Teaching Is Not Teaching

Much of the "teaching" ( or the job of teaching) that is done by full time community college faculty and entrenched adjunct faculty is not actually teaching. At some point, one's efficacy in the classroom becomes a given, and so much more activity takes place outside of the classroom. A lot of people have awesome ideas for the classroom, but how many of them can write curricula, can engage and play nicely with others (very, very important because many heavily tenured faculty will not play nicely with noobs) while serving on committees, have grantwriting ability, show leadership potential, yaddayaddayadda?  I have come to see these things as paramount, in fact, because they drive the department's goals (and I've never met an English department that wasn't power hungry). Community college English departments tend to be heavyweights on campus; they tend to have formidable faculty rosters, and their faculty members' names are followed by powerful campus titles, like Academic Senate President, Professional Development Coordinator, and Student Success Center Coordinator. In fact, English faculty in most CA districts teach fewer classes than the rest of the college's faculty (4 classes vs 5), and they get release time for these roles they fulfill. As I think of how to distinguish myself as a faculty member, I return to the idea that so much of what will set me apart will, unfortunately, have little to do with what I actually do in the classroom and much more with the economic value I bring to the department and the college as well as campus politics. Is this a dirty little secret?

When I was full time before, I was narrowly focused on being a rockstar in the classroom. When I began to feel the tug, pulling me into work outside of the classroom, I was resentful. I was an adjunct in my mindset. Adjuncts may be paid less, but they have the privilege of being able to simply teach and to focus their energies entirely on teaching if they so choose. (Many choose to involve themselves on campus, but this is all voluntary; some of the work is paid, but it is still voluntary.) Now that I am putting my hat back in the ring, I come in with a shifted focus. Great teaching is the minimum expectation; an ability to affect change on campus and to increase the department's power and authority on campus are the most highly sought after qualities that no one states overtly and very few people respond to on a resume, which is partly why full time pools shrink so rapidly.