Moving the Needle: Uncovering the Engagement and Mentoring Needs of Contingent Faculty

Abstract

In an extensive study of part-time academic faculty, Gappa and Leslie ( The Invisible Faculty: Improving the Status of Part-Timers in Higher Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993) developed a typology consisting of four employment profiles based primarily on academic background, employment history, and career motivations: career-enders, specialists/experts/professionals, aspiring academics, and freelancers. Using a survey research design, the authors sought to determine whether the categories developed by Gappa and Leslie held in recent times and whether there were statistical differences in contingent faculty members’ desired mentoring functions and work engagement based on employment profile. As the current study included both full-time and part-time contingent faculty, the results of a thematic analysis produced a fifth employment profile, true teachers. Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) was run to identify differences in desired mentoring functions and work engagement among employment profile groups while controlling for employment status, years teaching, and history of mentorship. Aspiring academics were the largest employment profile group, representing one-third of all respondents. This finding supported an earlier study that indicated a disproportionately large segment of contingent faculty desiring a permanent position in academia. The results of the multivariate analyses revealed that aspiring academics and career-enders had a significantly higher need for career-related mentoring than other groups. Furthermore, career-enders and specialists reported the highest levels of engagement, while aspiring academics reported the lowest levels of engagement. These findings indicate a need for attending to the career development needs of a large segment of contingent faculty in higher education.