Date of Award
Summer 2025
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Department
Educational Studies
First Advisor
Suha Tamim
Abstract
Higher education institutions are increasingly reliant on contingent or gig-based labor in the form of adjunct faculty. Adjunct faculty make up the majority of community college faculty, yet they tend to receive the least support, resources, and training investments from colleges. This is no different at Metro Community College, a large, urban college in the Midwest. The problem of practice for this study revolves around Metro Community College social sciences adjunct faculty’s needs for support, resources, and training to do their jobs effectively. This sequential explanatory mixed methods study examined these adjuncts’ structural empowerment, experiences, and perceived needs for support and training.
Findings from this study revealed that adjunct faculty experience moderate levels of structural empowerment and perceive the department culture as invisible, neutral, or inclusive, depending on the context. The adjunct faculty explained their experiences as lacking opportunities for professional development, collegial interaction, and adequate pay and benefits. They also reported feeling isolated by a lack of institutional information, leading to a sense of marginalization. Despite these working conditions, adjuncts noted that they did have access to a support network consisting of lead instructors and fellow adjuncts, which allowed them to access needed information and resources related to teaching. Finally, adjunct faculty in the study expressed their commitment to their students and their well-being. They stressed that despite the separate but not equal world they find themselves in, they take tremendous satisfaction from their work. The findings of this study helped develop an adjunct support and development plan for the department. This plan includes trainings, adjunct-specific events and activities, brown bag seminars on teaching strategies and faculty research, and whole department social events.
Rights
© 2025, Shauna Sowga
Recommended Citation
Sowga, S.(2025). Separate but Not Equal: A Sequential Explanatory Mixed Methods Study of Adjunct Structural Empowerment, Experiences, and Perceived Needs in a Midwestern Community College. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/8375