Precarity and Progression: Reflections of a Part-Time Teaching Staff Co-ordinator
Throughout my career in the School of English, I had gained invaluable experience as a mentor of Postgraduate Demonstrators (PGDems) and Associate Lecturers (ALs). Between 2017 and 2018 I facilitated sessions on the Training Day that helped new tutors to manage adaptable classroom dynamics and learning requirements. I also led marking meetings for first-year modules which participants found helpful when delivering constructive feedback. Since 2019 I have been the representative for part-time and hourly-paid colleagues on the Athena Swan Self Assessment Team, a role that has involved working closely with Subject Heads, Degree Programme Directors and the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee. By responding to the concerns of precariously-employed staff, we established feasible action points surrounding recruitment, access to resources and applications for Higher Education Fellowships. The Athena Swan subgroup also increased my awareness of pastoral support in my role as a module leader, where I liaised with PGDems on the issues of workload, peer observation and supervising undergraduates.
Having found this experience of mentoring and learning from precariously-employed colleagues very rewarding, I was delighted to be appointed to what became a joint role of Part-Time Teaching Staff Co-ordinator in autumn 2021. Having discussed the practicalities of the role with our Head of School, Subject Heads and Director of Education, it made sense to divide the workload between two individuals who represented Literature and Creative Writing and Language and Linguistics. As a result of this decision, it was a pleasure to collaborate with my colleague Johannes, and I believe that combining our expertise allowed us to personalise the role in ways that have established important steps for improving the experience of our part-time and hourly-paid colleagues.
Reflection 2: Dr Johannes Heim (former Lecturer in Linguistics, Newcastle University)
I joined the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics at Newcastle University in September 2020 as a fixed-term lecturer after a couple of years of post-doctoral experience. I had worked as a part-time instructor during my undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Fourteen part-time employments during this time had given me a solid understanding of what universities get out of part-time teaching staff. But I was also lucky enough to have gained more than just financially from this. In several contexts, I had received valuable training on teaching effectively and creating an equitable and constructive learning environment. Much of my passion to see part-time teaching staff making the most of this stage is rooted in this experience. The responsibilities and opportunities I had been given helped me expand my teaching profile and become a competitive candidate on the job market. My postdoctoral experience included recruiting and supervising other part-time teachers and sharing my teaching practice with others, which culminated in a successful application for becoming a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. When the School of English was advertising the role of a part-time teaching coordinator, I saw this as a chance to pay it forward and help reshape the experience of part-time teaching staff so that they, too, would gain more from their employments than additional funding and initial teaching experience. I was very happy to find out that I would be sharing this role with Leanne, who was just as passionate to improve the experience of our precarious colleagues.
My vision for this role centred on involving part-time teaching staff in their own training and creating opportunities where they could stand out as future job applicants with the responsibilities they had been given early on. This would entail that senior part-time teaching staff share their teaching experiences with their peers, thereby making them see first-hand how gaining experience creates leadership opportunities. Those involved in the training could then add this experience on their job application materials. At the same time, I was eager to install an early career development scheme that prepared part-time teaching staff for the job market. This would include workshops that help them prepare their application materials, pursue HEA fellowships, and advance their academic profiles through advice on publishing and securing funding. The key strategy of this vision was to use existing contexts and resources, such as training days and mentoring provisions, and synthesize them into a coherent program that prepares part-time teaching staff for the job market, all the while involving them in the process.
I have moved on to a permanent position at a different institution now, but my experience of being a Part-Time Teaching Staff Co-ordinator at Newcastle University will be a memory that stays with me and hopefully helps to shape future generations of part-time teaching staff here and elsewhere. I’m thankful that Leanne and I have seen much of our visions materialise within such a short time span. Undoubtedly, this would not have been possible without the strong support of the Head of School, Professor Jo Robinson, and the Director of Education, Dr Stacy Gillis, who significantly contributed to the momentum we had as newly-appointed co-ordinators.
Key Priorities
Prior to creating the role of Part-Time Teaching Staff Co-ordinator, the Athena Swan and EDI Committees had received feedback from hourly-paid and fixed-term colleagues that identified three core areas for review. We note that these issues are common across institutions on a national level, so we hope that foregrounding the experiences of our staff will be useful to the current objectives of the Institute of English Studies:
1. Professional Development: PGDems and ALs considered the Training Day that takes place at the beginning of Semester 1 and 2 too long at four hours. As a result, its essential guidance about teaching, marking and administration was very overwhelming to be understood in one or two briefings. This was especially the case for colleagues who were new to the School of English. PGDems and ALs were also concerned that the Training Day was the only event that addressed teaching practice, and that there were only occasional workshops focussing on professional development throughout the year.
