The Classroom From The Freeway

Adjunct work is a rite of passage for many faculty. We spend years as freeway flyers, often zipping from campus to campus on different days and at different times of day, proving ourselves as part-timers before landing a coveted full-time position. While this is a source of frustration for many, I have come to recognize it as a source of inspiration as well.

We freeway flyers often find ourselves adjusting not only to varied schedules but varied requirements, even when teaching courses that meet the same transfer requirements in the same states. This adds to the stress and confusion as different schools ask us to teach the same material in different ways, sometimes insisting upon specific texts or unusual exam schedules. What, through all of that, can we say is good? Variety.

One reason schools look for that adjunct experience—perhaps only surpassed in some regards by Klingon Pain Sticks—when hiring full-time faculty is, of course, that that experience demonstrates that schools are willing, when afforded a wide variety of qualified adjuncts, to continue providing teaching assignments to candidates. After all, what employer doesn't like to see steady employment on a candidate's application? And there is more.

By teaching at a variety of schools, we freeway flyers see different ways of doing things. Indeed, we often find the weaknesses and blind spots of one school and fill them in with techniques from other schools. This is not to say that full-time faculty are myopic, incapable of finding new pedagogical techniques. They do, after all, bring their own sets of adjunct experiences. What freeway flyers bring to the table, however, is the current state of what's "out there" on other campuses. Necessity puts us in close contact with the tools that build one part of school X and a different part of school Y. We can see from on high, even as we inhabit the low posts where we work.

This realization, however, is not enough. We need to put that information into action. Lesson plans and pedagogical techniques are not national secrets, and departments should not treat them as such. Yes, lesson plans can be protected under copyright laws and sold for profit, but that, if we are being honest about education, is not the best use of such material. We adjuncts need to take from X and give to Y as we take from Y and give to X. We adjuncts need to beat down the doors of department and division chairs (my experiences have allowed me to knock politely) and throw radical ideas into the ring for discussion. We adjuncts need to see what is all around us and share it with those who are not in a position to visit other schools as our positions require.

Likewise, full-time faculty need to listen. My experiences have been fantastic in that I have always found open doors and receptive ears where I have worked (and still work), but those who may find a less receptive audience must strive to be heard so they may share their experiences. Isn't this much like what some parents say happens as their children discover the world? The children, because they are still building the experiences that will shape their lives, teach the parents. We adjuncts can do that, even as we learn from our full-time colleagues, and we should. Always.