YNEDT-02990; No of Pages 5 Nurse Education Today xxx (2015) xxx–xxx
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The experience of sessional teachers in nursing: A qualitative study Kathleen A. Dixon ⁎, Antoinette Cotton, Robyn Moroney, Yenna Salamonson University of Western Sydney, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith NSW 2751, Australia
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Article history: Accepted 17 June 2015 Available online xxxx Keywords: Sessional teachers Casual Nurse Casualisation Semi-structured interviews Education Workforce
s u m m a r y Background: Worldwide, there is a growing reliance on sessional teachers in universities. This trend is reflected in an undergraduate nursing program in a large Australian metropolitan university where a significant proportion of contact hours is staffed by sessional teachers, yet little is known about what type of support is needed for sessional teachers to optimise their capacity to contribute to the academic program. Objectives: To describe the experiences of sessional teachers in a Bachelor of Nursing program in an Australian university. Design: This is an exploratory qualitative study; fifteen sessional teachers were interviewed using semi-structured questions to explore their experiences of teaching. Setting: This study was conducted in a large metropolitan school of nursing located on three sites. Participants: A purposive sample of 15 sessional teachers was interviewed for this study. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted face to face. Thematic analysis was used to identify major themes in the interview data and collaborative analysis was undertaken to ensure rigour. Results: Findings revealed that sessional teachers enjoyed teaching, were committed to their role and viewed their clinical currency as a valuable asset for teaching. However, participants also spoke about wanting a sense of belonging to the School, with most feeling they were “outsiders”. Areas identified for improvement included system and process issues, micro teaching and assessment skills, classroom management and timely access to resources. Conclusion: There is a need to improve sessional teachers' sense of belonging and to provide an inclusive structure and culture to optimise their capacity to contribute to the academic program. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Introduction The use of sessional staff by universities is a growing phenomenon around the world (Andrew et al., 2010; Brown et al., 2013; Landrum, 2009; Marshall, 2012; Hamilton, et al., 2013; Harvey, 2013). A significant proportion of contact hours in Australian undergraduate nursing programs is staffed by sessional teachers (Salamonson et al., 2010). Indeed, in Australian universities, across all disciplines in higher education, there has been a consistent increase in the number of sessional (casual) teaching positions (Cowley, 2010; Kimber, 2003). The situation has been exacerbated by the increasing and worsening global and national shortage of qualified experienced nurse academics (Rukholm et al., 2009). Given this increasing trend to casualisation, it is imperative to understand the experience of sessional teachers in order to inform the development of supportive structures with which to enhance their experience of teaching and to address their need for professional development and career progression. The purpose of the study was to explore the experiences of sessional teachers in a Bachelor of Nursing program in an Australian metropolitan university with a ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 2 45701917; fax: +61 2 4570 1420. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (K.A. Dixon), [email protected] (A. Cotton), [email protected] (R. Moroney), [email protected] (Y. Salamonson).
view to collecting data to inform the development of best practice support for sessional teaching staff. Background The literature shows an increasing trend to casualisation, both locally and internationally (Gilbert, 2013; Harvey, 2013), with estimates that the majority of teachers in higher education are employed as sessional teachers (Luzia et al., 2013). The Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education reported that the estimated number of casual staff employed in higher education in 2014 calculated as a percentage of total full-time equivalence (FTE) comprised 16.2%. In 1996 the estimated number of casual FTE was 10,185; this number steadily increased to 19,780 in 2014 (Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education, 2014). Universities have a heavy reliance on sessional teachers and it has been suggested that sessional teachers are likely to be responsible for half the teaching load and that their responsibilities range from casual marking to unit design and coordination and may include non-academic roles (Coates et al., 2009; Gottschalk and McEachern, 2010; Percy et al., 2008). Percy et al. (2008), in a large Australian study into the contribution of sessional teachers to higher education identified that the changing nature of the Australian university teaching workforce is reflected in a
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2015.06.008 0260-6917/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article as: Dixon, K.A., et al., The experience of sessional teachers in nursing: A qualitative study, Nurse Educ. Today (2015), http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2015.06.008
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steady increase in the number of sessional staff and in the operational requirements of universities, and that this combination of factors presents quality challenges for universities. They found that the growing demand for flexible online learning, course and unit offerings designed to meet the needs for local, off-shore, multi-campus and distance learning and the increasing focus on vocational orientation in courses posed challenges for quality enhancement for sessional teachers (Percy et al., 2008). Study Context The aim of this paper is to provide insights into the experiences of sessional teachers in a large school of nursing located on multicampus metropolitan university. Sessional teachers employed by the School teach across a range of subject matter including nursing skills in simulated nursing environments; classroom tutorials teaching nursing and related content; a small number teach basic science. Method This was an exploratory study using a qualitative approach to data collection and analysis. The purpose of the study was to explore the experience of being a sessional teacher. A semi-structured interview technique was used for the purpose of collecting focused, in-depth information (Polit and Beck, 2012) on the experiences of sessional teachers. All sessional teachers employed in the 2011 academic year were sent an email inviting them to participate in the study by a professional staff member not connected with the study. Twenty responded and were sent an information sheet. In total 15 sessional teachers were interviewed for an average of 30 minutes; as data saturation was achieved by the 15th interview, further interviews were not conducted (Polit and Beck, 2012). Interviews were digitally recorded and transcription was undertaken by an independent transcription service. Thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006) was used to analyse the data. Initially interview transcripts were read and analysed separately by each member of the project team with each reading the transcripts multiple times to identify recurrent content and patterns. Subsequently, the team met to identify and discuss emerging themes. Once agreed upon, the themes were entered into an Excel spread sheet with relevant direct quotes from the participants' interviews. To ensure rigour, collaborative analysis was undertaken on multiple occasions so that each theme was adequately and credibly supported by the interview data, confirmed by team consensus, and so the depth and complexity of the experiences of sessional teachers were captured. Descriptive data was comprehensively detailed to establish transferability (Lincoln and Guba, 1985; Polit and Beck, 2012) of the study's findings. Ethical Considerations Approval for the study was obtained by the University Human Research Ethics Committee. Interviews were conducted by an experienced independent research assistant. Participation was voluntary, participants completed an informed consent, interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed and interview data containing personal or identifying information was removed during transcription. Each interview was coded to protect participants' identities. Findings Six main themes emerged from the data that illuminated the experiences of sessional teachers teaching in an undergraduate baccalaureate nursing course in an Australian metropolitan university: Overall experience; Belongingness; Things that help; Things that hinder; Strengths I bring and Support needed.