2. Recruitment: Although PGDems and ALs benefitted from the existing process for applying for first-year teaching, there was some dissatisfaction about the opportunities for delivering subject-specific lectures and supervising undergraduates on Honours-level modules. In particular, it was felt that individuals were sometimes offered employment via the proverbial ‘tap on the shoulder’, rather than via a formal recruitment process.
3. Equality: Despite forming our core team for first-year modules, PGDems and ALs maintained that they had little input to either the syllabus or rationale for teaching. Hourly-paid staff appreciated that they are paid for holding office hours and attending meetings, but felt that more could be done to include them in pedagogical decisions.
Key Achievements
Following our appointment to the role, we worked with our Head of School, Subject Heads and Director of Education to address each of the three priorities. Although we acknowledge that this project is a work-in-progress, we have received positive feedback from our PGDems and ALs in relation to the following changes:
1. Professional Development: At the beginning of the academic year, we shortened the Semester 1 and 2 Training Days to two hours, focussing on teaching duties, setting boundaries and expectations, EDI and respect. The Training Day also invited experienced PGDems and ALs to lead workshops on seminar teaching, which allowed them to include peer mentoring on their CVs. In response to feedback that the content of the Training Day should be accessible throughout the year, we created a Canvas website comprised of documents, videos, discussion boards and useful contacts that we update as an ongoing resource:
A larger project for our role was to create a programme of events that focussed on professional development. Between September 2021 and June 2022, we collaborated with our colleagues and with the Careers Service to deliver a series of workshops dedicated to embarking upon academic and non-academic pathways. Our workshops included themes such as ‘Applying for HEA Fellowships,’ ‘Writing Academic and Non-Academic CVs’, ‘Organising your first Conference and Submitting your First Journal Article’, and ‘Writing Cover Letters for Academic Jobs’. Particularly well-received were the mock interviews we organised with our Head of School for candidates who were shortlisted for academic posts. All workshops were recorded where possible and posted to the Canvas site, and we organised drop-in sessions throughout the year in which we offered advice to any individual who requested it.
2. Recruitment: The School of English is aware of the imperfections of the hiring process for Honours-Level teaching, but recognises that this is partly due to the need to locate staff at very short notice. This year, we have worked with our Subject Heads to design an ‘Expression of Interest’ that allows those in possession of a PhD to apply for second-year teaching with opportunities to deliver lectures. By making the application process transparent, we are able to justify why particular candidates are appointed on the basis of their research interests and teaching expertise. At present, we are working to organise sessions through which postgraduates will be able to ‘shadow’ academic staff when supervising undergraduates, and eventually contribute to MA-level teaching.
3. Equality: Perhaps one of the most positive changes this year was the inclusion of our PGDems and ALs in the Teaching and Research Away Days. Our discussions concerning the research interests of hourly-paid staff and their contribution to future curriculum development were particularly encouraging, and we intend to build upon this EDI work in future years.
In summary, we are very proud to have contributed to our School of English’s achievements relating to precarity and progression, and recommend the role of Part-time Teaching Staff Co-ordinator as an example of good practice that can be adopted across institutions.
Feedback from Associate Lecturers (Dr Chiara Pellegrini and Dr Joey Jenkins, now Research Associates at Newcastle University)
We were both involved as ALs in delivering Training Day workshops, which made us feel like our experience and expertise was being recognised by the School of English and allowed us to give advice on what we would have wanted to know when we were teaching for the first time, as well as formalising the mentoring that happens organically when we teach alongside less experienced ALs and PGDems.
The workshops were very useful, especially as they allowed opportunities for Q&As and interactions with experienced members of staff that many PGDems and ALs would not have come into contact with otherwise.
The Expression of Interest forms for Honours-level teaching were very welcome among ALs, and make us feel like the School of English is committed to support us in our career development and to draw on our expertise to benefit students.
The creation of the Part-time Teaching Staff Co-ordinator roles was a much-needed way to provide mentorship and support to postgraduate researchers and early career academics, and we think that the creation of a similar role dedicated to supporting us in developing and prioritising our post-PhD research (rather than just our teaching) would be a good step forward.