What's the Bottom-Line? Literacy and Quality Education in the Twenty-First Century Export

@inbook{citeulike:2351302, author = {Schell, Eileen}, booktitle = {Moving a Mountain: Transforming the Role of Contingent Faculty in Composition Studies and Higher Education}, citeulike-article-id = {2351302}, comment = {"[T]here is an increasing turn in our country and abroad toward contingent labor to reduce costs and increase institutional flexibility" (324). "For academics, one concern is how the use of contingent faculty will affect the tenure system and academic freedom; another is how employing larger numbers of part-time faculty will affect the quality of undergraduate education" (324-325). A 1997 conference on the use of contingent faculty identified these concerns: "student access to faculty, cohesive curricular development and implementation, the intellectual community, and faculty governance" (326). "Unfortunately, concerns about the effects of part-time teaching on quality education often turn into critiques of part-time faculty as individuals or as a class of undifferentiated faculty—a problematic rhetorical move that shifts responsibilities from institutions to individuals who occupy the problematic positions" (326). [But if you apply the principle of meritocratic competition described by Strickland, you can claim that these people are contingent because they failed in the competition for tenure-line positions.] Such critiques may not be based in empirical research (326-327). They may also assume, "often incorrectly, that part-time faculty invest in their teaching only in proportion to the institutional compensation they are given" (328). It is more pertinent to ask, "Why do institutions hire and then fail to provide part-time faculty with working conditions necessary for the provision of quality education? The bottom-line answer is simple: cost-savings—yet cost-savings at what cost to students, to educational programs, to educational quality? (329). Names four necessary "conditions—compensation, contracts, conditions of work, and coalition building"" to "quality writing instruction in higher education" (325). "[T]he working conditions of part-time and non-tenure-track determine the quality of composition courses as surely as their content does." Working conditions for part-timers vary dramatically from one institution to another (330). Permanent non-tenure-track positions "must be integrated into departments, not kept at a 'separate' and 'unequal' status in relation to full-time tenure-track positions" (334). Lack of job security can prevent part-timers from organizing for better working conditions (327-328). Gypsy Academics describes the "psychic income" that the many female humanities part-timers are believed to value (328). [Compare with Bousquet's claim about the "feminization" of composition.] "[T]he onward and upward success story is hardly the norm in the profession" (329). [Compare with the rhetoric of upward mobility described by Strickland.] Kolodny "argues that between the years 1997 to 2015, we will witness a 20 percent increase in enrollments. Students of the new millennium will increasingly come from racial and ethnic minority groups and from 'poor families and even poorer school districts,'" and this will require that more resources be supplied for teaching (331). "In a culture where higher education will play an increasingly important role in creating a literate, informed citizenry, we can ill afford a system that exploits and demoralizes those who hold the primary responsibility for teaching literacy courses such as first-year writing" (334). In the Wyoming Resolution, working conditions must "allow thoughtful and engaged writing instruction to occur no matter who is in the writing classroom" (331). "From my vantage point, quality writing instruction depends on fair compensation, contracts, working conditions, and—it has become clear—on coalition building" (331-332). Students are potential allies in this cause, as are WPAs (336). }, editor = {Stock, Patricia L. and Schell, Eileen E.}, keywords = {712, adjuncts, economics}, pages = {324--340}, posted-at = {2008-02-08 01:06:30}, priority = {0}, title = {What's the Bottom-Line? Literacy and Quality Education in the Twenty-First Century}, year = {2000} }

TY - CHAP ID - citeulike:2351302 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2351302 EP - 340 TI - What's the Bottom-Line? Literacy and Quality Education in the Twenty-First Century T2 - Moving a Mountain: Transforming the Role of Contingent Faculty in Composition Studies and Higher Education SP - 324 KW - 712 KW - adjuncts KW - economics N1 - "[T]here is an increasing turn in our country and abroad toward contingent labor to reduce costs and increase institutional flexibility" (324). "For academics, one concern is how the use of contingent faculty will affect the tenure system and academic freedom; another is how employing larger numbers of part-time faculty will affect the quality of undergraduate education" (324-325). A 1997 conference on the use of contingent faculty identified these concerns: "student access to faculty, cohesive curricular development and implementation, the intellectual community, and faculty governance" (326). "Unfortunately, concerns about the effects of part-time teaching on quality education often turn into critiques of part-time faculty as individuals or as a class of undifferentiated faculty—a problematic rhetorical move that shifts responsibilities from institutions to individuals who occupy the problematic positions" (326). [But if you apply the principle of meritocratic competition described by Strickland, you can claim that these people are contingent because they failed in the competition for tenure-line positions.] Such critiques may not be based in empirical research (326-327). They may also assume, "often incorrectly, that part-time faculty invest in their teaching only in proportion to the institutional compensation they are given" (328). It is more pertinent to ask, "Why do institutions hire and then fail to provide part-time faculty with working conditions necessary for the provision of quality education? The bottom-line answer is simple: cost-savings—yet cost-savings at what cost to students, to educational programs, to educational quality? (329). Names four necessary "conditions—compensation, contracts, conditions of work, and coalition building"" to "quality writing instruction in higher education" (325). "[T]he working conditions of part-time and non-tenure-track determine the quality of composition courses as surely as their content does." Working conditions for part-timers vary dramatically from one institution to another (330). Permanent non-tenure-track positions "must be integrated into departments, not kept at a 'separate' and 'unequal' status in relation to full-time tenure-track positions" (334). Lack of job security can prevent part-timers from organizing for better working conditions (327-328). Gypsy Academics describes the "psychic income" that the many female humanities part-timers are believed to value (328). [Compare with Bousquet's claim about the "feminization" of composition.] "[T]he onward and upward success story is hardly the norm in the profession" (329). [Compare with the rhetoric of upward mobility described by Strickland.] Kolodny "argues that between the years 1997 to 2015, we will witness a 20 percent increase in enrollments. Students of the new millennium will increasingly come from racial and ethnic minority groups and from 'poor families and even poorer school districts,'" and this will require that more resources be supplied for teaching (331). "In a culture where higher education will play an increasingly important role in creating a literate, informed citizenry, we can ill afford a system that exploits and demoralizes those who hold the primary responsibility for teaching literacy courses such as first-year writing" (334). In the Wyoming Resolution, working conditions must "allow thoughtful and engaged writing instruction to occur no matter who is in the writing classroom" (331). "From my vantage point, quality writing instruction depends on fair compensation, contracts, working conditions, and—it has become clear—on coalition building" (331-332). Students are potential allies in this cause, as are WPAs (336). AU - Schell, Eileen A2 - Stock, Patricia A2 - Schell, Eileen PY - 2000/// ER -