Precarious pedagogies? The impact of casual and zero-hour contracts in Higher Education.

Abstract

Precarious work is associated with and characterizes the effects of neoliberal policy—the transference of economic risk onto workers, the erosion of workers’ rights, the flexibilization and casualization of work contracts, self-responsibility, financial insecurity, and emotional stress. In the Higher Education (HE) sector, the number of insecure academic jobs, especially zero-hour contracts for hourly paid teaching and short-term contract research, has grown exponentially in recent years in response to the structural and fiscal changes within universities, which reflect these global shifts. This paper presents findings from a pilot study conducted with academics on casual contracts in HE institutions in England and Wales. Qualitative interviews and focus groups were undertaken with teachers (lecturers and tutors) on hourly paid and zero-hour contracts to examine the relationship between their contractual situations and pedagogical practices.

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