Overall Experience Overwhelmingly, the participants judged their overall experience as a sessional teacher as a positive and rewarding one. I've enjoyed it. I want to make a difference to the next generation and I hope to do that because I'm still enthusiastic and passionate about my work (Participant 14). Participants emphasised that being a sessional teacher was a career choice as this allowed them to work flexible hours of their choosing, continue in their clinical employment, undertake higher educational pursuits, and juggle work and family commitments effectively. Being a sessional teacher really works for me…I have commitments and restrictions, so being available five days a week is not an option for me… being able to choose to work two or three days a week gives me the opportunity to come in fresh each day with vim and vigour and just enjoy my days (Participant 3). Other participants noted that sessional teaching allowed them to concentrate on teaching, whilst avoiding staff politics, and the administrative work of continuing academics. It is a liberating experience, not having to do so much administration work; liberating to know that I can walk in the classroom, I can give the lecture, there's no pressure and I can walk out (Participant 5).
Belongingness Participants spoke about wanting a sense of belonging to the School and University. The perceived transient, contingent, nature of sessional teaching contributed to their experiences and strong feelings of not belonging. Participants also felt there was no physical place for them, evidenced by lack of office space, computer terminals, and lockers where they could leave their belongings between classes. They also identified a lack of social spaces within the School where they could easily mingle and converse with other staff. Indeed, most participants felt they were outside looking into the University and School as “fringe-dwellers”, or even when they were invited in, feeling as “guests” in someone else's home. Yes, I hate being a fringe-dweller. I hate it… I'll trudge my textbooks back and forward and not have anywhere to dump them….I teach from eight o’clock until five o’clock on Wednesday and I haven’t an office anywhere. I can’t dump stuff anywhere (Participant 1).
Feeling like a guest, despite having the micro-teaching skills and understanding the workings of the tertiary sector, there was still a feeling of a lack of a sense of belonging (Participant 3). Some sessional teachers spoke about a divide between continuing academic teaching staff and sessional teaching staff, which impeded not only their sense of belonging but also their capacity to contribute. To mitigate the lack of belongingness, one participant noted that “the casuals all hang and stick together” (Participant 1). Things That Help Participants identified their previous experience in both teaching and the clinical area as significant in helping them in their role as sessional teachers. Being an experienced clinician and clinically current. Just giving different clinical examples which seem to work so much better than getting things out of a textbook (Participant 6).
Please cite this article as: Dixon, K.A., et al., The experience of sessional teachers in nursing: A qualitative study, Nurse Educ. Today (2015), http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2015.06.008
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They also found teaching content in their area of expertise and receiving feedback about their performance was helpful. Parents of young children identified flexibility with teaching commitments as important. Overall, there was a strong theme of the importance of support by staff in helping sessional teachers to do their job. Participants identified the importance of accessible, supportive and helpful staff and having unit coordinators who were prepared, provided the teaching material well in advance of classes, and who conducted marking meetings, as important factors which helped them in their sessional teaching role. Very very supportive people. Probably that would be it, like if I have a problem I've only got to email, someone's helping me (Participant 9).
Approachable, I felt I could just ring them anytime. They've all been very free with their information (Participant 14).
Things That Hinder There were a number of issues identified by participants as hindering their role as sessional teachers. They spoke of a lack of familiarity with the university processes, and a lack of communication from the university. Further, when information was provided, participants reported sometimes receiving only part of the information. …you feel like you're not really in touch with the university. I feel that we haven't got enough communication, like before starting semester, and sometimes because you only have the materials a week, sometimes a few weeks, prior to, you just feel like you're not really grasping the whole thing (Participant 10). The impact on their role performance as a result of receiving fragmented information was clearly articulated by one participant. …the stigma that comes along with being a casual. So you only get parts of information. There's no this is how the system works…for the first couple of years you spend a lot of time being screwed over by the students.... that lack of knowledge as a casual hinders your teaching (Participant 1). Participants also raised issues related to lack of clarity about remuneration for performing teaching-related activities aside from face-toface teaching. In contrast to salaried continuing academic staff, participants claimed they are not adequately paid to engage fully in teaching-related activities. I'm only being paid this amount that doesn't give me time to write a lot of feedback, I'm not doing it. I've been here for 11 years and I still - it was only this year, for example, that I found out that we actually can claim for consultation time (Participant 3). One of the most frustrating issues experienced by the participants was the lack of lead time between the time teaching material was received and the time of delivery to students. This was identified as negatively impacting on the quality of their teaching as well as their sense of work satisfaction. I would be giving the 10 o'clock in the morning lecture and I'd get the Power point presentation on Sunday at 7 o'clock…So at the end of the semester I really felt like crap because I really hadn't done what I could have done. Mostly that was because you don't receive the lecture (Participant 1). Other sessional teachers avoid the stress associated with late delivery of teaching material by opting not to teach early in the week. …sometimes tutorial information comes too late. Usually I've researched the subject before the actual tut comes. I used to have a policy never work on a Monday because I found that I was spending too much time on the
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weekend going back and forth to see if it had arrived yet. I had some experience this semester where I teach nine o'clock on a Monday and the information has come on midnight on Sunday night or two in the morning (Participant 3). Lack of computer literacy was another issue raised by some participants, whereas most continuing academic staff have opportunities to keep abreast of information technology skill development, sessional teachers may not have the same opportunities and this may hinder their performance. … big factor which hinders me is I am not very good with technology. So I'm not good at setting up the computer systems and what I need from that point of view. Sometimes it can be difficult for me because most of the information is sent via computer and you have to resend information back on forms which I just don’t know how to do (Participant 7).
