Students! Do You Have to Write a Teaching Evaluation for a Contract Instructor?
A good one makes all the difference
It’s that time of year again. Along with final papers and exams and overdue library books, there are email notifications to fill in teaching and course evaluations…blah,blah, blah.
Delete. Too busy.
Are you too busy? Really?
Writing a teaching and course evaluation for a contract teacher is important. Maybe not for you. But for the teacher it can be the difference between having a job and not having a job in the coming year. There may also be such pieces as “merit” funds on the line, or promotion, or even some bit of job security… such as it is, in contract work.
So many students do not realize that many of their teachers are “contract” employees
In Canada, more than half — yes, more than HALF — university instructors, especially those teaching the large lecture classes, are “contracted.” These instructors have a paycheck that bears no resemblance to what the students are hoping to earn when they emerge from the institution. So many students do not realize that from one year to the next many contract folks hang in the balance of, “Will I have a job next year?”
Many contract instructors have a full PhD… and debt
The reason they are contract teaching is to pull together enough “lines on their CV”s to get a “real” job — that is, tenure-track. The sad part is that if they don’t move ahead quickly into a TT position, they’ll get caught in the cycle of contract work — that is, no time for writing or research (especially if they have the audacity to have a child!), and multiple part-time positions, further eroding any likelihood of getting a “real” job.
There are now so many people who hold a PhD, and in truth there are simply not enough TT positions. Positions are filled with contract people, people who need the work, who want to at least have the “foot in the door” — even as the door is a revolving one, and if not careful, that foot might be lost.