SCHOLARLY TEACHING: WORK AND IDENTITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION DR KEIKO - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

SCHOLARLY TEACHING:

WORK AND IDENTITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

DR KEIKO YASUKAWA DR TONY BROWN DR NOUR DADOS

ABOUT THE PROJECT

The presentation is based on the project funded by the Commonwealth Department of Education and Training Office of Learning and Teaching: SP16-5285 'Scholarly teaching fellows as a new category of employment in Australian universities: impacts and prospects for teaching and learning’. Research team: A/Prof James Goodman (Lead Investigator, UTS), Dr Keiko Yasukawa (UTS), A/Prof Anne Junor (UNSW & UTS), Professor Glenda Strachan (Griffith), Dr Kaye Broadbent (UTS), Dr Tony Brown (University of Canberra), Dr Nour Dados (UTS), Mr Jason Antony (UTS) Visit http://scholarlyteaching.net for more information

PROJECT AIMS

• To investigate costs and benefits of STFs for various stakeholders
• To identify individual academic and organization capabilities developed through

establishment of STF positions

• To determine how STF positions interact and redefine other academic roles and

teaching-research nexus

• To explore the extent that STFs offer alternate career pathways for qualified entry

level academics and enable sector-wide renewal

• To develop sector-wide best practice for the establishment and support of STFs

WHAT ARE SCHOLARLY TEACHING FELLOWS?

• STFs are a new type of continuing education-focused roles for long-term

academic casuals proposed initially in 2012

• Introduced through the enterprise bargaining round 2012-2013. By Feb

2018, 694 STFs had been recruited of the 854 agreed across 30 universities.

• A convergence of priorities? STFs were seen as addressing the union’s priority
• f creating pathways for the sector’s long-term casuals while meeting the

sector’s demands for increased teaching capacity in response to the growth in student numbers

TARGETS AND OUTCOMES

Model STF (from NTEU claim) NTEU target Implementation - variation by sample Implementation – variation by sector Number of positions: Target of 20% of 12763 casual FTE, the “reported casual rate” for 2012 according to DET) 2553 (Source: NTEU and DET) 9.6% median of NTEU target across interview sample Wide variation: some sites almost 20% and others around 1% (Source: NTEU and DET; data not available for all sites) 33% of target by number of positions agreed (854) 27% of target by number of positions implemented (694) (Source: NTEU data for February 2018) Tenure: Continuing 100% of positions to be continuing 87% of interview sample were continuing Sector data not available but some EBAs specify only fixed-term employment for STF-like positions. Some providers advertised ‘Casual STFs’. Employment arrangement: Full-time or part-time Ratios not specified 84% of sample were full-time. Those employed part-time undertook additional part-time or casual work for financial reasons. Sector data not available but sampled EBAs make provision for fractional employment of STFs and do not preclude concurrent casual employment. Some providers advertised ‘Casual STFs’.

Model STF (from NTEU claim) NTEU target Implementation - variation by sample Implementation – variation by sector Career pathway: Conversion to regular Level B teaching-and-research role after 3 years 100% of positions to have a career pathway that would allow for conversion into an integrated role after 3 years. 26% of sample had a conversion pathway to an integrated teaching-and-research role. Potential of emerging teaching-focused models to absorb existing and future STF positions. Sector data not available but many EBAs do not provide a career pathway for STFs with salaries capped at B3 and progression beyond B3 only possible if incumbent applies for a different

• role. Some measures have been

introduced at some institutions to address this in current bargaining round. Eligibility: PhD plus minimum of 1 year casual or contract work experience at Australian university 100% of positions to have eligibility criteria 79% of sample had PhD at time of employment 93% of sample had casual/contract experience

• f more than 1 year.

Sector data not available but sampled EBAs include these eligibility criteria. Workload:

• Max. 70% teaching with
• min. 20% scholarship or

research 100% of positions to have teaching capped at 70% and a minimum 20% scholarship or research allocation Variation across sample with teaching workloads between 50-80%. Wide variation in composition of teaching workloads and contact hours at the institutional and disciplinary level. Variation across sample with scholarship or research allocation between 0-20%. Uncertainty about allocation and expectations common in sample. Sector data not available but sampled EBAs include variation in workloads with teaching as high as 80% and some positions with no scholarship or research allocation.

A CONVERGENCE OF PRIORITIES?

