| abstract |
Adjunct faculty now constitute the majority of instructors in American higher education, particularly in two‑year colleges, yet they often work under precarious conditions that undermine both their well‑being and student success. This dissertation examines how contingent employment structures, limited access to governance, and uneven professional development opportunities create a two‑tiered faculty system that disproportionately affects gateway and developmental courses serving first‑generation, multilingual, low‑income, and neurodiverse students. Drawing on national data and my experience as an adjunct instructor in multiple two‑year colleges since 2013 and as a department chair for the past two years, the study argues that adjunct equity is not a peripheral labor issue but a central concern for institutional integrity, educational quality, and social justice.
The project responds to this challenge through the design of the Adjunct Governance and Teaching Toolkit, a practice‑based resource that synthesizes research on contingent labor, shared governance, distributed leadership, and high‑impact teaching with lived experience in the two‑year college system. Organized around governance and leadership, professional development, and inclusive teaching practices, the toolkit provides adaptable tools that help institutions examine existing structures, center adjunct voices, and pilot more equitable models of participation and support. Core strategies include micro‑leadership opportunities for adjunct faculty, communities of practice that cross employment categories, and flexible, compensated professional development designed around adjunct schedules and responsibilities.
By linking institutional practices to student outcomes and demonstrating how adjunct faculty can serve as leaders and agents of change, the dissertation offers a concrete framework for colleges seeking to move from rhetorical commitments to equity toward coordinated, actionable reform. The Adjunct Governance and Teaching Toolkit is proposed as one pathway for two‑year colleges to align labor practices, governance structures, and professional learning with their stated missions of access, inclusion, and student success.
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