Building a Community of Sessional Teachers: A Workshop on Mattering, Integration, and Justice

Invited Workshop Recommended citation: Di Benedetti, M., Plumb, S., Polmear, M., Avdic, D., Makramalla, M., Kövesi, K., de Lima, J., Neal, P., Lönngren, J., Griffiths, J., & Hari, N. (2025). Building a Community of Sessional Teachers: A Workshop on Mattering, Integration, and Justice. In Kangaslampi, R., Langie, G., Järvinen, H.-M., & Nagy, B. (Eds.), SEFI 53rd Annual Conference. European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI), Tampere, Finland. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17631726. This Conference Paper is brought to you for open access by the 53rd Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) at Tampere University in Tampere, Finland. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License. BUILDING A COMMUNITY OF SESSIONAL TEACHERS: A WORKSHOP ON MATTERING, INTEGRATION, AND JUSTICE M. Di Benedettia, 1 , S. Plumbb, M. Polmearc, D. Avdicd, M. Makramallae, K. Kövesif, J. de Limag, P. Nealh, J. Lönngrenj, J. Griffithsk, N. Haril a The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK, 0000-0001-7870-1323 b The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK, 0009-0002-3369-7652 c King's College London, London, UK, 0000-0002-7774-6834 d University of Bristol, Bristol, UK, 0000-0002-7982-2917 e Newgiza University, Cairo, Egypt, 0000-0001-8151-3024 f ENSTA - Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Brest, France, 0000-0002-4036-6475 g EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, 0000-0001-9235-9704 h University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, 0000-0002-8831-5327 j Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden, 0000-0001-9667-2044 k University College London, London, UK, 0000-0002-6249-6385 l University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Conference Key Areas: Building the capacity and strengthening the educational competences of engineering educators, Diversity, equity and inclusion in our universities and in our teaching Keywords: Sessional staff, Teaching Assistants, Mattering, Integration, Justice, Community building ABSTRACT This workshop, offered by the Capacity Building SIG, explored practical ways to develop effective and inclusive communities for sessional teaching staff through the framework of Mattering, Integration, and Justice (MIJ; Plumb & Di Benedetti, 2025). Drawing on a professional development model from the University of Sheffield, participants actively reflected on the distinct challenges and opportunities that sessional teachers, such as Teaching Assistants (TAs), face in tutorials, seminars, labs, and other small-group teaching contexts. Recognising that understandings of MIJ principles may differ across cultural and institutional contexts, the session invited a diversity of perspectives that enriched collective learning. Through structured 1 Corresponding Author Initials Last name e-mail address activities and collaborative dialogue, participants explored how the MIJ principles can be embedded in practice, identifying strategies that promote recognition, inclusion, and institutional support. The session closed with individual and group reflection on how to translate ideas into context-specific action. Attendees left with a set of practical, principled next steps to advance support for sessional teachers in engineering education. 1 BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE Sessional teachers—including Teaching Assistants (TAs), hourly paid lecturers, professional engineers, and visiting staff—are integral to delivering high-quality education, especially within large-enrolment engineering courses that include laboratories, seminars, and tutorial sessions outside of lectures. Despite their critical role, these educators often experience precarious employment, inconsistent training, limited integration within teaching teams, and reduced access to institutional support, contributing to a sense of marginalisation and negatively impacting their teaching efficacy (Bryson, 2013; Luft et al., 2004; Tanner & Allen, 2006), all of which in turn can also impact student learning and engagement. Recent research highlights the importance of community building to improve sessional staff experiences, focusing on their professional identity, collaboration opportunities, and equitable recognition (Isaac & de Lima, 2022; Plumb et al., 2024; White & Nonnamaker, 2008). Traditional models have typically centred on individual resilience or skill acquisition, neglecting systemic issues that affect staff well-being and development (Bryson, 2013). The Mattering, Integration, and Justice (MIJ) framework provides a comprehensive approach to address these systemic challenges by fostering an inclusive community built on mutual respect, collaboration, and fairness (Plumb & Di Benedetti, 2025; Popoola, et al., 2024). The MIJ framework is defined as: ● Mattering: Ensuring sessional teachers recognise their essential contribution and understand their role as meaningful and valued in achieving shared institutional goals. ● Integration: Embedding sessional teachers structurally within pedagogical teams and institutional support systems, fostering regular interactions and collaboration among diverse teachers, and promoting a cohesive teaching community. ● Justice: Proactively addressing structural inequities and systemic barriers to ensure equitable recognition, reward, and access to professional development and advancement opportunities for all sessional teachers. Additionally, sessional teachers come from diverse cultural, disciplinary, and professional backgrounds, bringing unique perspectives and identities that enrich the educational environment yet also add complexity to their integration within teaching teams. The intersectionality of sessional status and marginalised identity (such as by gender, race, ethnicity, and age) can contribute to the precarity of their position, which the MIJ framework acknowledges. In this workshop, participants identified the issues faced by sessional teachers and explored strategies aligned with the MIJ framework to support community building. This workshop directly contributed to SEFI 2025's key emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion within engineering education by promoting inclusive communities that value and support all educators, aligning closely with SEFI's commitment to fostering equitable educational practices. In so doing, the workshop was intended to facilitate long-term reflective and evidence-based change in the valuing, support, and inclusion of sessional educators within academic institutions. Individuals in these roles are the heartbeat of laboratory and tutorial teaching in engineering, yet are under-researched in engineering education, and our workshop aimed to support capacity-building efforts and conversations related to this population of educators. To address these challenges in practice, this workshop applied the MIJ framework to create space for reflection, co-creation, and institutional change. The design aligned with established principles of adult learning and community development (Plumb & Di Benedetti, 2025). 