Professional development of sessional academic staff in Australian universities

Since the 1970s the use of sessional academics has intensified. Sessional academics perform a critical role within the university and make a strong contribution to the quality of teaching outcomes. However, the management of these staff and training and development programs for them are under-developed. Given the increasing number of sessional academics, and the contributions of sessional academics to university work, it is time to recognize how important sessional academics have become and to research how these sessional academics are supported in their duties.

The research project identifies and explains training and development issues facing sessional academic staff. The review of literature highlights the increasing casualization of the academic workforce and a training deficit situation. The research design is a mixed method case study involving a group of ten sessional academics, two full-time academics and their managers at X University Y Campus'. It covers the stories of their differing experiences of professional development, and explores their concerns and feelings in detail. Documentary data are gathered and analyzed in order to triangulate data gathered from interviews. The documents form a valuable source of information about sessional academics' purported training and development opportunities.

The study contributes to the literature about sessional academics' training and development opportunities and provides suggestions for a model for improved support and training for sessional academic staff If acted on, the suggestions and model will provide sessional academics opportunities to develop professionally, to improve their own practice and, indirectly, to improve the achievement of their students. The study has the potential not only to improve the skill level of sessional academic staff at the University studied, but also implies benefits to universities, students and our community.