How should I write my adjunct faculty cover letter?

I AM an adjunct professor at a community college. I got the job with no teaching experience at all, simply meeting the job requirements for the position, which included a master's degree in my field (Computer Science) and doing well in the interview as well as the "sample lecture". As someone who has hired others, I think a well written cover letter is key, but I would not go into great detail with teaching philosophies. A cover letter is a pitch and by necessity should be short. I would mention prior teaching experience, and perhaps a sentence about how your tutoring of high school students is a portable skill that would also aid you in a collegiate classroom environment. Then in the interview you sell them on it.

As someone who has hired others, I think a well written cover letter is key, but I would not go into great detail with teaching philosophies. I don't doubt this at all for arniec's experience because there's a range of expectations out there, but typically for academic positions one would call it a "letter of interest" and while this genre is concise, it is not typically as short as a cover letter in other sectors. If you are interviewing for a CC position, you will want to highlight your understanding of their institution and the students it serves. You will want to highlight your own education, experience (and possibly research) as it fits with the job announcement (and it really should be a good fit these days). You will want to use language that codes your basic educational and pedagogical philosophy so that you can offer an explanation of how you teach without going too deeply into it. Still, a paragraph on this is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you are lacking the experiences that would signal to a hiring committee that you already know your stuff. Doing these things takes more than a page, typically 1 1/2 to 2 pages.

Following on amelioration's first point, I think you would get a lot of good (though possibly grim) responses if you posted this question in http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php, either in the job-seeking experiences forum or maybe in the non-tenure track forum.

I'm an adjunct at a large University in a smaller graduate program. But I've also taught undergrads at a smaller, private university. I obtained my adjunct gig (which also allows me to help design courses) through being open to teaching assistant roles at the graduate level when they were struggling to find someone at the last minute, offering to help the Director of the program with research--part time--while I had another full-time job, and also offering to be a Graduate Research Advisor. I was able to showcase my skills with students as well as my proficiency with the material and those experiences, over time, allowed me to step into my current adjunct role. So, what I'm saying is, don't be discouraged. If teaching adults is really interesting to you, there are more ways than one to develop a relationship with a CC. I think http://ask.metafilter.com/126143/How-should-I-write-my-adjunct-faculty-cover-letter#1801700 has it. Demonstrating an understanding of the specifics of their student population and how your experience best serves that population will set you apart in a cover letter. Also, from the language of your question ("I only have experience with teaching elementary school students"), I get the impression that you are seeing your work with younger kids as counting against you somehow. I've taught K-8, I've taught undergrads, I've taught graduates, and I've taught in corporations. http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JOTS/Summer-Fall-2000/holmes.html. A facilitative, student-centered style instead of an instructor-focused style, stemming from a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivism_(learning_theory)/http://www.fsu.edu/~adult-ed/jenny/philosophy.html set of philosophies. I wouldn't use those formal terms to describe my philosophy in a cover letter, though. I'd use the actions that define those philosophies, like the items from the Philosophy of Adult Education Inventory or PAEI (which you can view and take http://www25.brinkster.com/educ605/paei_howtouse.htm.) Don't assume that adjunct work means lecture and instructor-centered learning. Both university-level programs that I taught for chose me for my assignments based upon my ability to deliver material in a challenging, creative way. My work with elementary students was a great asset to me in this regard. Good luck.

I'm just here to support the notion that you should ask this over at the relevant Chronicle of Higher Ed forum. I normally suggest this with questions about academia on AskMe but I think this is particularly relevant here. It is also fair to warn you, like amelioration, that the academic job market is particularly harsh this season and that you may well be competing with Ph.Ds with plenty of college-level teaching, but that's just the nature of the beast. No one, not even Ivy Ph.Ds, has it easy this season, so this is upping the job market ante, so to speak. You shouldn't let that put you off applying, but you should be aware of this. Best of luck!