Search

There is increasing recognition of the challenges academics working on short‐term contracts experience, as well as universities' increasing reliance on their labor. While discussions of these issues have expanded, there is a lack of empirical research around the information experiences of contract academic staff. This poster reports on initial findings of a qualitative research project that interviewed 34 contract academic staff (CAS) from across Canada, exploring institutional provisions of information, information practices in the workplace, and how marginalization and social inclusion influence workplace information practices. We present preliminary findings in three themes: precarity and uncertainty necessitate holistic and situational understandings, exclusion and isolation are enacted and experienced on many levels, and uncertainty as a barrier to investment and furthering careers, exploring what these findings mean for contract academic staff members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first phase of a larger research project exploring the information practices of contract academic staff, a review of the wider literature around academic casualization was conducted. This research begins to address the need for greater understanding of the experiences of these workers in the information‐intensive environments of higher education. A scoping review methodology was applied, and both academic and grey literature from multiple disciplines was reviewed. The literature points to casualization in academia as a growing phenomenon that has important consequences for staff, students, and universities themselves. This poster discusses the initial themes emerging from the literature, including: the precarity and marginalization of academic staff, the unrecognized emotional labor shaping information practices, and the impacts of multiple temporalities on the work, careers, and lives of such staff. The findings suggest the need for empirical research to address the lack of knowledge around the information environments of contract academics and set the stage for the next phases of the research project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This short paper examines social interaction (e.g. asking colleagues for help in the lunchroom) as an informative experience, a way to understand oneself and situation. The process of coming to an understanding is frequently hidden, but may be brought to light by examining the experiences of individuals undergoing a transition – a change that requires them to redefine their sense of self and situation. Using exemplars from previous research and drawing on Lave and Wenger's (1991) theory of situated learning, this paper explores the importance of social interaction to information practices. The role of social interaction will be discussed, including: information seeking to become part of a community, and social interaction as a source of information and as a site for information comparison (a type of information use) to situate oneself in a new environment. The paper proposes making social interaction a focus of study to better understand how individuals use information to change perception about and situate themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]