Introduction

Over the past several decades, many colleges and universities have established centers for teaching and learning or other structures to support faculty professional development. Shared practice happens when faculty developers organize and offer trainings or when colleagues gather to discuss, share strategies, and problem solve a challenge they face in the classroom. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes the numerous types of adjunct faculty and explicates the shared challenges they face. It explores the demographics of adjunct faculty and builds on the work of Gappa and Leslie by proposing an updated typology of adjunct faculty. The book presents the analysis of findings from the survey of adjunct faculty development.