2 WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES 2.1 Target audience This workshop was designed for academic developers, educational leaders, and coordinators who support or have responsibility for sessional staff or TA training within engineering and STEM departments. The workshop was also tailored to graduate students and academic staff currently serving in sessional teaching roles. 2.2 Expected learning outcomes The workshop was designed so that by the end, participants would be able to: ● Better understand the challenges sessional teachers from diverse backgrounds may face in engineering education. ● Familiarise themselves with the MIJ framework and its implications for sessional teacher support in their own context. ● Share and critically evaluate if/how practices align with Mattering, Integration, and Justice. ● Develop actionable next steps, specific to their role and context, based on MIJ principles. 3 WORKSHOP DESIGN The workshop centred around active participation, reflection, and collaborative learning. Designed to encourage active engagement and shared learning, the workshop began with a contextual discussion (10 minutes), allowing participants to share examples and experiences regarding sessional teacher roles within their institutions. This was also an opportunity to amplify the voices of any sessional staff who were in attendance. The discussion defined the role in a relevant way to the context of each participant and set the stage for a concise introduction (10 minutes) to the challenges faced by sessional staff and the MIJ framework. This activity clearly outlined the definitions and significance of Mattering, Integration, and Justice. The core activity was an extended group reflection session (25 minutes). Participants formed groups, each focused on one MIJ principle—Mattering, Integration, or Justice. Within these groups, participants engaged in facilitated discussions to critically reflect on their own contexts and identify relevant practices and strategies. Facilitated dialogue and collaborative documentation encouraged active engagement and inclusivity. The session concluded with a clear, concise action-planning phase (15 minutes). Participants individually reflected on their current institutional practices ("Where are you now?") and visualised an ideal state ("What would 10/10 look like?"). Each participant identified one tangible, actionable step they can immediately pursue in their institutional contexts. Each action was explicitly labelled with 'M', 'I', 'J', or a combination to reflect its alignment with the MIJ principles. Participants briefly shared their steps with peers (1–2 minutes), allowing facilitators to rapidly capture and summarise key themes emerging from the collective reflections. Previous implementation of MIJ-aligned community-building approaches at the University of Sheffield has demonstrated tangible outcomes, including improved retention rates among TAs (over 90% annual retention) and increased success rates in professional recognition pathways (e.g., Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy). These practical examples highlight the potential positive impact of structured community-building initiatives. All materials and activities were intentionally designed with accessibility in mind, accommodating diverse levels of experience, language backgrounds, and institutional roles to ensure inclusive participation. 3.1 Time plan Table 1. Time plan Run time Activity Notes 10 min Welcome & Opening Discussion Plenary Who are sessional teachers in your context? 10 min Understanding the Challenge & MIJ Plenary: Introduce MIJ framework and key constraints 25 min Group Reflection Small group discussions: Different groups explore one principle of MIJ 15 min Takeaways & Action Planning Individual reflection & Plenary: "Where are you now?" "What would 10/10 look like?" “What actions are you aiming to take?” ● WORKSHOP OUTCOMES AND RESULTS The eight participants in the workshop represented diverse institutional contexts in different countries (including the US, the UK, Finland, Denmark, and Switzerland), and the opening discussion afforded the opportunity to establish a shared meaning of “sessional teachers” in these contexts. Participants shared that TAs, lecturers paid for a single course or module, adjunct faculty members, and GTAs who served as the instructor of record without pay are fundamental to teaching at their universities. Participants also reflected on the challenges that sessional teachers face at their universities with the aim of identifying how such challenges can be mitigated, and sessional teachers can be better supported. Challenges included the transactional nature of sessional teaching (e.g., getting paid per hour or module), limited reciprocity and collegiality, while also hindering opportunities for training and mutual investment. Sessional teachers can feel a lack of connection, belonging, and community while also facing a lack of respect from students and permanent staff. Another point of discussion was that sessional teachers are often underpaid and treated as a temporary solution to workload and teaching allocation issues. With these challenges in mind, the workshop turned to the MIJ framework. After a brief introduction, small groups reflected on the principles in their contexts. Conversations included capacity building opportunities available at their institutions and ways that the principles were or could be embedded. In the final section of the workshop, participants developed and shared strategies for integrating the MIJ framework to build community and support sessional teachers. Examples included: • Re-framing the relevance of teaching (and associated training) as the development of long-term and transferrable skills • Integrating peer teaching to foster agency, ownership, and mentorship • Communicating expectations that are direct and caring • Working with sessional teachers to understand what they want out of capacity building activities and the skills they hope to develop • Leveraging existing resources instead of reinventing the wheel while being intentional about matching resources with needs • Offering both general and discipline-specific training This workshop highlighted the crucial role that sessional teachers play in facilitating education. By sharing their experiences and learning from each other, participants underscored the importance of exchanging effective practices and models for supporting sessional teachers and building their sense of community. REFERENCES Bryson, C. (2013). 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