A University of Queensland research project has found a widespread lack of formal or centralised policies and practices across Australian universities concerning the employment and management of casual teaching staff.
The project, funded by the Australian Universities Teaching Committee (AUTC) built on the Teaching Large Classes project and was conducted last year in collaboration with Queensland University of Technology.
The AUTC asked TEDI to carry out the project focussing on ways to better train, manage and support sessional university teaching staff at university to encourage a more systematic approach.
“Anyone in higher education who has hired, trained, supported or managed non-tenured, casual teaching staff, be they tutors, lecturers, demonstrators or lab assistants, will know that it can be quite challenging to do all of these tasks well,” said project leader Denise Chalmers, director of the Teaching and Educational Development Institute (TEDI) at The University of Queensland.
The initial phase of the project involved a review of current practices around Australia and included a more limited survey of sessional teachers and their supervisors across the higher education sector.
The project team’s report said local responses to the challenges of training, managing and supporting sessional staff should occur within a wider university framework of clear policies, guidelines and practices.
More practically, resources needed to be allocated (and be specifically identified for the purpose) to ensure that sessional teaching staff were appropriately managed, supported and trained, the report said.
“The project team could find no examples of a ‘whole university’ approach to the management, support or training of sessional teachers,” Ms Chalmers said.
“Given the significant benefits and increased flexibility and diversity that sessional teachers offer to universities, this is a major concern.”
Ms Chalmers said good practices had been identified in many institutions, although most were localised and relied heavily on individuals, such as Heads of School or course coordinators.
“In an attempt to encourage a more systematic university-wide approach, the project team has developed several resources, including guidelines for supporting, managing and training sessional teachers as a way to prompt discussion and review practices,” she said.
Multiple copies of the guidelines have been sent to all universities with a letter from Professor John Hay, Chair of the Australian Universities Committee, as well as promotional material drawing attention to the resources available on the web site.
The guidelines, case studies, literature review and other resources developed during the project can be found at the project web-site www.tedi.uq.edu.au/sessionalteaching
Media: For more information, contact Denise Chalmers on (07 3365 1075).