Strengths I Bring The strengths identified by the participants were those that assisted their teaching and had to do with clinical experience, clinical currency, and teaching experience. Clinical is the biggest strength by far…at the beginning really the only basis I had was that clinical knowledge, which I know in student's eyes is great and gives you a little bit of credence with them (Participant 1). Overwhelmingly, clinical experience was identified by the participants as the most significant strength they brought to their position as a sessional teacher. One described this as giving them “street cred” with the students and that clinical experience allowed them to “hit the ground running” with teaching. Participants identified that their clinical experience provided them with the knowledge to engage in meaningful discussion with students as they were able to draw on their experiences to facilitate teaching through “telling stories” to students. Support Needed Participants reinforced the need for and benefit of, having reliable contact people and timely information. This was identified as important support for their weekly teaching activities and also for initial contact and orientation instructions. Participants also spoke about the need to access someone who could respond to simple questions such as the whereabouts of a building. …if I hadn’t struck this poor unfortunate man who happened to be walking past and latching onto him, I'd still be wandering around trying to find where the hell I was going because it wasn’t signposted very well (Participant 6). Some participants recommended support such as online resources and a dedicated resource person. They identified the importance of knowing the system and who to go to. Several participants reinforced the need for specific information and training to assist them to feel competent in the classroom. Training needs included the use of information technology, classroom management, teaching methods and assignment marking support. Having access to information. Being able to manipulate technology. Being able to have discussions with people about teaching styles and teaching approaches is a good thing. I kind of think it would be good if we had more opportunities for that sort of thing, but it just doesn't happen (Participant 3). Participants identified the need for more detail regarding the ways in which to teach and mark. Despite their strong clinical backgrounds,
Please cite this article as: Dixon, K.A., et al., The experience of sessional teachers in nursing: A qualitative study, Nurse Educ. Today (2015), http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2015.06.008
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there were inconsistencies in the way nursing practice was taught in the nursing laboratories and participants were frustrated by this. …one of the examples was doing dressings. Now some people are teaching it with the use of sterile gloves, some people were teaching it with normal gloves and some people were teaching it with no gloves so long as you did an aseptic technique. So I think that there needs to be some sort of strategies in place where everybody's getting taught exactly the same thing (Participant 7). Assignment marking was a recurring issue for sessional staff who felt underprepared for this task and in need of more training. There was an assumption that sessional staff knew what to do when it came to marking. People often think people can mark, and it's not - you can't just mark. It's a skill like anything else (Participant 3). Need an example of a good assignment for bench marking (Participant 16). But also when people cross-mark your work…It's very stressful to mark student's assignments…You don't want to fail people if you don't need to fail them. So some guidance there would be useful (Participant 1).
Discussion The findings in this study show that the experience of being a sessional teacher has both positive and negative aspects. Sessional teachers believe their greatest contribution to teaching is their clinical currency and clinical expertise which they view as a valuable asset to their classroom teaching. This finding is consistent with other studies (Andrew et al., 2010) and may be because in a vocational course such as nursing, clinically current sessional teachers bring to their teaching a capacity to immerse students in the real world of nursing through story-telling and meaningful discussion. Having a supportive environment in particular with regard to supportive colleagues was another factor identified as important to sessional teaching staff and similarly has been identified by Harvey et al. (2005) where they found support for sessional staff, collegiality and mentoring, information and communication to be important. Although there was some variation in the participant interview responses, it was clear that collegial and helpful staff providing timely information was important to their positive experience of teaching. While sessional teachers indicated they were supported in their role, they nevertheless identified distinct areas for improvement. These were related to system and process issues, micro-teaching skills, classroom management, and assessment in particular marking preparedness. More specifically, sessional teachers identified the need for timely access to the physical resources, information technology, teaching resources, and information related to human resource processes. In contrast with previous studies (Brown et al., 2010; Junor, 2004; Pocock, Prosser and Bridge, 2004), the majority of participants in this study stated that being a sessional teacher was their preferred career choice over being a continuing academic. In Junor's (2004) survey of casual academic and general staff in Australian Universities only 28% of casual academics gave casual employment as their first preference, and most of these were retirees or had continuing full time work elsewhere. Similarly, the majority of nurse sessional teachers in this study were in employment in clinical areas and their preference for sessional teaching was largely attributed to the inherent flexibility of the position which allowed them to effectively manage educational, family and employment commitments, including continuing in their clinical employment. On the whole the literature suggests that sessional teachers are likely to be seeking a career and use sessional work to gain experience in order to provide a transition into the workforce, or as a means of
