Teaching Underground [microform] : A Study of Cross-Town, Part-Time Teachers / Timothy E. Dykstra

The English department administrators for five colleges and universities in a midwestern metropolitan area were surveyed for information on the hiring of part-time faculty. The survey determined the proportion of part-time composition instruction to the total hours of composition instruction for each institution and the proportion of "cross-town" instruction (part-time teaching at more than one institution during a term) to the total part-time composition instruction. Contrary to the researchers' predictions, the results indicated the following: (1) the phenomenon of cross-town teaching was not widespread; (2) most cross-town adjunct faculty taught at only two institutions; (3) there were several distinct pools of faculty members from which specific schools hired, rather than one large pool; (4) the administrators surveyed were extremely cooperative in supplying the names of their part time faculty; and (5) the administrators did not place constraints on their part time faculty by limiting the number of institutions at which they could teach in any given term. The results suggest that cross-town teaching poses no problem for administrators. (HTH)