Being on the Outside of the Inside of the Ivory Tower: Nontenured Part-Time Faculty’s Attitudes Toward Their Colleagues and Management

Abstract

This national qualitative exploratory study utilizes a critical social class lens to analyze how nontenured part-time faculty members’ relationships with their tenured/tenure-track colleagues and management shape their attitudes and behaviors toward their employment in higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 54 participants were selected through random and convenience sampling. Participants completed a digital survey protocol. The resulting data underwent two cycles of coding, descriptive and pattern coding, which revealed four findings: nontenured part-time faculty describe members of the professional managerial class (PMC) as out-of-touch and unsympathetic individuals who exude elitism, believe higher education is structured to exploit and trap them, describe waning class solidarity with tenured/tenure-track faculty, and feel segregated from the PMC and tenured/tenure-track faculty. The study concludes with a discussion of the findings, recommendations, and areas for future scholarship.