Related reading #SOI09

Posted on | November 23, 2009 | 1 Comment

With thanks to Tammi and Jen…

The RED Report: The contribution of sessional teachers to higher education, Australian Learning and Teaching Council, 2008

From the introduction, by Professor Rob Castle, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic and International), University of Wollongong:

To maintain for permanent staff the ideal of being teaching and research academics, we have had to rely on sessional staff. The analogy I’ve always made with sessional staff is to describe them as the proletariat of the academic profession, but that Victorian description of an industrial working class just doesn’t fit as well as that other part of Victorian life, the domestic servant.

In many ways the lifestyle of the traditional teaching research academic is totally dependent on the contribution of sessional staff, in the way that Victorian middle class lifestyles were dependent on the domestic servant. They slept in the attic, ate in the kitchen and you grumbled constantly that what they did was actually not quite what you wanted. But nonetheless, they were absolutely essential to your being and to your lifestyle. I think this applies equally to many sessional staff today.

From the opening summary:

The analysis of current policy and practice across the participating institutions found that

- Evidence of systemic sustainable policy and practice is rare;

- There is a general lack of formal policy and procedure in relation to the employment and administrative support of sessional teachers;

- While induction is considered important in all universities, the ongoing academic management of sessional teachers is not as well understood or articulated;

- Paid participation in compulsory professional development for sessional teachers is atypical; and

- Despite various national and institutional recognition and reward
initiatives, many sessional teachers continue to feel their contribution is undervalued.

Category: Academia, State of the Industry 2009, Teaching, Work
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One Response to “Related reading #SOI09”

  1. Twitted by christydena
    November 23rd, 2009 @ 3:42 pm

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