continuing to work whilst managing carer responsibilities. They are often employed in more than one job and for the most part would prefer to be in a permanent position (Coates et al., 2009; Gottschalk and McEachern, 2010; Junor, 2004; Lee, 2013; May et al., 2011; Sutherland and Gilbert, 2013). By the very nature of their employment however, sessional teachers traditionally have limited if any involvement in the broader issues of curriculum development, teaching design and content, management of large student cohorts and developing online pedagogy and as evident in this study the nature of the exclusion leads to feelings of isolation. The study shows that sessional teachers want to have a sense of belonging to the teaching team, School and University, but encounter multiple exclusions at each of these levels. Similarly, other studies (Beaumont et al., 2009; Brown et al., 2010; Junor, 2004) have highlighted the lack of belonging, isolation, alienation and marginalisation of the sessional teacher. For participants in this study, it was the physical exclusion from class rooms, staff facilities, electronic learning sites and lack of a staff email account before and after a valid contract of employment was in force that most emphasized for them that they did not belong. Hamilton et al. (2013) suggest that to facilitate sessional teachers' sense of belonging, ongoing supportive pathways are needed that include: mentoring from experienced sessional staff, faculty based initiatives and “learning pathways that connect sessional staff to their peers in communities of learning” (p.4). Consistent with the findings from this study, the difficulties faced by sessional staff identified in the literature include limited opportunities for professional development, engagement and career progression; lack of access to resources; job insecurity; isolation and poor working conditions (Gottschalk and McEachern, 2010; May et al., 2011; McKay and Brass, 2011). The problem this presents for universities is that the core business of universities – teaching, is on the whole undertaken by those who comprise “its least connected workforce segment”(Coates et al., 2009, 49) thereby placing increased workload and responsibility on permanent academic staff to oversight and manage sessional staff (Cowley, 2010; Coates et al., 2009). This has ramifications for quality teaching and learning, staff recruitment and curriculum planning (Andrew et al., 2010; May et al., 2011). In particular the marginalisation of sessional teachers from the essential planning functions of universities such as strategic planning, course development, curriculum and workforce renewal has significant implications for both universities and the growing cohort of sessional staff who are essentially disconnected from the broader business of universities (Hugo and Morriss, 2010; May et al., 2011), leading to a heightened potential for risk to educational quality and student outcomes. Despite the challenges presented by the increased dependence of universities on sessional teaching staff, there is also widespread recognition of the contribution that sessional teachers make to teaching and learning in the higher education sector. Interest in developing and implementing effective strategies to support effective teaching by sessional staff has arisen in response to these issues (Lefoe et al., 2011; Marshall, 2012; McKay and Brass, 2011; Percy et al., 2008). To address the concerns arising from the increasing casualisation of the academic workforce there is a need to think differently about the role and contribution of sessional staff and how this can be effectively managed (Lefoe et al., 2011). Limitations As this study was conducted at one multi-campus metropolitan university exploring the experiences of sessional nurse teachers in a single school of nursing, the findings may not be transferable to other schools or faculties of nursing or to other disciplines outside nursing. Conclusion The findings of this study reveal that sessional teachers enjoy and are enthusiastic about their teaching and believe they value add to the
Please cite this article as: Dixon, K.A., et al., The experience of sessional teachers in nursing: A qualitative study, Nurse Educ. Today (2015), http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2015.06.008
K.A. Dixon et al. / Nurse Education Today xxx (2015) xxx–xxx
program with their enthusiasm and commitment to teaching, clinical currency and expertise in clinical practice. Given the high proportion of unit delivery undertaken by sessional teachers their impact on the quality and delivery of the Bachelor of Nursing program is of paramount importance. As part of the teaching community of the School there is an urgent need to improve sessional teachers' sense of belonging and to provide an inclusive structure and culture which enables them to optimise their capacity to contribute to the academic program. Andrew et al. (2010, p. 4) suggest that to enhance the value of sessional staff “opportunities for mentorship, professional development and career planning should be clearly articulated”. A sessional staff workforce strategy designed to respond to the needs of sessional staff may be one way of addressing this need. Additionally, a structured approach designed for sessional teachers to move from sessional, to contract and then tenured positions can provide secure employment and professional development opportunities for sessional teachers. Development of initiatives, practices and systems such as these that maintain workforce continuity, as well as embedding a culture of quality and performance are an investment in the long term sustainability and high quality of the teaching staff and programs offered by the School and University. Funding This research was funded by the Division of Corporate Strategy and Services for the Academic Lifestyle Project, University of Western Sydney. Author contributions KAD, AC, RM and YS were responsible for the study conception, design, analysis, drafting the manuscript and critical revisions to the paper for important intellectual content. References Andrew, S., Halcomb, E.J., Jackson, D., Peters, K., Salamonson, Y., 2010. Sessional teachers in a BN program: bridging the divide or widening the gap? Nurse Educ. Today 30 (5), 453–457. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2009.10.004. Beaumont, R., Stirling, J., Percy, A., 2009. Tutors' forum: engaging distributed communities of practice. Open Learn.: J. Open, Dist. e-learn. 24 (2), 141–154. Braun, V., Clarke, B., 2006. Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qual. Res. Psychol. 3 (2), 77–101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa. Brown, T., Goodman, J., Yasukawa, K., 2010. Academic casualization in Australia: class divisions in the university. J. Ind. Relat. 52 (2), 169–182. Brown, N.R., Kelder, J., Freeman, B., Carr, A.R., 2013. A message from the chalk face—what casual teaching staff tell us they want to know, access and experience. J. Univ. Teach. Learn. Pract. 10 (3), 1–16. Coates, H., Dobson, I.R., Goedegebuure, L., Meek, L., 2009. Australia's casual approach to its academic teaching. People and Place 17 (4), 47–54. Cowley, J., 2010. Being casual about our teachers. Univ. NSW Fac. Law Res. Ser. Pap. 48, 1–27. Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education, 2014. Staff 2014 Selected Higher Education Statistics. Table 1.1 FTE for Full-time, Fractional Full-
