The rising insecurity of language teaching jobs in higher education and its effects on research

Elisa Gironzetti; Javier Muñoz Basols

The rising insecurity of language teaching jobs in higher education and its effects on research

Gironzetti, Elisa ^[1] ; Muñoz-Basols, Javier ^[2]
1. [1] University of Maryland, College Park
  
  University of Maryland, College Park
  
  Estados Unidos
2. [2] University of Oxford
  
  University of Oxford
  
  Oxford District, Reino Unido
Localización: Language awareness, ISSN 0965-8416, Vol. 35, Nº. 1, 2026, págs. 222-244
Idioma: inglés
DOI: 10.1080/09658416.2025.2469617
Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
Resumen
- Higher education institutions are increasingly reliant on part-time faculty without job security. While this practice offers economic flexibility to institutions by enabling them to hire contingent or adjunct faculty at lower rates, research has found a knock-on effect on teaching quality, employee motivation, and career advancement. In this article, we use data from a large survey of Spanish language teaching professionals, most of whom work in higher education, to analyse how job instability impacts the engagement of those professionals in and with research. We focus on this aspect because research engagement is vital for the advancement of the field and for individual professional development, and, if neglected, it can marginalise language teaching professionals in the long term. Our findings highlight local and global trends toward ‘adjunctification’, or the growing tendency of language teaching faculty roles to be unstable and insecure. We identify key factors linked to adjunctification, such as migrant status, and analyse teaching professionals’ views about the future of the profession. Based on these findings, we propose two actionable steps: (1) establishing international and sustainable professional pathways for language teaching professionals and (2) redefining the language teaching profession to prioritise research as a core competency among language teaching professionals.
Referencias bibliográficas
- Abedini, A., Abedin, B., & Zowghi, D. (2021). Adult learning in online communities of practice: A systematic review. British Journal of...
- Becker, A. (2024). Applied linguistics communities of practice: Improving the research-practice relationship. Applied Linguistics, 45(2),...
- Bologna, S. (2018). The rise of the European self-employed workforce. Mimesis International.
- Bojarczyk, H. (2008). [Faculty development activities for new adjunct faculty: A qualitative investigation of which types of activities most...
- Bond, M. A., & Lockee, B. B. (2014). Building virtual communities of practice for distance educators. Springer.
- Borg, S. (2010). Language teacher research engagement. Language Teaching, 43(4), 391–429. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444810000170
- Brennan, J., & Magness, P. (2019). Cracks in the ivory tower: The moral mess of higher education. Oxford University Press.
- Cheng, S. D. (2021). [Essays on STEM trainee labor market] [Doctoral dissertation]. Harvard University]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses...
- Childress, H. (2019). The adjunct underclass: How America’s colleges betrayed their faculty, their students, and their mission. The University...
- Chun, E., & Evans, A. (2023). The challenges of minoritized contingent faculty in higher education. Purdue University Press.
- Clark, E., & Paran, A. (2007). The employability of non-native-speaker teachers of EFL: A UK survey. System, 35(4), 407–430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2007.05.002
- Colmenero, K., & Lasagabaster, D. (2023). The native/non-native teacher debate: Insights into variables at play. Language Awareness, 32(2),...
- Coleman, J. A., & Klapper, J. (Eds.) (2005). Effective learning and teaching in modern languages. Routledge.
- Consoli, S. (2021). Uncovering the hidden face of narrative analysis: A reflexive perspective through MAXQDA. System, 102, 102611. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2021.102611
- Consoli, S. (2022). Life capital: An epistemic and methodological lens for TESOL research. TESOL Quarterly, 56(4), 1397–1409. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.3154
- Dolan, V. (2011). The isolation of online adjunct faculty and its impact on their performance. The International Review of Research in Open...
- Duan, Y., Memon, S. A., AlShebli, B., Guan, Q., Holme, P., & Rahwan, T. (2025). Postdoc publications and citations link to academic retention...
- Gironzetti, E., & Muñoz-Basols, J. (2022). Research engagement and research culture in Spanish language teaching (SLT): Empowering the...
- Grigoli, L. R. (2022). The 2022 AHA jobs report: A new normal? Perspectives on history. https://www.historians.org/ahajobsreport2022
- Hall, G. (2023). Teachers’ engagement with published research: How do teachers who read research navigate the field, what do they read, and...
- Heiden-Rootes, K., Smith Battle, L., & Hankins, M. (2024). Describing values in tension and neoliberalism at a mission-driven, private...
- Hickey, D. T. (2003). Engaged participation versus marginal nonparticipation: A stridently sociocultural approach to achievement motivation....
- Holliday, A. (2006). Native-speakerism. ELT Journal, 60(4), 385–387. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccl030
