The casualisation of teaching and the subject at risk

Academic Casualization in Australia: Class Divisions in the University

“…The Bradley review highlighted a clash between flexibility and quality, against a background of reduced public funding and rising enrolments (Percy and Beaumont 2008). Student satisfaction was found to have fallen, suggesting 'that the greater productivity and outputs of the sector… are being achieved at the expense of time spent with individual students, good feedback on assessment and social interactions' (Bradley et al 2008: 71).…”

The Casual Approach to Teacher Education: What Effect Does Casualisation Have for Australian University Teaching?

“…In short, excellence in teaching and teacher quality plays a key role in the success of a university. Yet, researchers such as Percy and Beaumont (2008) suggest that the growth in sessional teaching staff numbers may work against achieving excellence in teaching because sessional teaching staff are frequently unable to access training or support which means they are generally unprepared to accommodate the rapidly changing needs of the education industry. This is evidenced by the frequently occurring situation of hiring sessional teaching staff who may have industry experience but not necessarily recent higher education qualifications.…”

“…The result is that there is an increasing dependence on casual or sessional teaching staff who engage in activities related to student learning such as lecturing, tutoring, and assessment. Much information has been written around the escalating numbers of sessional teaching staff in universities in countries including Australia, USA, and UK (Bryson & Blackwell, 2006;Coates & Goedegebuure, 2010;Jacoby, 2006;Percy & Beaumont, 2008). Despite this there appears to be scant information about exact numbers and characteristics of sessional teaching staff.…”

Casualisation of the teaching workforce: Implications for nursing education

“…Some authors have described the increase in sessional teachers as being a cost-effective method of program delivery (Coombe & Clancy, 2002;DeYoung & Bliss, 1995;Kimber, 2003;Moore & Trahan, 1998;Percy & Beaumont, 2008). Moore & Trahan (1998) assert that "by not providing employee benefits" (p. 776) to sessional staff, that would be provided for permanent employees, substantial cost savings can be achieved.…”

“…Whilst the costeffectiveness of sessional staff has not been clearly demonstrated in the literature, care needs to be taken to consider the many hidden costs of workforce casualisation. Such issues include the burden on permanent staff to develop course materials and provide supervision to sessional staff, the administrative burden of processing employment contracts, students' reduced access to sessional staff compared to full-time staff and staff turnover related to feeling undervalued (Coombe & Clancy, 2002;Kimber, 2003;Percy & Beaumont, 2008).…”