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time and Estimated Casual Staff by Work contract, 1996 to 2014 (Retrieved February 13, 2014, from http://www.education.gov.au/selected-higher-education-statistics2014-staff-data). Gilbert, A., 2013. Introduction: the expansion of part-time teaching in higher education and its consequences. In: Beaton, F., Gilbert, A. (Eds.), Developing Effective PartTime Teachers in Higher Education: New Approaches to Professional Development. Routledge, London, pp. 1–17. Gottschalk, L., McEachern, S., 2010. The frustrated career: casual employment in higher education. Aust. Univ. Rev. 52 (1), 37–50. Hamilton, J., Fox, M., McEwan, M., 2013. Sessional academic success: a distributed framework for academic support and development. J. Univ. Teach. Learn. Pract. 10 (3), 1–16. Harvey, M., 2013. Setting the standards for sessional staff: quality learning and teaching. J. Univ. Teach. Learn. Pract. 10 (3), 1–33. Harvey, M., Fraser, S., Bowes, J., 2005. Quality teaching and sessional staff. HERDSA. Hugo, G., Morriss, A., 2010. Investigating the Ageing Academic Workforce: Stocktake. University of Adelaide, Adelaide. Junor, A., 2004. Casual university work: choice, risk, inequity and the case for regulation. Econ. Labour Rev. 14 (2), 276–304. Kimber, M., 2003. The ‘tenured’ core and the tenous periphery: the casualisation of academic work in Australian universities. J. High. Educ. Policy Manage. 25 (1), 41–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13600800305738. Landrum, R.E., 2009. Are there instructional differences between full-time and part-time faculty? Coll. Teach. 57 (1), 23–26. Lee, A., 2013. What makes a really good support programme for part-time lecturers in higher education? In: Beaton, F., Gilbert, A. (Eds.), Developing Effective Part-Time Teachers in Higher Education: New Approaches to Professional Development. Routledge, London, pp. 63–81 Lefoe, G., Parrish, D., Malfroy, J., McKenzie, J., Ryan, Y., 2011. Subject Coordinators: Leading Professional Development for Sessional Staff Report. Australian Learning and Teaching Council, Sydney. Lincoln, Y.S., Guba, E.G., 1985. Naturalistic Inquiry. Sage, Newbury Park, CA. Luzia, K., Harvey, M., Parker, N., McCormack, D., Brown, N.R., 2013. Benchmarking with BLASST sessional staff standards framework. J. Int. Educ. Res. 10 (3), 1–15. Marshall, N., 2012. The use of sessional teachers in universities: Faculty of the Build Environment, University of New South Wales Australia. J. Int. Educ. Res. 8 (3), 197–206. May, R., Strachan, G., Broadbent, K., Peetz, D., 2011. The casual approach to university teaching: time for a re-think? In: Krause, K., Buckridge, M., Grimmer, C., PurbickIllek, S. (Eds.), Research and Development in Higher Education: Reshaping Higher Education 34. Gold Coast, Australia, pp. 188–197 (4-7 July 2011) McKay, K., Brass, K., 2011. Hired hands casualised technology and labour in the teaching of cultural studies. Cult. Stud. Rev. 17 (2), 140–164. Percy, A., Scoufis, M., Parry, S., Goody, A., Macdonald, I., Martinex, K., Szorenyi-Reischl, N., Ryan, Y., Wills, S., Sheridan, L., 2008. The RED Resource, Recognition–Enhancement– Development: The Contribution of Sessional Teachers to Higher Education. Australian Learning and Teaching Council, Sydney. Pocock, B., Prosser, R., Bridge, K., 2004. Only a Casual…How Casual Work Affects Employees, Households and Communities in Australia. University of Adelaide, Adelaide. Polit, D.E., Beck, C.T., 2012. Nursing Research: gEnerating and Assessing Evidence for Nursing Practice. 9th ed. Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia. Rukholm, E.E., Stamler, L.L., Talbot, L.R., Bednash, G., Raines, F., Potempa, K., Nugent, P., Clark, D.J., Bernhauser, S., Parfitt, B., 2009. Scaling up the global nursing health workforce: contributions of an international organization. Collegian 16 (1), 41–45. Salamonson, Y., Halcomb, E.J., Andrew, S., Peters, K., Jackson, D., 2010. A comparative study of assessment grading and nursing students' perceptions of quality in sessional and tenured teachers. J. Nurs. Scholarsh. 42 (4), 423–429. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j. 1547-5069.2010.01365.x. Sutherland, K.A., Gilbert, A., 2013. Academic aspirations amongst sessional tutors in a New Zealand university. J. Univ. Teach. Learn. Pract. 10 (3), 1–11.
Please cite this article as: Dixon, K.A., et al., The experience of sessional teachers in nursing: A qualitative study, Nurse Educ. Today (2015), http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2015.06.008
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Nurse Education Today journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/nedt
The experience of sessional teachers in nursing: A qualitative study Kathleen A. Dixon ⁎, Antoinette Cotton, Robyn Moroney, Yenna Salamonson University of Western Sydney, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith NSW 2751, Australia
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Article history: Accepted 17 June 2015 Available online xxxx Keywords: Sessional teachers Casual Nurse Casualisation Semi-structured interviews Education Workforce
s u m m a r y Background: Worldwide, there is a growing reliance on sessional teachers in universities. This trend is reflected in an undergraduate nursing program in a large Australian metropolitan university where a significant proportion of contact hours is staffed by sessional teachers, yet little is known about what type of support is needed for sessional teachers to optimise their capacity to contribute to the academic program. Objectives: To describe the experiences of sessional teachers in a Bachelor of Nursing program in an Australian university. Design: This is an exploratory qualitative study; fifteen sessional teachers were interviewed using semi-structured questions to explore their experiences of teaching. Setting: This study was conducted in a large metropolitan school of nursing located on three sites. Participants: A purposive sample of 15 sessional teachers was interviewed for this study. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted face to face. Thematic analysis was used to identify major themes in the interview data and collaborative analysis was undertaken to ensure rigour. Results: Findings revealed that sessional teachers enjoyed teaching, were committed to their role and viewed their clinical currency as a valuable asset for teaching. However, participants also spoke about wanting a sense of belonging to the School, with most feeling they were “outsiders”. Areas identified for improvement included system and process issues, micro teaching and assessment skills, classroom management and timely access to resources. Conclusion: There is a need to improve sessional teachers' sense of belonging and to provide an inclusive structure and culture to optimise their capacity to contribute to the academic program. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Introduction The use of sessional staff by universities is a growing phenomenon around the world (Andrew et al., 2010; Brown et al., 2013; Landrum, 2009; Marshall, 2012; Hamilton, et al., 2013; Harvey, 2013). A significant proportion of contact hours in Australian undergraduate nursing programs is staffed by sessional teachers (Salamonson et al., 2010). Indeed, in Australian universities, across all disciplines in higher education, there has been a consistent increase in the number of sessional (casual) teaching positions (Cowley, 2010; Kimber, 2003). The situation has been exacerbated by the increasing and worsening global and national shortage of qualified experienced nurse academics (Rukholm et al., 2009). Given this increasing trend to casualisation, it is imperative to understand the experience of sessional teachers in order to inform the development of supportive structures with which to enhance their experience of teaching and to address their need for professional development and career progression. The purpose of the study was to explore the experiences of sessional teachers in a Bachelor of Nursing program in an Australian metropolitan university with a ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 2 45701917; fax: +61 2 4570 1420. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (K.A. Dixon), [email protected] (A. Cotton), [email protected] (R. Moroney), [email protected] (Y. Salamonson).
