| Current literature suggests there is a national state of dissatisfaction among community college adjunct faculty; further, this dissatisfaction among some community college faculty may be due, in part, to factors such as low pay, few or no benefits, and little or no participation in policy making. Despite these conditions, national statistics reveal the community college adjunct to be utilized more and more by community colleges across America. Many researchers suggest ways in which community colleges might address these dissatisfactions, yet few provide insight into what being an adjunct really means to the adjunct themselves. Suggestions are offered without understanding what adjuncts share in values, goals, and attitudes; the culture of the adjunct. The purpose of this study was to explore the culture of the adjunct through a discovery of behaviors, beliefs, and meanings that make up this culture of the adjunct faculty at the community college. This qualitative study employed Husserl's transcendental phenomenological approach which emphasizes the research participant's self-meaning (transcendental) rather than the researcher's interpretation (hermeneutical). This study's theoretical foundations included person-organization fit, Herzberg's two-factor, Locke's goal-setting, and Vroom's expectancy theories. In-depth interviews yielded rich textural data that were analyzed through phenomenological reduction and imaginative variation techniques. The data demonstrated that adjunct faculty very much like what they do and, in fact, are very passionate about it. Further, the data also revealed what adjuncts value most about being an adjunct were academic freedom, ownership in the classroom, and experiencing personal success through student success. This study promotes social change by creating a foundation for other researchers to build upon in addressing adjunct dissatisfaction ultimately improving upon the services provided by community colleges. |
