Part-time Teach­ing as a Career

In this article, I discuss my profes­sional iden­tity as a part-time teacher in Karelia UAS. In addi­tion to teach­ing, I work at the inter­face of social and art sectors, and with theatre and events, to mention a few. I am also study­ing for a master’s degree. Part-time teach­ing can be an inter­est­ing addi­tion to a career, but it can be demand­ing to pick up the neces­sary infor­ma­tion and join the UAS commu­nity with limited working hours.

By sharing my story, I hope to promote three things:

• to encour­age profes­sion­als in differ­ent fields to consider part-time teach­ing as one of their careers,
• to offer peer support to other part-time teachers,
• to give ideas to UAS commu­ni­ties for attract­ing and support­ing new and exist­ing part-time teachers.

Part-time Teacher as a Repre­sen­ta­tive of Work Life

Inter­ac­tion between educa­tion and work life is built in several ways in Karelia. One of the means is recruit­ing experts from the Expert Pool (Osaa­japooli) to develop the studies (Karelia 2024, Karelia 2023a). It has also been my path – first to occa­sional career visits, and from autumn 2021, to part-time teach­ing and devel­op­ing new courses in Karelia’s social services study programme.

I do not have formal teacher educa­tion which some­times feels as a short­com­ing. However, I have strong prac­ti­cal and theo­ret­i­cal expe­ri­ence on the subjects I educate on, and I am a profes­sional in leading groups, perform­ing and shaping peda­gog­i­cal processes in the contexts of drama, commu­ni­ties and social work. Leaning on these skills I have dared to take the leap to teach­ing in a higher insti­tu­tion. Also, in general, univer­sity of applied sciences (UAS) teach­ers have diverse profes­sional back­grounds, and they build their teacher iden­ti­ties using various sources (Mart­tila 2015, 39–43). Compe­tence of their own field and peda­gog­i­cal skills are in the core of the teach­ers’ exper­tise, added with the ability to apply research (Parkko­nen & Nuuti­nen 2020; Mart­tila 2015, 34–36).

Along­side teach­ing, I work else­where on the same subjects as what I teach – such as commu­nity work and cultural well­be­ing. There­fore, when teach­ing in Karelia, I am not merely a teacher but also a repre­sen­ta­tive of work life outside the UAS. The students have taken the advan­tage of it, asking about, for example, what is multi-profes­sional collab­o­ra­tion in prac­tice like and how much it is actu­ally possi­ble to apply creative and art-based approaches in social work. Telling prac­ti­cal and topical expe­ri­ences seems to inter­est my future colleagues and it also gives me an oppor­tu­nity to reflect and verbalise the things I have done.

Teacher as a Learner

Accord­ing to Karelia’s Work Commu­nity Devel­op­ment Plan and Career Devel­op­ment Plan, 70 % of employee’s learn­ing takes place through work tasks (Karelia 2024, Karelia 2023b). To me, teach­ing is learn­ing to a great extent, and the possi­bil­ity to learn gives moti­va­tion to the work (see Hongisto-Peltomaa 2023, 52). A new teacher, even part-time, has to learn the data systems, the curric­ula, students’ absence policy and all the rest from scratch. And that can be hard, because you may not know many colleagues when you start. My closest colleagues have helped me through a lot of prac­ti­cal­i­ties, but I have to admit that my infor­ma­tion-seeking skills and courage to ask ques­tions have been tested over these past few years! (See Karelia 2024, Karelia 2023b.)

Prob­a­bly most reward­ing is the inter­ac­tion with the students. I let them know that our discus­sions on the lessons and review­ing their course assign­ments make me perceive new things and I look forward to those. In the future, I would like to build more of a profes­sional social work commu­nity where students would consider them­selves as junior colleagues who contribute to the devel­op­ment of the field and look to the direc­tion of cross-sectoral work (see Mart­tila 2015, 52).

In addi­tion to learn­ing on the job, I am reach­ing out to new under­stand­ing, networks and career oppor­tu­ni­ties by study­ing. When writing this, I am in the final stages of my master’s degree studies in Creativ­ity and Arts in Social and Health Fields (CRASH) programme in Metropo­lia UAS. I like to mention to my Karelia students that I am a student, too. I think it creates some­thing shared between us as well as it is an expres­sion of contin­u­ous learning.

Being a student myself and doing a master’s thesis research have defi­nitely offered another layer to my profes­sional iden­tity and work prac­tice as a teacher (as well as in other jobs). It is moti­vat­ing to bring some of the latest news from the master’s studies to my own teach­ing. Also, teach­ers are expected to be up to date in the subjects they teach which requires follow­ing the progress and discus­sions in their field (see e.g. Hongisto-Peltomaa 2023, 108; Mart­tila 2015, 46). I believe that complet­ing studies and doing research are some of the most intense ways to keep your­self at the heart of your profes­sion. It is hard work too, which is why it has been partic­u­larly impor­tant to get encour­age­ment from my supe­rior and colleagues in Karelia. One of the chal­lenges is, how to find the time to process the new infor­ma­tion and inte­grate it as a part of your teach­ing contents, approaches and mate­ri­als (see Hongisto-Peltomaa 2023, 108; Manner 2019).