view to collecting data to inform the development of best practice support for sessional teaching staff. Background The literature shows an increasing trend to casualisation, both locally and internationally (Gilbert, 2013; Harvey, 2013), with estimates that the majority of teachers in higher education are employed as sessional teachers (Luzia et al., 2013). The Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education reported that the estimated number of casual staff employed in higher education in 2014 calculated as a percentage of total full-time equivalence (FTE) comprised 16.2%. In 1996 the estimated number of casual FTE was 10,185; this number steadily increased to 19,780 in 2014 (Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education, 2014). Universities have a heavy reliance on sessional teachers and it has been suggested that sessional teachers are likely to be responsible for half the teaching load and that their responsibilities range from casual marking to unit design and coordination and may include non-academic roles (Coates et al., 2009; Gottschalk and McEachern, 2010; Percy et al., 2008). Percy et al. (2008), in a large Australian study into the contribution of sessional teachers to higher education identified that the changing nature of the Australian university teaching workforce is reflected in a
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2015.06.008 0260-6917/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article as: Dixon, K.A., et al., The experience of sessional teachers in nursing: A qualitative study, Nurse Educ. Today (2015), http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2015.06.008
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steady increase in the number of sessional staff and in the operational requirements of universities, and that this combination of factors presents quality challenges for universities. They found that the growing demand for flexible online learning, course and unit offerings designed to meet the needs for local, off-shore, multi-campus and distance learning and the increasing focus on vocational orientation in courses posed challenges for quality enhancement for sessional teachers (Percy et al., 2008). Study Context The aim of this paper is to provide insights into the experiences of sessional teachers in a large school of nursing located on multicampus metropolitan university. Sessional teachers employed by the School teach across a range of subject matter including nursing skills in simulated nursing environments; classroom tutorials teaching nursing and related content; a small number teach basic science. Method This was an exploratory study using a qualitative approach to data collection and analysis. The purpose of the study was to explore the experience of being a sessional teacher. A semi-structured interview technique was used for the purpose of collecting focused, in-depth information (Polit and Beck, 2012) on the experiences of sessional teachers. All sessional teachers employed in the 2011 academic year were sent an email inviting them to participate in the study by a professional staff member not connected with the study. Twenty responded and were sent an information sheet. In total 15 sessional teachers were interviewed for an average of 30 minutes; as data saturation was achieved by the 15th interview, further interviews were not conducted (Polit and Beck, 2012). Interviews were digitally recorded and transcription was undertaken by an independent transcription service. Thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006) was used to analyse the data. Initially interview transcripts were read and analysed separately by each member of the project team with each reading the transcripts multiple times to identify recurrent content and patterns. Subsequently, the team met to identify and discuss emerging themes. Once agreed upon, the themes were entered into an Excel spread sheet with relevant direct quotes from the participants' interviews. To ensure rigour, collaborative analysis was undertaken on multiple occasions so that each theme was adequately and credibly supported by the interview data, confirmed by team consensus, and so the depth and complexity of the experiences of sessional teachers were captured. Descriptive data was comprehensively detailed to establish transferability (Lincoln and Guba, 1985; Polit and Beck, 2012) of the study's findings. Ethical Considerations Approval for the study was obtained by the University Human Research Ethics Committee. Interviews were conducted by an experienced independent research assistant. Participation was voluntary, participants completed an informed consent, interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed and interview data containing personal or identifying information was removed during transcription. Each interview was coded to protect participants' identities. Findings Six main themes emerged from the data that illuminated the experiences of sessional teachers teaching in an undergraduate baccalaureate nursing course in an Australian metropolitan university: Overall experience; Belongingness; Things that help; Things that hinder; Strengths I bring and Support needed.
Overall Experience Overwhelmingly, the participants judged their overall experience as a sessional teacher as a positive and rewarding one. I've enjoyed it. I want to make a difference to the next generation and I hope to do that because I'm still enthusiastic and passionate about my work (Participant 14). Participants emphasised that being a sessional teacher was a career choice as this allowed them to work flexible hours of their choosing, continue in their clinical employment, undertake higher educational pursuits, and juggle work and family commitments effectively. Being a sessional teacher really works for me…I have commitments and restrictions, so being available five days a week is not an option for me… being able to choose to work two or three days a week gives me the opportunity to come in fresh each day with vim and vigour and just enjoy my days (Participant 3). Other participants noted that sessional teaching allowed them to concentrate on teaching, whilst avoiding staff politics, and the administrative work of continuing academics. It is a liberating experience, not having to do so much administration work; liberating to know that I can walk in the classroom, I can give the lecture, there's no pressure and I can walk out (Participant 5).
Belongingness Participants spoke about wanting a sense of belonging to the School and University. The perceived transient, contingent, nature of sessional teaching contributed to their experiences and strong feelings of not belonging. Participants also felt there was no physical place for them, evidenced by lack of office space, computer terminals, and lockers where they could leave their belongings between classes. They also identified a lack of social spaces within the School where they could easily mingle and converse with other staff. Indeed, most participants felt they were outside looking into the University and School as “fringe-dwellers”, or even when they were invited in, feeling as “guests” in someone else's home. Yes, I hate being a fringe-dweller. I hate it… I'll trudge my textbooks back and forward and not have anywhere to dump them….I teach from eight o’clock until five o’clock on Wednesday and I haven’t an office anywhere. I can’t dump stuff anywhere (Participant 1).
Feeling like a guest, despite having the micro-teaching skills and understanding the workings of the tertiary sector, there was still a feeling of a lack of a sense of belonging (Participant 3). Some sessional teachers spoke about a divide between continuing academic teaching staff and sessional teaching staff, which impeded not only their sense of belonging but also their capacity to contribute. To mitigate the lack of belongingness, one participant noted that “the casuals all hang and stick together” (Participant 1). Things That Help Participants identified their previous experience in both teaching and the clinical area as significant in helping them in their role as sessional teachers. Being an experienced clinician and clinically current. Just giving different clinical examples which seem to work so much better than getting things out of a textbook (Participant 6).
Please cite this article as: Dixon, K.A., et al., The experience of sessional teachers in nursing: A qualitative study, Nurse Educ. Today (2015), http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2015.06.008
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They also found teaching content in their area of expertise and receiving feedback about their performance was helpful. Parents of young children identified flexibility with teaching commitments as important. Overall, there was a strong theme of the importance of support by staff in helping sessional teachers to do their job. Participants identified the importance of accessible, supportive and helpful staff and having unit coordinators who were prepared, provided the teaching material well in advance of classes, and who conducted marking meetings, as important factors which helped them in their sessional teaching role. Very very supportive people. Probably that would be it, like if I have a problem I've only got to email, someone's helping me (Participant 9).
Approachable, I felt I could just ring them anytime. They've all been very free with their information (Participant 14).
