Quality learning and teaching with sessional staff: systematising good practice for academic development
Quality learning and teaching with sessional staff: systematising good practice for academic development
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短期教职人员的优质学习和教学：将学术发展的良好实践系统化
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发表时间：
2017
期刊：
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通讯作者：
M. Harvey
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文献类型：
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作者：
M. Harvey
在关于在职教师（兼职教师、兼职教师、合同教师、临时教师、非终身教师）的文献中反复提出的一个问题是学术发展和专业学习在保证和提高优质学习和教学中的作用。具体而言，缺乏专业学习机会或获得专业学习机会的机会有限是研究结果的一个特点。一般而言，高等教育部门对这些调查结果的反应是临时性的、被动的，对制定解决这一关键问题的系统性战略办法的关注有限。为什么会期工作人员的专业发展是一个问题？在国际上，对高等教育机构的教学工作人员的依赖已经制度化（科茨和Goedegebuure，2010年;帕克，2012年）。在澳大利亚，大部分的大学教学现在是由临时工作人员承担（五月，斯特拉坎，& Peetz，2013）。在新西兰（Sutherland &吉尔伯特，2013年）和整个欧盟（Sursock，2015年），会期工作人员的数量正在增加，而在整个联合王国，“零时”合同（霍普金斯& Fairfoul，2014年）已经出现，“非典型合同”（布赖森，2013年）正在增长。美国（Dolinsky，2013）、加拿大、法国、德国和日本（布赖森，2013）也越来越依赖这种方法。对会期工作人员的依赖增加是一个全球趋势，预计将继续甚至增加（Jaschik & Lederman，2015）。因此，在高等教育工作人员队伍中，会期工作人员仍将是一个不变的特点。在增加会期工作人员的同时，并没有相应地增加与会期工作人员一起和为会期工作人员进行学术发展的系统方法，作为加强和保证与会期工作人员一起进行高质量学习和教学的战略。因此，这种对会期工作人员的“严重依赖”已被确定为一个风险指标（高等教育质量标准局[TEQSA]，2012年，第5页）。全日制大学教职员工是“不稳定群体”的一部分（Standing，2011年），其学术发展机会有限或微不足道。虽然我们认识到，会期工作人员是一个多元化的群体，他们将仍然是高等教育劳动力的一个不变的特点，我们的数据会期工作人员是有限的。如果我们不知道他们是谁，他们在哪里，他们有什么专业发展需求，这使得制定系统的方法来识别和支持这些工作人员更具挑战性。一个高质量的学生学习经验是依赖于这些教师，但我们需要质疑如何才能保证和提高质量，如果资源和专业发展机会的会期工作人员没有系统化。虽然系统化的方法，以专业发展的会期工作人员尚未实现整个高等教育部门，有越来越多的良好做法的例子，在机构，教师和部门的水平。《国际学术发展杂志》的目标和范围认为该杂志非常适合对这一主题作出贡献。本期特刊旨在强调学术发展在确保和提高会期工作人员的学习和教学质量方面的作用和潜力。它介绍了来自整个高等教育部门的学术贡献，重点是学术发展倡议
An issue raised repeatedly in the literature on sessional teachers (adjuncts, casuals, contract, contingent, non-tenured track) is the role of academic development and professional learning for assuring and enhancing quality learning and teaching. Specifically, the lack of, or limited access to, professional learning opportunities has been a feature of research findings. The higher education sector, in general, has responded to these findings in an ad hoc, reactive way and with limited attention towards developing systematic and strategic approaches for addressing this key issue. Why is professional development for sessional staff an issue? Internationally, a reliance on sessional staff to undertake the teaching across higher education organisations has become institutionalised (Coates & Goedegebuure, 2010; Parker, 2012). In Australia, the majority of university teaching is now undertaken by sessional staff (May, Strachan, & Peetz, 2013). The numbers of sessional staff are increasing in New Zealand (Sutherland & Gilbert, 2013) and across the EU (Sursock, 2015), while across the United Kingdom ‘zero-hours’ contracts (Hopkins & Fairfoul, 2014) have appeared and ‘Atypical contracts’ (Bryson, 2013) are growing. An increased reliance can also be found for the United States (Dolinsky, 2013) Canada, France, Germany and Japan (Bryson, 2013). The increased reliance on sessional staff is a global trend that is predicted to continue and even increase (Jaschik & Lederman, 2015). Sessional staff will therefore remain as a constant feature of the tertiary education workforce. The increase in sessional staff has not been accompanied by a similar increase in systematic approaches to academic development with and for sessional staff, as a strategy for the enhancement and assurance of quality learning and teaching with sessional staff. As such, this ‘significant reliance’ on sessional staff has been identified as a risk indicator (Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency [TEQSA], 2012, p. 5). Sessional university staff are part of the ‘precariat’ (Standing, 2011) with the associated danger of limited or negligible access to academic development. While we recognise that sessional staff are a diverse cohort and that they will remain a constant feature of the higher education workforce, our data on sessional staff are limited. This makes it more challenging to develop systematic approaches to recognising and supporting these staff if we do not know who they are, where they are located, and what professional development needs they have. A quality student learning experience is dependent upon these teachers, yet we need to question how quality can be both assured and enhanced if resourcing and professional development opportunities for sessional staff are not systematised. While systematised approaches to professional development for sessional staff have not yet been realised across the higher education sector, there are increasing examples of good practice at institutional, faculty, and department levels. The aims and scope of the International Journal of Academic Development sees this journal as being a good fit for contributions on this topic. This special issue aims to highlight the role, and potential, of academic development in ensuring and enhancing quality learning and teaching with sessional staff. It presents scholarly contributions from across the higher education sector that focus on academic development initiatives