Assuring quality in the casualisation of teaching, learning and assessment: Towards best practice for the first year experience. ultiBASE, March (original) (raw)
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Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 2014
Universities in many countries are struggling to adapt to the competing forces of globalisation, new managerialism, entrepreneurialism and new technologies and quality agenda demands. Diminishing resources caused by restricted funding and an aging and diminishing academic workforce pose barriers. One solution to staffing shortages is the casualisation of academic teachers increasing causal or sessional teaching staff who take on significantly increased teaching responsibilities. This article explores the casualisation of university academics and reports on preliminary findings of a small scale sessional teacher development program that used data from a questionnaire on demographics of a small group of 22 sessional teaching staff employed at an Australian university. Results indicated that sessional staff believed they were effective university teachers yet their ongoing development was hampered by heavy teaching workloads, other employment and lack of time. The article concludes that universities, to provide quality outcomes for students, must address these factors.
Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 2013
The University of Tasmania established a project in 2009 to investigate the particular needs of casual teaching staff, identify strategies to improve access to information, and facilitate a consistent approach to employment, induction, development and recognition. The project was managed by the university learning and teaching centre, and co-ordinated by a Reference Group. A preliminary survey in 2010 explored casual teaching staff information and resource needs and a mapping exercise was undertaken to establish institutional practices. The findings of the preliminary 2010 survey and mapping exercise prompted the development of an institution-wide Casual Teaching Staff Policy. The preliminary 2010 survey was subsequently updated and a second survey administered in 2012 to obtain additional baseline data against which to evaluate the casual teaching staff project and implementation of the Casual Teaching Staff Policy. This paper presents the results of the 2012 survey designed with this dual focus in mind. The 2012 survey items were explicitly aligned to the Sessional Staff Standards Framework arising from the Benchmarking Leadership and Advancement of Standards for Sessional Teaching (BLASST) project. The 2012 survey results were mapped to the Sessional Staff Standards Framework guiding principles (Quality Learning and Teaching, Sessional Staff Support and Sustainability), standards (Good Practice, Minimum Standard, Unsustainable), and criteria spanning different institutional levels (Institutional Level, Faculty Level, Department Level, Individual Level). Together the quantitative and qualitative survey data results provide a rich depiction of the world of casual teaching staff at the University of Tasmania. On the one hand the results evidence examples of well-supported, fully engaged casual teaching staff; on the other hand, a distressing picture emerges for many such staff. The findings are presented with discussion regarding the requisite ensuing steps in this ongoing initiative to improve the employment, induction, development and recognition experiences of University of Tasmania casual teaching staff.
Casualization of Academics in the Australian Higher Education: Is Teaching Quality at Risk?
Research in Higher Education Journal, 2015
This article explores the issues casual academics face in Australia and whether these pose risks to teaching quality. The logic of the rampant casualisation in Australian universities is exposed first (i.e., mainly flexibility and cost saving to offset drops in government funding), followed by a discussion on the theoretical risks casualisation generates to teaching quality. Among these, one can include: less skilled, less professionallyequipped and less secure teaching staff, fewer inputs from up-to-date research, compromised academic and professional integrity. Indeed, surveys indicate that casual academics in Australian higher education providers have to cope with, among other issues, inadequate working conditions, lack of job security, differences in treatment as compared to full-time faculty and little support to engage in research activities. These findings compose a grim outlook of Australian academia, one that can jeopardise the contribution of higher education to Australia's economy and export accounts. Debate on these matters cannot be postponed much further: strategies to mitigate the risks uncovered are required now.
he University of Tasmania established a project in 2009 to investigate the particular needs of casual teaching staf, identify strategies to improve access to information, and facilitate a consistent approach to employment, induction, development and recognition. he project was managed by the university learning and teaching centre, and co-ordinated by a Reference Group. A preliminary survey in 2010 explored casual teaching staf information and resource needs and a mapping exercise was undertaken to establish institutional practices. he indings of the preliminary 2010 survey and mapping exercise prompted the development of an institution-wide Casual Teaching Staf Policy. he preliminary 2010 survey was subsequently updated and a second survey administered in 2012 to obtain additional baseline data against which to evaluate the casual teaching staf project and implementation of the Casual Teaching Staf Policy. his paper presents the results of the 2012 survey designed with this dual focus in mind. he 2012 survey items were explicitly aligned to the Sessional Staf Standards Framework arising from the Benchmarking Leadership and Advancement of Standards for Sessional Teaching (BLASST) project. he 2012 survey results were mapped to the Sessional Staf Standards Framework guiding principles (Quality Learning and Teaching, Sessional Staf Support and Sustainability), standards (Good Practice, Minimum Standard, Unsustainable), and criteria spanning diferent institutional levels (Institutional Level, Faculty Level, Department Level, Individual Level). Together the quantitative and qualitative survey data results provide a rich depiction of the world of casual teaching staf at the University of Tasmania. On the one hand the results evidence examples of well-supported, fully engaged casual teaching staf; on the other hand, a distressing picture emerges for many such staf. he indings are presented with discussion regarding the requisite ensuing steps in this ongoing initiative to improve the employment, induction, development and recognition experiences of University of Tasmania casual teaching staf.
How much is this number worth? Representations of academic casualisation in Australian universities
2018
Casualisation of the academic workforce in Australia has increasingly become a pointed issue of contestation between university managements and the union, the National Tertiary Education Union, during enterprise bargaining negotiations over the last decade. The Union has been concerned with the industrial injustice for long term insecurely employed academics, and its implications for the future academic workforce. Universities, on the other hand, had for a long time maintained that casualisation levels were not at a level detrimental to the sector and that casual employment brought benefits to both the incumbents and the university. However, by 2012, the rapid expansion of the sector, particularly in undergraduate enrolments, had meant the universities could no longer rely on expanding its casual academic workforce to meet its teaching needs. In the most recently completed rounds of enterprise bargaining around Australia, most university managements came to accept that something had...
The Journal of Further and Higher Education, 2022
This article draws on findings from a qualitative case study of a firstyear online unit (subject) offered by a large public university through Open Universities Australia. It includes the student voice, taken from formal evaluation surveys, and the voice of casual academic tutors, provided through first-hand interviews and questionnaires. What emerges from the findings is the high value placed on tutors by their students and the tutors' important contribution to student success, contrasted with the low value and lack of recognition given to tutors in the contemporary, marketised academy along with the destructive effect this has on tutors' professional and personal wellbeing. Suggestions for future research to begin addressing this situation are included. Comments on the relevance of the research to the conditions created in higher education by the COVID-19 pandemic conclude the article.
There has been a threefold increase in the employment of casual academics in Australian universities within the last 20 years, to the extent that most teaching and marking is now undertaken by casual academics, also known as sessional staff. Yet, casualised teaching and assessment has been considered a risk to student engagement and success, and casual academics report a lack of professional development and increased feelings of marginalisation within the academy. Concurrently, the quality assurance of teaching and assessment in higher education has become a central focus of the government-funded regulatory organisation, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA). Situated within this context, we report on an assessment moderation process that could support casual academics’ contextualised professional development, generate a sense of connectedness and collegiality and fulfil the requirements of TEQSA. Such processes may ensure that workforce growth in the higher education system supports a robust quality assurance and regulatory framework.