美国大学非终身制教师规模扩张的原因、影响与反思

The Causes of the Expansion of Non-tenure Track Faculty in American Universities and Its Influences

当前,由兼职教师和全职非终身制教师构成的非终身制教师在数量上已成为美国大学学术职业的主体。节省成本的经济理性主义、日益等级分化的学术精英取向是非终身制教师规模扩张的主要原因,这带来了大学生毕业率下降、大学共同治理被削弱、大学学术职业日益割裂、美国社会的高等教育信心不足等问题。为此,美国学界和社会提出,应控制非终身制教师的比例,减少兼职教师的规模且让其承担最必要与合适课程的教学工作,同时采用严格的标准打通非终身制教师的学术晋升渠道,以寻求美国大学学术职业发展的折中道路。

Nowadays,non-tenure track faculty composed of part-time teachers and fulltime non-tenure track accounted for nearly 70% of all faculties in American universities,becoming the main body of academic profession.Cost-saving economic rationalism,and the increasingly hierarchical orientation of academic elites were the main reasons for the growth of non-tenure track,which also brought about the decline of graduation rate,the weakened of university shared governance,the increasing fragmentation of academic profession,and the lack of confidence to higher education in American society.Therefore,American social forces put forward to seeking the compromise path for the development of academic profession that American universities should control the proportion of non-tenure track,reduce the scale of part-time teachers,hire them on the most appropriate and necessary curriculum teaching,open the academic promotion path of non-tenure track with strict standards.