We welcome contract instructors in Nova Scotia’s public post-secondary education system to take part in an online survey being conducted by the Association of Nova Scotia University Teachers (ANSUT) and Dr. Karen Foster, assistant professor in the department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Dalhousie University, and Dr. Matthew Furlong, ANSUT Communications Officer.
The survey is part of a research project looking at the occupational experiences of contract instructors (i.e., university teaching staff whose jobs are in some way not permanent) in Nova Scotia universities. It will gather data on wages, hours of work, office space, teaching loads, and other objective qualities of contract jobs. It will also ask questions about your experiences as a contract instructor, probing for information on job satisfaction, stress, overwork, work-life ‘balance’, and other measures typically considered in evaluations of job quality.
If you are currently teaching at one or more Nova Scotia universities and your job is in some way non-permanent, whether your title is “contract instructor”, “contract academic staff”, a “limited-term appointment”, “part-time faculty”, “adjunct”, “sessional”, or similar, you are likely eligible to participate. The sole criteria for eligibility is that you are not regular faculty, you are not on the tenure-track (or the newer “lecturer stream”), and your job is not permanent.
The survey consists of approximately 60 questions—some multiple-choice and some open-ended—that should take approximately 20-30 minutes to complete. It will be available to complete from October 13th to December 31st. If you wish to participate, please review the attached informed consent letter and click the following link, which will take you to a consent form, and—if you consent to participate—the survey:
Please note: the password to enter the survey is CAS2015
If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Foster (at 902 494-6751, [email protected] – email is most reliable).