There is an emerging need to better understand how orientation practices and strategies affect a sense of belonging for new faculty members, especially the growing number of adjunct faculty hired at community colleges throughout the U.S. each year. Establishing an orientation process for newcomers helps to ensure that new members are better able to navigate uncertain occupational conditions, new cultural contexts, and new role expectations. For new adjunct faculty joining community colleges, a robust orientation process and effective self-directed orientation strategies may promote a greater sense of inclusion, role clarity, and alignment with institutional initiatives and practices.

This multi-site embedded case study focused on defining specific orientation practices and strategies adopted by educational leaders and adjunct faculty members from English and math departments at two community colleges in Southern California. Through interviews with recently-hired adjunct faculty and educational leaders at the institutional and department level, as well as an analysis of orientation practices and documentation, the study makes explicit the ways that newcomers navigate new faculty roles at a given community college as well as the ways that educational leaders design orientation processes. The resulting case studies describe the organizational socialization process that newcomers at each department and institution undergo, as well as successful practices that span both institutions. Further, the study identifies prosocial activities that new adjunct faculty adopted to increase their personal sense of inclusion and orientation as new faculty members. Some of the most promising practices for educational leaders include establishing both formal and informal orientation activities, developing a communication strategy, and providing resources for new faculty members that promote social connection, leadership activities, and professional growth. Promising practices enacted by individual adjunct faculty members, which were found across sites and departments, included establishing a presence on campus, networking with staff and faculty, and adopting the mindset of established faculty members.