Things That Hinder There were a number of issues identified by participants as hindering their role as sessional teachers. They spoke of a lack of familiarity with the university processes, and a lack of communication from the university. Further, when information was provided, participants reported sometimes receiving only part of the information. …you feel like you're not really in touch with the university. I feel that we haven't got enough communication, like before starting semester, and sometimes because you only have the materials a week, sometimes a few weeks, prior to, you just feel like you're not really grasping the whole thing (Participant 10). The impact on their role performance as a result of receiving fragmented information was clearly articulated by one participant. …the stigma that comes along with being a casual. So you only get parts of information. There's no this is how the system works…for the first couple of years you spend a lot of time being screwed over by the students.... that lack of knowledge as a casual hinders your teaching (Participant 1). Participants also raised issues related to lack of clarity about remuneration for performing teaching-related activities aside from face-toface teaching. In contrast to salaried continuing academic staff, participants claimed they are not adequately paid to engage fully in teaching-related activities. I'm only being paid this amount that doesn't give me time to write a lot of feedback, I'm not doing it. I've been here for 11 years and I still - it was only this year, for example, that I found out that we actually can claim for consultation time (Participant 3). One of the most frustrating issues experienced by the participants was the lack of lead time between the time teaching material was received and the time of delivery to students. This was identified as negatively impacting on the quality of their teaching as well as their sense of work satisfaction. I would be giving the 10 o'clock in the morning lecture and I'd get the Power point presentation on Sunday at 7 o'clock…So at the end of the semester I really felt like crap because I really hadn't done what I could have done. Mostly that was because you don't receive the lecture (Participant 1). Other sessional teachers avoid the stress associated with late delivery of teaching material by opting not to teach early in the week. …sometimes tutorial information comes too late. Usually I've researched the subject before the actual tut comes. I used to have a policy never work on a Monday because I found that I was spending too much time on the
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weekend going back and forth to see if it had arrived yet. I had some experience this semester where I teach nine o'clock on a Monday and the information has come on midnight on Sunday night or two in the morning (Participant 3). Lack of computer literacy was another issue raised by some participants, whereas most continuing academic staff have opportunities to keep abreast of information technology skill development, sessional teachers may not have the same opportunities and this may hinder their performance. … big factor which hinders me is I am not very good with technology. So I'm not good at setting up the computer systems and what I need from that point of view. Sometimes it can be difficult for me because most of the information is sent via computer and you have to resend information back on forms which I just don’t know how to do (Participant 7).
Strengths I Bring The strengths identified by the participants were those that assisted their teaching and had to do with clinical experience, clinical currency, and teaching experience. Clinical is the biggest strength by far…at the beginning really the only basis I had was that clinical knowledge, which I know in student's eyes is great and gives you a little bit of credence with them (Participant 1). Overwhelmingly, clinical experience was identified by the participants as the most significant strength they brought to their position as a sessional teacher. One described this as giving them “street cred” with the students and that clinical experience allowed them to “hit the ground running” with teaching. Participants identified that their clinical experience provided them with the knowledge to engage in meaningful discussion with students as they were able to draw on their experiences to facilitate teaching through “telling stories” to students. Support Needed Participants reinforced the need for and benefit of, having reliable contact people and timely information. This was identified as important support for their weekly teaching activities and also for initial contact and orientation instructions. Participants also spoke about the need to access someone who could respond to simple questions such as the whereabouts of a building. …if I hadn’t struck this poor unfortunate man who happened to be walking past and latching onto him, I'd still be wandering around trying to find where the hell I was going because it wasn’t signposted very well (Participant 6). Some participants recommended support such as online resources and a dedicated resource person. They identified the importance of knowing the system and who to go to. Several participants reinforced the need for specific information and training to assist them to feel competent in the classroom. Training needs included the use of information technology, classroom management, teaching methods and assignment marking support. Having access to information. Being able to manipulate technology. Being able to have discussions with people about teaching styles and teaching approaches is a good thing. I kind of think it would be good if we had more opportunities for that sort of thing, but it just doesn't happen (Participant 3). Participants identified the need for more detail regarding the ways in which to teach and mark. Despite their strong clinical backgrounds,
Please cite this article as: Dixon, K.A., et al., The experience of sessional teachers in nursing: A qualitative study, Nurse Educ. Today (2015), http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2015.06.008
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there were inconsistencies in the way nursing practice was taught in the nursing laboratories and participants were frustrated by this. …one of the examples was doing dressings. Now some people are teaching it with the use of sterile gloves, some people were teaching it with normal gloves and some people were teaching it with no gloves so long as you did an aseptic technique. So I think that there needs to be some sort of strategies in place where everybody's getting taught exactly the same thing (Participant 7). Assignment marking was a recurring issue for sessional staff who felt underprepared for this task and in need of more training. There was an assumption that sessional staff knew what to do when it came to marking. People often think people can mark, and it's not - you can't just mark. It's a skill like anything else (Participant 3). Need an example of a good assignment for bench marking (Participant 16). But also when people cross-mark your work…It's very stressful to mark student's assignments…You don't want to fail people if you don't need to fail them. So some guidance there would be useful (Participant 1).
