Fine Wine at Discount Prices? A Review of the Research on the Part-Time Faculty Workforce

Although part-time faculty have long contributed specialized expertise to colleges and universities, their role has shifted away from specialized expertise as they have shouldered an increasing share of day-to-day teaching operations at colleges and universities. Today, part-time faculty provide higher education institutions a flexible workforce and a less expensive workforce alternative. Despite their significant impact, the research literature lacks an up-to-date integrative synthesis of the part-time faculty workplace on its own terms, an object of study unto itself instead of a less-than version of the full-time faculty workplace. In this paper, we summarize key themes from the existing research literature most relevant to the part-time faculty workplace, with attention to both the technical components of the workplace and the socio-cultural dimensions of part-time faculty members’ daily work experiences.