Part-time Teacher as an Agent

Being a member of several work, study and volun­teer­ing commu­ni­ties at the same time is a great form of social capital. It is also the way I build my finan­cial income, and simply the way of life for me. I find it very mean­ing­ful to be active on the same topics and goals, such as cultural rights, cultural well­be­ing and strength­en­ing commu­ni­ties, in differ­ent posi­tions. I also think it is not valu­able solely for me. I feel like an agent who can trans­mit infor­ma­tion between organ­i­sa­tions, networks and contexts.

In Karelia, my frag­mented employee profile has been received with under­stand­ing and it is even seen as an advan­tage. It is the same case in my other jobs, studies and networks. I have some­times been called “a shuttle” which crosses between differ­ent envi­ron­ments. The down­side is that network­ing and creat­ing connec­tions are often not suffi­ciently resourced to part-time jobs inside or outside the UAS. What can be done volun­tar­ily is limited. I hope that someday “a shuttle” could be a recog­nized posi­tion and I could bring more value to differ­ent organ­i­sa­tions and purposes. In network­ing, getting to know other people is a key element. As a part-time teacher it is not self-evident that you have met many of your colleagues in the same study programme – you may not even know their names.

Part-time Teach­ers as a Resource

For this text, I read several arti­cles and book chap­ters about teacher’s iden­ti­ties, moti­va­tions for teach­ing as a job and addi­tional train­ing for teach­ers. Most of them are not included in the refer­ence list because they relied on, quite old-fash­ioned if I may say, teach­ing as a full-time job and teach­ing as a person’s primary profes­sional iden­tity. To me, these are not things I could relate to. I believe UASes human resources manage­ment also recog­nizes that the forms of working are more diverse, and they include, e.g., part-time teach­ers, mentors and visit­ing speakers.

Still, I feel that Karelia’s inter­nal devel­op­ment plans could pay more atten­tion to part-time teach­ing as a career and as a way of belong­ing to the work commu­nity. In my perspec­tive, it is a poten­tial path to full-time posi­tions in UASes as well as to deeper collab­o­ra­tion – such as local or inter­na­tional devel­op­ment projects – between UASes and local busi­nesses or non-govern­men­tal organ­i­sa­tions. Univer­si­ties of applied sciences are oblig­ated to work on regional devel­op­ment and to coop­er­ate with differ­ent stake­hold­ers (Univer­si­ties of Applied Sciences Act 932/2014, 4§, 6§). Invest­ing in part-time teach­ers (and other experts who share their time with educa­tion and other work life) can even be seen as a way to fulfil these tasks defined by the law.

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Author:

Maria Korkatti, Cultural Well­be­ing Messen­ger (kult­tuuri­hyv­in­voin­tilähetti), CEO, OSK Pohjois-Karjalan kansanteat­teri & Part-time teacher, Karelia UAS

This article has been written as a part of my master’s degree studies for Metropo­lia UAS.

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Refer­ences

Hongisto-Peltomaa, Saija. 2023. Hehku ja hiipumi­nen, vimma ja vitutus. Moti­vaa­tio ja innos­tus opet­ta­ju­udessa. Opin­toverkko Oy.

Karelia 2023a. Osaa­japooli (Expert Pool). Retrieved from https://www.karelia.fi/karelia-ammattikorkeakoulun-osaajapooli/ Read on Nov. 11, 2023.

Karelia 2023b. Kare­lian työu­rao­hjelma (Karelia Career Devel­op­ment Plan). Avail­able in Karelia intra for staff members. Accepted Jan. 18, 2023. Read on Mar. 2, 2023.

Karelia 2024. Työy­hteisön kehit­tämis­su­un­nitelma (Work Commu­nity Devel­op­ment Plan). Avail­able in Karelia intra for staff members. Accepted Feb. 11, 2024. Read on Mar. 2, 2023.

Manner, Matias. 2019. Jatkuva oppimi­nen on opet­ta­jan oikeus ja velvol­lisuus – nyt nojataan liikaa opet­ta­jan omaan akti­ivi­su­u­teen. Opet­taja maga­zine. Published on Aug. 16, 2019. Retrieved from https://www.opettaja.fi/tyossa/jatkuva-oppiminen-on-opettajan-oikeus-ja-velvollisuus-nyt-nojataan-liikaa-opettajan-omaan-aktiivisuuteen/ Read on Feb. 18, 2024.

Mart­tila, Liisa. 2015. Ura kerronnal­lisena työnä. Ammat­tiko­rkeak­oulun opet­ta­jat kerto­jina. Akateem­i­nen väitöskirja. Tampereen yliopisto, kasva­tusti­etei­den yksikkö. Tampere: Tampere Univer­sity Press. Retrieved from https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-44-9809-1 Read on Nov. 18, 2023.

Parkko­nen, Vesa & Nuuti­nen, Ulla. 2020. Opet­ta­jan ammatill­i­nen osaami­nen ja osaamisen kehit­tämi­nen alati muut­tuvassa toim­intaym­päristössä. HAMK Unlim­ited Scien­tific. Published on Mar. 6, 2020. Retrieved from https://unlimited.hamk.fi/ammatillinen-osaaminen-ja-opetus/opettajan-ammatillisen-osaamisen-kehittaminen/ Read on Jan. 13, 2024.

Univer­si­ties of Applied Sciences Act 932/2014. Retrieved from Finnish website https://finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2014/20140932 Read on Mar. 16, 2024. Also avail­able in English in https://finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset/2014/en20140932