Discussion The findings in this study show that the experience of being a sessional teacher has both positive and negative aspects. Sessional teachers believe their greatest contribution to teaching is their clinical currency and clinical expertise which they view as a valuable asset to their classroom teaching. This finding is consistent with other studies (Andrew et al., 2010) and may be because in a vocational course such as nursing, clinically current sessional teachers bring to their teaching a capacity to immerse students in the real world of nursing through story-telling and meaningful discussion. Having a supportive environment in particular with regard to supportive colleagues was another factor identified as important to sessional teaching staff and similarly has been identified by Harvey et al. (2005) where they found support for sessional staff, collegiality and mentoring, information and communication to be important. Although there was some variation in the participant interview responses, it was clear that collegial and helpful staff providing timely information was important to their positive experience of teaching. While sessional teachers indicated they were supported in their role, they nevertheless identified distinct areas for improvement. These were related to system and process issues, micro-teaching skills, classroom management, and assessment in particular marking preparedness. More specifically, sessional teachers identified the need for timely access to the physical resources, information technology, teaching resources, and information related to human resource processes. In contrast with previous studies (Brown et al., 2010; Junor, 2004; Pocock, Prosser and Bridge, 2004), the majority of participants in this study stated that being a sessional teacher was their preferred career choice over being a continuing academic. In Junor's (2004) survey of casual academic and general staff in Australian Universities only 28% of casual academics gave casual employment as their first preference, and most of these were retirees or had continuing full time work elsewhere. Similarly, the majority of nurse sessional teachers in this study were in employment in clinical areas and their preference for sessional teaching was largely attributed to the inherent flexibility of the position which allowed them to effectively manage educational, family and employment commitments, including continuing in their clinical employment. On the whole the literature suggests that sessional teachers are likely to be seeking a career and use sessional work to gain experience in order to provide a transition into the workforce, or as a means of
continuing to work whilst managing carer responsibilities. They are often employed in more than one job and for the most part would prefer to be in a permanent position (Coates et al., 2009; Gottschalk and McEachern, 2010; Junor, 2004; Lee, 2013; May et al., 2011; Sutherland and Gilbert, 2013). By the very nature of their employment however, sessional teachers traditionally have limited if any involvement in the broader issues of curriculum development, teaching design and content, management of large student cohorts and developing online pedagogy and as evident in this study the nature of the exclusion leads to feelings of isolation. The study shows that sessional teachers want to have a sense of belonging to the teaching team, School and University, but encounter multiple exclusions at each of these levels. Similarly, other studies (Beaumont et al., 2009; Brown et al., 2010; Junor, 2004) have highlighted the lack of belonging, isolation, alienation and marginalisation of the sessional teacher. For participants in this study, it was the physical exclusion from class rooms, staff facilities, electronic learning sites and lack of a staff email account before and after a valid contract of employment was in force that most emphasized for them that they did not belong. Hamilton et al. (2013) suggest that to facilitate sessional teachers' sense of belonging, ongoing supportive pathways are needed that include: mentoring from experienced sessional staff, faculty based initiatives and “learning pathways that connect sessional staff to their peers in communities of learning” (p.4). Consistent with the findings from this study, the difficulties faced by sessional staff identified in the literature include limited opportunities for professional development, engagement and career progression; lack of access to resources; job insecurity; isolation and poor working conditions (Gottschalk and McEachern, 2010; May et al., 2011; McKay and Brass, 2011). The problem this presents for universities is that the core business of universities – teaching, is on the whole undertaken by those who comprise “its least connected workforce segment”(Coates et al., 2009, 49) thereby placing increased workload and responsibility on permanent academic staff to oversight and manage sessional staff (Cowley, 2010; Coates et al., 2009). This has ramifications for quality teaching and learning, staff recruitment and curriculum planning (Andrew et al., 2010; May et al., 2011). In particular the marginalisation of sessional teachers from the essential planning functions of universities such as strategic planning, course development, curriculum and workforce renewal has significant implications for both universities and the growing cohort of sessional staff who are essentially disconnected from the broader business of universities (Hugo and Morriss, 2010; May et al., 2011), leading to a heightened potential for risk to educational quality and student outcomes. Despite the challenges presented by the increased dependence of universities on sessional teaching staff, there is also widespread recognition of the contribution that sessional teachers make to teaching and learning in the higher education sector. Interest in developing and implementing effective strategies to support effective teaching by sessional staff has arisen in response to these issues (Lefoe et al., 2011; Marshall, 2012; McKay and Brass, 2011; Percy et al., 2008). To address the concerns arising from the increasing casualisation of the academic workforce there is a need to think differently about the role and contribution of sessional staff and how this can be effectively managed (Lefoe et al., 2011). Limitations As this study was conducted at one multi-campus metropolitan university exploring the experiences of sessional nurse teachers in a single school of nursing, the findings may not be transferable to other schools or faculties of nursing or to other disciplines outside nursing. Conclusion The findings of this study reveal that sessional teachers enjoy and are enthusiastic about their teaching and believe they value add to the
Please cite this article as: Dixon, K.A., et al., The experience of sessional teachers in nursing: A qualitative study, Nurse Educ. Today (2015), http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2015.06.008
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program with their enthusiasm and commitment to teaching, clinical currency and expertise in clinical practice. Given the high proportion of unit delivery undertaken by sessional teachers their impact on the quality and delivery of the Bachelor of Nursing program is of paramount importance. As part of the teaching community of the School there is an urgent need to improve sessional teachers' sense of belonging and to provide an inclusive structure and culture which enables them to optimise their capacity to contribute to the academic program. Andrew et al. (2010, p. 4) suggest that to enhance the value of sessional staff “opportunities for mentorship, professional development and career planning should be clearly articulated”. A sessional staff workforce strategy designed to respond to the needs of sessional staff may be one way of addressing this need. Additionally, a structured approach designed for sessional teachers to move from sessional, to contract and then tenured positions can provide secure employment and professional development opportunities for sessional teachers. Development of initiatives, practices and systems such as these that maintain workforce continuity, as well as embedding a culture of quality and performance are an investment in the long term sustainability and high quality of the teaching staff and programs offered by the School and University. Funding This research was funded by the Division of Corporate Strategy and Services for the Academic Lifestyle Project, University of Western Sydney. Author contributions KAD, AC, RM and YS were responsible for the study conception, design, analysis, drafting the manuscript and critical revisions to the paper for important intellectual content. References Andrew, S., Halcomb, E.J., Jackson, D., Peters, K., Salamonson, Y., 2010. Sessional teachers in a BN program: bridging the divide or widening the gap? Nurse Educ. Today 30 (5), 453–457. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2009.10.004. Beaumont, R., Stirling, J., Percy, A., 2009. Tutors' forum: engaging distributed communities of practice. Open Learn.: J. Open, Dist. e-learn. 24 (2), 141–154. Braun, V., Clarke, B., 2006. Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qual. Res. Psychol. 3 (2), 77–101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa. Brown, T., Goodman, J., Yasukawa, K., 2010. Academic casualization in Australia: class divisions in the university. J. Ind. Relat. 52 (2), 169–182. Brown, N.R., Kelder, J., Freeman, B., Carr, A.R., 2013. A message from the chalk face—what casual teaching staff tell us they want to know, access and experience. J. Univ. Teach. Learn. Pract. 10 (3), 1–16. Coates, H., Dobson, I.R., Goedegebuure, L., Meek, L., 2009. Australia's casual approach to its academic teaching. People and Place 17 (4), 47–54. Cowley, J., 2010. Being casual about our teachers. Univ. NSW Fac. Law Res. Ser. Pap. 48, 1–27. Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education, 2014. Staff 2014 Selected Higher Education Statistics. Table 1.1 FTE for Full-time, Fractional Full-
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Please cite this article as: Dixon, K.A., et al., The experience of sessional teachers in nursing: A qualitative study, Nurse Educ. Today (2015), http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2015.06.008
