I have just checked my personal teaching account, wondering whether hours Iâm owed had been finally counted. Yes, whoever does this has entered the hours corresponding to my supervision of a PhD dissertation (or is it for two dissertations? Iâm confused). Not yet, however, the 21 hours corresponding to the three BA dissertations submitted in the current academic year. Whatever the case, UAB considers that the total count of hours I have taught this year amounts to 211% of my expected workload (plus the 21 hours…, etc.).
Technically, I have worked in class for 150 hours (I teach three subjects, as my Coordination duties allow me to drop one of the four I should teach âor not really, as UAB doesnât apply to me last yearâs Wert Decree, which they should). Add to this 21 for the BA dissertations, 60 for the PhD dissertation(s), 9 for an MA collaboration, 10 more for an MA dissertation soon to be submitted… UABâs teaching accountants have determined that teachersâ workload should be worked out in part on the basis of the number of students we have in class, which is only fair. Thus, my biggish âVictorian Literatureâ and â20th Century Literatureâ classes (around 60 each) are actually enough to cover all my workload, and I seem to have taught âfor freeâ all the rest.
I must clarify that the acknowledged 211% dedication has no effect whatsoever on my teaching for 2013-14, that is to say, I cannot ask for a âreductionâ to compensate for this yearâs excess. Whyâs that, since common sense would dictate the opposite? Well, easy: we donât have enough teaching resources to make up for what Iâd drop. The English Literature section â11 teachers, only 5 of us tenured, the remaining 6 part time adjunctsâwill be teaching next year only 7 electives (we must teach a minimum of 5 to guarantee the Literature and Culture itinerary). Since Iâm not the only one in the section above the 100% mark (most of us are there), if we all ask that our teaching hours to be evened out next year, weâd be in very deep red numbers and the whole section would collapse at all levels.
Obviously, we need more teachers, that is as plain as daylight, for we 11 can no longer sustain the weight of teaching the BA and the MA and supervising BA, MA and PhD dissertations. Weâre giving plenty away for free, whether weâre tenured or just adjuncts and this is, simply, a shame. This is, however, a no-win situation for if we complain, as Iâm doing here, the authorities that be will find a quick solution: drop the BA, put an end to group-size below 60 (a luxury it seems, despite our intensive continuous assessment in English). Be a worse section and Department for nobody cares, and, anyway, people also got âLicenciaturasâ in the good old days of 200 students per class and lecturing with no student participation (some Departments are still stuck there).
This is particularly galling in the current situation in which so much part-time staff between the ages of 35 and 45 is waiting for much-deserved tenure. In September, for instance, our Professor of American Studies is retiring but she is to be replaced with an adjunct with the lowest possible contract (Iâm told this is 600 euros a month, after taxes, for the same amount of hours our Professor has been teaching). If you consider that this Professor is the highest paid teacher in the Department, given her very long seniority, you will soon realise that much would be saved even by hiring full time one of our adjuncts (four have the corresponding accreditations).
Instead, the policy of saving the maximum amount of money is resulting in, well, my 211% (and that of many others, I know). The 211%, by the way, might also possibly explains why I feel so tired this summer and why itâs being so hard to focus on the research that I have left aside for too long. To think that I call myself a researcher is beginning to be a bit of a joke…
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