One Person's Bias...

The other day, the local paper headlined an article about a survey at the local university. According to the paper, the university contracted with the American Council of Trustees and Alumni to conduct a survey of intellectual diversity in classrooms. ACTA is a "nonpartisan organization that agitates for intellectual diversity in the classroom." ACTA sent a web-based survey to 14,820 students last spring. 1220 bothered to respond.

What did they want to know? Well, they wanted to find out if "professors have sometimes inappropriately presented their political or religious views in class," or if students felt that they "personally had a class where they felt they had to agree with the professor's views to get a good grade." According to the results, approximately 25% of the respondents felt like they had to agree with a professor to get a good grade. Only 13% felt like their professors inappropriately presented their own views in class.

According to the paper, the university asked ACTA to conduct the survey "in part [in] response to persistent fears among Republican lawmakers that college professors are aggressively pushing their liberal views on students, trying to reach impressionable young adults and change their minds." Apparently, these lawmakers believe that I and my peers have a lot more power and influence than we actually have. Brainwashing young adults would require that the young adults pay attention and listen. Tall order in today's classrooms.

Getting past the obvious problems with methodology (opt-in web survey, poor response rate, those with a problem more likely to respond), I feel the need to get a few things off my chest. Here's the thing: I personally guard against presenting my own views in class. I'm pretty sure that my students can guess which side of the fence I'm on, but in class, I try to take the Daily Show approach and pick on everyone equally. I keep my political bumper stickers in my home office. I try to encourage class discussion where students respect each other's opinions, even if they disagree. And, I try to give assignments where students are free to formulate an argument of their choosing. Their grade depends on their ability to support that argument with relevant and credible evidence.

After reading this article, I'm pretty sure that I'd be accused of liberal bias in the classroom. Because, the thing is, if you're looking for bias, you'll find it. For some, the very mention of African American history, women's history, Native American history, and the history of other minority groups smacks of liberalism. To suggest that dead white guys weren't geniouses who came up with brilliant reforms out of thin air can be seen as blasphemy. In my classes, I don't discount the accomplishments of important generals, politicians, and statesmen, but I also try to present a more complicated picture where those fellows exist in a larger world. Is this unacceptable liberal bias? Perhaps to some.

Most of all, I want students to think. Not to think like me, but to engage with questions of race, gender, ethnicity, and class. I also try to show that even within those categories, there's a continuum that runs from liberal to conservative - and that those definitions change over time.

One last point about the student who feels punished for disagreeing with their professor. I will freely admit that there are some cases where professors fail students who don't agree with them. We had a notorious case in the northeastern post-industrial wasteland. But, there's another side to this issue. Sometimes, in my experience, students don't know what they think and they're not necessarily willing to take the time to figure it out. So, they simply agree with me because they think that's what I want. Would these students say that they felt pressured to agree with me? I don't know. I would hope not.

OK, one more point. Some things are not conservative or liberal, they're just plain wrong. For example, if a student argues that European imperialism was a 100% positive experience for native peoples in Africa, North America, and South America, well, I'm going to challenge that position, even if the student presents evidence. I don't think the student's position is either conservative or liberal, it's just ignorant, simplistic, and offensive. However, the student could perceive that my insistence on a more complex analysis is too liberal.

So, I guess my final point is that without finding out more about the respondents' experience, this survey doesn't say much. But, maybe I'm just biased.