A mismatch: Why non-tenured teachers are ill-prepared to deal with the perceived job insecurity of students in the humanities. (April 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Crone, Vincent CA
• Other Names: Ashton Daniel guest-editor.; Bennett Dawn guest-editor.; Bulaitis Zoe. H. guest-editor.; Tomlinson Michael guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Arts and humanities in higher education. Volume 22:Number 2(2023)
• Page Start: 183
• Page End: 193
• Publication Date: 2023-04
• Subjects: Early-career academics -- precariat -- humanities education -- employability; Arts -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Periodicals; Humanities -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Periodicals; 700.711
• DOI: 10.1177/14740222231156886
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1474-0222

Abstract

Most of the instructional workforce within the humanities in countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and The Netherlands comprises non-tenure track appointments. This commentary is a starting point in thinking about what the meaning and consequences are of far-reaching casualization for humanities education. Based on my experience as a supervisor of non-tenured early-career teachers in the humanities and on an international exploration of the position of the so-called precariat, I describe the competing, and perhaps irreconcilable, discourses on the importance of the humanities for society and the labour market which these non-tenured teachers must navigate. These discourses put especially non-tenured academics, who are themselves in a very precarious, in an even more disempowered space that is not only detrimental to these non-tenured teachers but also to the students who must learn to deal with perceived job insecurity.