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For the last twenty years, the higher education sector has been experiencing an increasing reliance upon sessional (sessional or part-time) staff to undertake a large proportion of the teaching load of each department (Watters & Weeks, 1998). Sessional workers are often experienced professionals and hence more familiar with the workplace situation, the needs of potential employers, and the importance of, and interpretation of generic skills, than the full-time academic staff (Watters & Weeks, 1998). Others are just starting their careers as research students, and have the potential of relating personally with the experiences and needs of students (Watters & Weeks, 1998). Macquarie values the contribution of such sessional staff and realises that it is imperative that all staff, not only full-time members, are appraised of the strategic issues facing the university and the sector as a whole, and that they receive professional development to enable the development and maintenance of a high quality teaching environment.

In previous years, the model that CPD has been able to maintain has been one in which generic workshops have been offered to the wider University community with specific contextualised workshops run for sessional staff at the request of individual department coordinators. Such an ad hoc approach to training however, is inadequate and unsustainable.

In 2004, the project: Quality Teaching: Professional and Organisational Development Supporting Sessional Staff, was funded through a Macquarie University VCDF grant. This project, a joint initiative between CPD and the Institute of Early Childhood, aimed to develop, pilot and disseminate a framework for professional and organisational development policies, processes and structures that support sessional staff. Key developmental processes, interventions and outcomes of the project were identified, evaluated and documented for dissemination across the other Academic Divisions of Macquarie. Specific outcomes of the project included:

• A raised level of awareness of the needs and importance of sessional staff in a quality learning environment
• Implementation of a mentoring and liaison system for sessional staff within participating departments
• Development and review of departmental policy of the participating department (IEC), to better prepare and incorporate sessional teaching staff into the teaching environment and decision-making process and regular planning cycle of the department
• Professional development framework for sessional teaching staff, contextualised to suit individual departmental needs
• Resources to support sessional teaching staff across Macquarie
• Administrative process to build a profile for sessional staff within Departments
• The dissemination of a framework for professional and organisational development policies, processes and structures that support sessional staff in Academic Divisions

This initiative was subsequently funded for a further 12 months in 2005, to enable the outcomes of the first grant to be 'rolled out' to other Divisions across the university. This second stage is currently underway, with participating Departments including the Departments of Accounting and Computing.

A paper presented to the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) outlining some early results of the project can be downloaded here.

Dr Marina Harvey
Project Coordinator
Email: marina.harvey@vc.mq.edu.au
Tel: 9850 9779

Dr Sharon Fraser
Director, Teaching and e-Learning
Email: sharon.fraser@mq.edu.au
Tel: 9850 8446

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