Teaching Resources
As instructors, it is important to explain to students how higher education functions. How is tuition determined and where do those dollars go? Is there a relationship between tuition, student debt and faculty salaries? What is an adjunct? The following is a list of discussion ideas to get the conversation started.
Share your ideas on getting campus conversations started at @FacultyForward or on our Facebook page. Here is one example from Non Tenure Track Arizona–NAWD Lesson Plan.
Data
Start here to research your school and create a fact sheet.
At a state school? You can find out how well your state funds higher ed here.
If you really want to dig into the data try the Delta Cost Project
Readings
“Assignment: Research your Adjunct Teachers”: One adjunct’s assignment to his students.
“The Clever Stunt Four Professors Just Pulled to Expose the Outrageous Pay Gap in Academia”: A great teaching tool or maybe an inspiration to action!
The Just in Time Professor: Report of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Contingent Labor
“A Room of our own”: An example of the impact adjunct teaching conditions have on students.
“Not a Scarlet Letter: Talking with Students about Being an Adjunct”: Excellent piece on why bring these issues into the classroom is so important.
Symbol of the Powerless: Mary Margaret Vojtko: One of the moments when the adjunct crisis entered the national conversation.
“Why your cousin with a Ph.D. is a basket case”: A first person account of the difficulties of the academic job market
Movies and videos
Con Job: Stories of Adjunct & Contingent Labor:This film was done by academics and is available for free.
Inequality for all (Available on Netflix and Amazon Watch Instantly): Robert Reich’s documentary on the rising gap between rich and poor and the stagnation of middle class wages.
Ivory Tower (Available on Amazon and Google Play): This film documents university budgets that prioritize buildings and support over instruction and burden students with excessive debt.
NAWD video from Ohio Part Time Faculty: Adjuncts in Ohio created this video to explain to students the term adjunct and explain the walk out day.
PBS Newshour on adjunct crisis: A news story that aired in 2014 and shows the conditions for adjunct faculty.
Other sources of information and inspiration
National Adjunct Walkout Day on Facebook
National Adjunct Walkout Day discussion board
California Part time Faculty Association
