success of community college students is profound. Researchers found students taught by part-time faculty had less favorable outcomes in terms of persistence, completion, and transfer.…

The increasing number of part time instructors in the community college professorate combined with low student retention and graduation rates makes research into part time faculty and student success highly germane. My dissertation investigated if higher ratios of adjunct faculty were related to student retention, certificate/degree attainment,…

The purpose of this study was to qualitatively examine the lived workplace experiences of adjunct community college faculty in Northern California. The problem is adjunct faculty may experience an institutionalized employment system that marginalizes contingent teachers. Using the theoretical framework of institutionalization theory and…

Disciplinary societies have a role to play in supporting the needs of community college adjunct faculty. The potential exists to improve the professional lives of these faculty members, an underappreciated segment of the higher education workforce, and to positively influence outcomes for students enrolled in community colleges.

This article presents a qualitative case study that explores how faculty and administrators at one community college conceptualized and experienced academic community within their institution and how that conceptualization helped shape the part-time faculty work environment. Using a combined framework of academic community and care ethics, this…

A nurse faculty shortage has been identified by the American Nurses Association (ANA, n.d.a) and the National League for Nursing (NLN, n.d.). Research has identified factors which negatively impact a nurse's successful transition to the faculty role, including lower compensation, uncertainty as a novice nurse faculty, lack of pedagogy skills, and…

An academic career at a community college is in a number of ways quite different from a career at a four-year university. From the emphasis on teaching and pedagogy to the absence of the "publish or perish" imperative (at least in most parts of the country), community college professors often navigate an array of challenges different…