Learn English – How to call someone who gives classes but is not actually a teacher

vocabularyword-request

How would you call someone who gives classes to students despite not having a degree in teaching nor it being their main occupation ?

For example, a lot of "teachers" I had in college were actually professionals in the field they were teaching, who would only do this for 2 or 4 hours a week in addition to their main job.

In France I have heard the term "Chargé d'enseignement", which litterally means "In charge of teaching".

Is there a similar word or expression in English ? Or would you just call them teachers ?

Best Answer

As a general rule, they aren't called teachers at or above the university level, they are called instructors or professors. The term you are looking for is adjunct, and you could call this person an adjunct professor, or an adjunct faculty member.

NOAD defines the word like this:

adjunct (adj.) (of an academic post) attached to the staff of a college in a temporary or assistant capacity : an adjunct professor of entomology. [as n.] both adjuncts and tenured professors tend to inflate grades.

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