The Scholarly Teaching Fellows Inititiave Industrial Objectives Institutional Objectives Absorb previous casual work by bundling numerous contracts into a single role Reduce casualisation Improve the student experience Employ previous casuals in continuing teaching-only roles Create job security for former casuals Enhance teaching and learning Provide a pathway for conversion into integrated teaching-and-research roles after 3 years Create a career pathway for academics in teaching-only work Strengthen teaching capacity through workforce renewal

Industrial imperatives Institutional imperatives

Job security

Larger teaching workforce

More career entry, teaching- intensive academic positions. Reduction in casualisa- tion

Quality teaching

Academic career path Teaching-research nexus

TEQSA and other compliance

Growth in student enrolments Convergence or compromise: tensions between the industrial and institutional imperatives

THE GRAPHS: CASUAL, TEACHING ONLY & INTEGRATED

SOURCE: DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING STAFF DATA APPENDIX 1 -1996-2017 CASUAL NUMBERS ARE COLLECTED AS FULL-TIME EQUIVALENCE (FTE)

10.00 12.00 14.00 16.00 18.00 20.00 22.00 24.00 26.00 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016

% casual FTE of all academic FTE - 1996-2016

15.00 17.00 19.00 21.00 23.00 25.00 27.00 29.00 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016

Teaching-Only FTE as % of all academic FTE - 1996-2016

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016

% of Teaching-Only Casual FTE versus Teaching-only Full-time and Fractional Full-Time FTE – 1996-2016

Casuals as % of Teaching-Only FT & FFT as % of Teaching-Only

INTERVIEW DATA

• 80 interviews conducted between July 2017 and February 2018
• Extended interviews (up to 1.5 hours) with multiple stakeholders
• Six interview sites: sites chosen to be representative of each type of university

(Marginson’s typology): Sandstone (1), Redbrick (1), Gumtree (1), New University (2)

• Interview participants can be broadly divided into two groups: staff in

managerial or executive positions (34), and staff in education-focused academic positions including STFs (46)

DISTRIBUTION OF MANAGEMENT INTERVIEWS

Type of University Managerial Category Number of Interviews Sandstone & Redbricks (2) Senior Executive 2 Faculty Manager 5 Human Resources & Senior Staff 3 Gumtrees (1) Senior Executive Faculty Manager 5 Human Resources & Senior Staff Unitechs (1) Senior Executive 1 Faculty Manager 6 Human Resources & Senior Staff New Universities (2) Senior Executive 3 Faculty Manager 6 Human Resources & Senior Staff 3 TOTAL (all universities) Senior Executive 6 Faculty Manager 22 Human Resources & Senior Staff 6 ALL MANAGER CATEGORIES 34

DISTRIBUTION OF STF AND EFR INTERVIEWS

Gender History in Academia –

• No. of Years

Previous Professional Experience PhD at Appointment Tenure Employment Fixed-term Continuing Fractional Full-time Female <1 year 1-5 4 4 4 4 5-10 15 4 12 1 14 1 14 10-20 1 1 1 1 >20 6 2 6 1 5 6 Subtotals - FEMALE 26 7 22 3 23 2 24 Male <1 year 3 3 1 1 2 2 1 1-5 2 1 1 1 1 1 5-10 4 4 4 4 10-20 3 2 2 1 2 1 2 >20 5 1 4 5 1 4 Subtotals - MALE 17 6 12 3 14 5 12 TOTALS 43 13 34 6 37 7 36 % 30 79 14 87 16 84

SCHOLARLY TEACHING: COLLECTIVE NARRATIVES & KEY THEMES

Sustainability

 Job Security  Professional recognition  Enhanced academic identity  Workload  Pathway uncertainty  Impact on health and personal life

INTERVIEW RESPONSES: MANAGERS

TOPIC + +/-

• TEACHING

STF-like roles recognize and reward good teachers STFs are good for those who want to teach but they won’t lead to a full academic career STF-like roles create a sub- class CASUALISATION AND CAREER PATH Career path for those wanting a teaching career but no net reduction in casualisation No net reduction in casualization and pathway is only possible if STFs dedicate all their spare time to research

• utputs

No net reduction in casualization and no hope

• f pathway into balanced

role PERCEPTION OF STF PURPOSE AND UNION ROLE Partial agreement on need to address casualization but not to STF strategy STFs part of a broader industrial strategy aimed at job security but does not create academic pathways Universities had no choice but to implement STFs under pressure from the union

MANAGERS: RECOGNISING GOOD TEACHERS

• One of the initiatives [of a new university strategy] was to introduce specialisation - academic

specialisation across the University… and one of the ways to specialise for an academic is to be education-focussed. The aim was to allow academic staff to specialise into areas that they excelled in, to improve the experience for students. (Senior Executive 1, Sandstones & Redbricks)

• By creating the education roles and rewarding them exactly equally it is a message to everybody

this is really important to the university and there's a career path for those people that have that expertise in that area. That's what it's about, that's the rewards and recognition. So we won't expect you to have the same traditional research outcomes. (Senior Executive 3, New University).

