by Dr. Allison Dube

I have always argued that though we sessional instructors give great service and commitment to the University of Calgary, the unfairness of our working conditions has grown to a situation that is now laughable. Every experience is an opportunity to learn, however, and though sessional issues may remain a subtext here, the purpose is to tell about some things I feel I have learned from this one.

A Seven Year Experiment

In my book Fire With Water, I argued that a rift in approaches to life had widened in my generation. Building on Jean Baker Miller's analysis of gender roles, traits traditionally assigned to subordinated women were losing a battle to the characteristics generally inherited by dominant men. Behaviors, such as participating in the development of others and truly valuing connections to them, were losing credence to pursuing self-oriented goals and to proclaiming "I did it my way." Seven years here have confirmed two hypotheses. First, as Baker Miller states, "the characteristics... perhaps most essential to human beings are the very characteristics that are specifically dysfunctional for success in the world as it is." That, in spite of fostering the development of others through their teaching, sessional instructors receive neither a livable salary nor security shows this endeavor is indeed "specifically dysfunctional" for success—certainly at the University of Calgary.

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