- Instituto Cervantes. (2016). El español en el mundo. Anuario del Instituto Cervantes. Alcalá de Henares. https://cvc.cervantes.es/lengua/anuario/anuario_16/el_espanol_en_el_mundo_anuario_instituto_cervantes_2016.pdf
- Instituto Cervantes. (2017). El español en el mundo. Anuario del Instituto Cervantes. Alcalá de Henares. https://cvc.cervantes.es/lengua/anuario/anuario_17/el_espanol_en_el_mundo_anuario_instituto_cervantes_2017.pdf
- Korkki, P. (2018). Adjunct professors step out their efforts to increase pay. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/05/education/learning/adjunct-professors.html
- Kouritzin, S. G., Ellis, T. F., Ghazani, A. Z., & Nakagawa, S. (2023). Gigification of English language instructor work in higher education:...
- Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511815355
- Leonard, J. (2019). Beyond ‘(non) native-speakerism’: Being or becoming a native-speaker teacher of English. Applied Linguistics Review, 10(4),...
- Llinares, A., Morton, T., & Whittaker, R. (2024). Fostering language awareness for integration through teacher-researcher collaboration...
- Lowe, R. J., Turner, M. W., & Schaefer, M. Y. (2021). Dialogic research engagement through podcasting as a step towards action research:...
- Lyons, R. E. (2007). Deepening our understanding of adjunct faculty. In R. E. Lyons (Ed.), Best practices for supporting adjunct faculty (pp....
- Magness, P. W. (2016). For profit universities and the roots of adjunctification in US higher education. Liberal Education, 102, 50–59.
- Mann, D., & Nelson Hochenedel, H. (2003). A manifesto of the twenty-first-century academic proletariat in North America. Journal of Social...
- Masri, T. I. (2018). The professional identity of adjunct faculty: Exploratory study at a private university in the UAE. English Language...
- McKinley, J. (2019). Evolving the TESOL teaching-research nexus. TESOL Quarterly, 53(3), 875–884. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.509
- Mehdizadeh, M., Pourhaji, M., & Derakhshan, A. (2024). Evolution of communities of practice, realignment of possible selves, and repositionings...
- Mintz, S. (2021). The adjunctification of Gen. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-gamma/adjunctification-gen-ed-0(open...
- Muñoz-Basols, J., & Fuertes Gutiérrez, M. (2023). Asociacionismo y enseñanza del español en Europa. Archiletras Científica, 10, 55–69.
- Muñoz-Basols, J., & Hernández Muñoz, N. (2019). El español en la era global: Agentes y voces de la polifonía panhispánica. Journal of...
- Muñoz-Basols, J., Rodríguez-Lifante, A., & Cruz-Moya, O. (2017). Perfil laboral, formativo e investigador del profesional de español como...
- Muñoz-Basols, J., & Soler Montes, C. (2025). Communities of practice in language education. In I. Álvarez & M. Fuertes Gutiérrez (Eds.),...
- Nunan, D. (1997). Developing standards for teacher-research in TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 31(2), 365–367. https://doi.org/10.2307/3588053
- Rose, H. (2019). Dismantling the ivory tower in TESOL: A renewed call for teaching-informed research. TESOL Quarterly, 53(3), 895–905. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.517
- Sala-Bubaré, A., Garcia-Morante, M., Castelló, M., & Weise, C. (2024). PhD holders’ working conditions and job satisfaction in Spain:...
- Sampson, R., & Pinner, R. (Eds.). (2021). Complexity perspectives on researching language learner and teacher psychology. Multilingual...
- Sato, M., & Loewen, S. (2019). Do teachers care about research? The research–pedagogy dialogue. ELT Journal, 73(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccy048
- Sato, M., & Loewen, S. (2022). The research-practice dialogue in second language learning and teaching: Past, present, and future. The...
- Sato, M., Loewen, S., & Pastushenkov, D. (2022). ‘Who is my research for?’: Researcher perceptions of the research–practice relationship....
- Serenko, A. (2023). The great resignation: The great knowledge exodus or the onset of the great knowledge revolution? Journal of Knowledge...
- Shrum, J., & Glisan, E. (2015). Teacher’s handbook: Contextualized language instruction. Boston: Cengage.
- Stickler, U., & Emke, M. (2015). Part-time and freelance language teachers and their ICT training needs. In R. Hampel & U. Stickler...
- Thompson, A. S., & Cuesta Medina, J. A. (2019). Profesores no nativos/Non-native teachers. In J. Muñoz-Basols, E. Gironzetti, & M....
- Ton-Nu, A. (2024). Raising EFL teachers’ awareness of L2 pragmatic teaching via teacher professional development: The impact of an effective...
- Vaattovaara, J. (2017). Evidencing the passion of language teachers’ research engagement: The case of a university pedagogy ALMS course module....
- Viáfara, J. (2016). “I’m missing something”: (Non) nativeness in prospective teachers as Spanish and English speakers. Colombian Applied Linguistics...
- Wang, L. (2012). Moving towards the transition: Non-native EFL teachers’ perception of native-speaker norms and responses to varieties of...
- Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning as a social system. Systems Thinker, 9(5), 1–10.
- Wenger, E. (2010). Conceptual tools for CoPs as social learning systems: Boundaries, identity, trajectories and participation. In C. Blackmore...
- Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. M. (2002). Cultivating communities of practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Harvard Business...