MANAGERS: RECOGNISING GOOD TEACHERS

• …if that's what they want to do then that is fantastic, because there are a lot of people …

[w]ho want to be a good teacher, they really want to engage with students and they enjoy doing that. If that's all they want, then being a scholarly teaching fellow is good. However, if they're thinking it's a stepping stone to a full academic role, I just can't see it. (Senior Manager 4, Unitech).

• I just think it's created a subclass. That's where it's been described to me by the faculties as a

dead-end job. My understanding from the faculties and just talking to them is that this guy here who's fantastic at teaching and does great research is going to kill himself to try and get

• ut of there and back up into normal. (Senior Manager 5, New University).

MANAGERS: CASUALISATION AND CAREER PATH

• … we do a lot of small group teaching, which is of course very difficult …. So the way that we make that work

is by using casual staff. So the Scholarly Teaching Fellows are useful for us because … they're teaching

• intensive. (Faculty Manager 4, Unitech).
• … in practice what has been happening is that most of the people, … that have been promoted are ones who in

fact, because they might have been part of a more extended research group, were actually working enormous hours to maintain their research outputs. In one case, we had someone who only had a 0.5 teaching scholar position and the rest of their time they were working in collaboration with researchers at another university. …, they were frustrated at being stuck in the teaching scholar position with most of their time focused on teaching and … motivated to try to break out of that and back into a standard teaching and research position. (Faculty Manager 6, New University).

• [the STF initiative] is not a way to address casualization. It addresses casualization but in the sense that the

introduction was accompanied by a reduction in managers’ casual budgets (Faculty Manager 5, Gumtree).

MANAGERS: STFS AS UNION STRATEGY

• I think the university didn't realise what they were getting themselves into. . … By the time people

realised, the horse had bolted. …. If I can be really frank, the unions really hoodwinked the

• university. (Faculty Manager 2, Sandstones & Redbricks).
• It’s not just the NTEU, it's a whole ACTU thing about casualization of the workforce. So over time

the union have been saying, well how do we reduce casualization and increase more secure

• employment. Originally they took the approach that it needed to be a full career. …Then they

went to the [scholarly teaching fellows] obviously thinking, well if it's about converting some of the work to non-casual employment then that's good. I think what we're seeing now is another iteration

• f that …, which is about actually your casuals and job security for them at your institution. (Human

Resources Manager, New University).

INTERVIEW RESPONSES: STFS AND EFRS

TOPIC + +/-

• JOB SECURITY, CAREER

PATH AND PROFESSIONAL RECOGNITION Job security as one of the main incentives for accepting STF role. Creation of a career path for teaching- focused academics. Professional recognition better as STF than as casual. Job security is good, but STFs still treated as ‘second-class’ academics because they are teaching-focused. STFs not seen as a career path for those aspiring to balanced role. Job security is undermined by the lack of a clear career path for teaching-focused staff and/or no career path into balanced role. STFs as leading to a dead-end and lack

• f recognition in a university system

which still privileges research. FIGHTING CASUALISATION Endorsement of union effort to push back against casual work and the creation of an entry level position in a competitive environment. Endorsement of union efforts to reduce casualization but STFs not seen as a genuine entry-level position. STFs not seen as an effective strategy against casualization nor as creating entry-level positions. WORKLOAD AND IMPACT ON HEALTH AND PERSONAL LIFE STF coping with workload with no impact on health or personal life. Usually this was in situations where STF was fractional with no research expectations, or when disciplinary workload formulas translated teaching load into lower number

• f contact hours.

Workload was unsustainable and exceeding normal working hours with rise in stress levels but without

• ther impacts on health and

personal life. Workload unmanageable with marked impact on health and personal life. Unsustainable workload having flow-on effects on job security and career path.

