Time,structure, and teaching as an adjunct

Contingent teaching has become the norm in most institutions. While the use of adjuncts and other non‐tenure track professors shows no sign of slowing down, the nature of contingent teaching is less known. This article examines how contingent teaching directly impacts the professor's teaching. My experience teaching religious studies courses from 2014 to the present has shown how contingent status affects significant issues such as the time and structure of teaching. Time is an essential component in teaching well. How the course is structured is equally important, or perhaps even more so, and has significant ramifications for a course. However, the nature of contingent labor impacts how time and structure is implemented in a course. This influences how I interact with the course material, the students, the department, and my ability to teach. See companion essays published in this issue of the journal by Adam Wirrig, Bradley Burroughs, Kyle Schenkewitz, and Charles Harrell.