STFS AND EFRS: JOB SECURITY & CAREER PATH

• … I feel very, very lucky to have a permanent position in this environment, especially as somebody

who doesn't have a great publication record. Anything that bugs me or irritates me or anything like that I always come back to that point of how competitive the job market is and how lucky I am (STF, New University).

• I think some academics treat the STFs as if they only just teach. … There's definitely an attitude that

if you're in an STF role that somehow there's something wrong with you, that you're not really a good candidate for grant applications or something like that. You do get that sense from both senior people and your peers sometimes, yeah. There are other people in management who … don't see you that way at all. (STF, Unitech)

• I do believe the universities still have a staff class system and the preference without doubt goes to

researching academics (STF, Gumtree)

STFS AND EFRS: FIGHTING CASUALISATION

• [The STFs] allows people to kind of show their dedication and their ability. It allows them to be

able to get off the treadmill of casualisation and I think that's very important. So, yes, I think it's a good way. It's a good way and it's a good system. (STF, Unitech).

• If you look at the CVs and the publication track records and the types of people they've hired,

in some cases some have done more than Level B academics on paper. Certainly, if 40-40-20 jobs at Level B came up, we all would have been competitive.

• … it used to be the PhD was the apprenticeship. Now it's saying if you want this 40-40-20 job

you've (a) got to be good enough to get it, but (b) in the first three years you've got to do this workload, which is a lot more value for money for the university.(STF, Sandstones & Redbricks).

STFS AND EFRS: FIGHTING CASUALISATION

• [The STF positions] provide what is closer to a genuine entry level position for someone

who is a new graduate … otherwise people are trying to have to scrape together that experience themselves in casual contracts’ (STF, Sandstones & Redbricks).

• … I think for a lot of people who either don't have a doctorate or don't want one, we

really do need positions that recognise teaching experience and people who want to focus on teaching as opposed to research, and can give them some sort of work and some security in that role. (STF, Gumtree)

STFS AND EFRS: WORKLOAD AND ITS IMPACTS

• It’s all been very positive with me. (STF on fractional workload, Unitechs).
• Even if I am just given an extra two hours of a tutorial in another unit, that comes with a

huge amount of work because it may be a unit that … I'm not up on. So I'll have to do all of the readings for the tutorials ... It may sound like two contact hours but it ends up being two contact hours plus about five hours of preparation. (STF regularly working 60-70 hours per week, Sandstones & Redbricks).

• It's really stressful, …. You're trying to be a mother or a wife or a friend. Then you

are also thinking my God, I've got 300 students Monday morning coming to my lecture. Half of them want to speak to me about their essay. (STF, Sandstones & Redbricks).

STFS AND EFRS: WORKLOADS AND ITS IMPACTS

• I would say that my health has deteriorated markedly in the last 18 months since I've been working in

this job…. I cannot mark 210 students… So effectively I took the pay cut because they can't manage my workload allocation. … All the STFs in our school - there are five of us … they can't manage their workloads either. (STF, Unitech)

• I'd never been that anxious and worried, to a point where it was physiologically - something was

happening where I was just kind of shutting down. (STF, Unitech)

• it was just so difficult. I was running out steam, I was exhausted. I was exhausted. Absolutely exhausted

and it doesn't help with people in your corridor say, oh you look tired today. Are you okay? You just stop replying, but I always kept my door open and made sure that from - on the surface people would see that everything was fine. But I was - didn't have any energy. I couldn't - I was going out with my friends, but I was just a shell. I was just- yeah and then I decided to just do something about it and stopped doing 50 hours a week and just do the 37.5. (STF, Sandstones & Redbricks).

INTERVIEW DATA: DISCUSSION

• Job security and professional recognition – but at a cost
• Workload unsustainable with reported impacts on health and wellbeing
• Stuck at Level B: lack of pathways for progression
• Uncertainty around future role - teaching-focused vs integrated
• Clash of objectives – teaching quality vs research prestige; cutting teaching

academics free on research metrics

CONCLUSIONS: SCHOLARLY TEACHING FELLOWS

• Model initiative with varied outcomes
• Limited impact on casualization
• Need to re-evaluate workloads and pathways

CONFERENCE: THE FUTURE OF ACADEMIC WORK WEDNESDAY 5 DECEMBER, 2018 UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, SYDNEY

• Launch of final report and discussion of outcomes
• Workshop sessions and discussion about aspects of the research
• Keynote speakers TBC
• Free to attend
• Expressions of interest for workshop participation open
• To read more or to register: http://scholarlyteaching.net

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING