Political Bias in the Classroom: Rethinking the Way You Teach

February 10, 2010

By: Darren L. Linvill, Ph.D. in Trends in Higher Education

Editor’s Note: In Tuesday’s post, the author provided a research-based look at the perception of a liberal bias on college campuses. In today’s article the author discusses steps faculty can take to eliminate that perception in the classroom.

The perception of a pervasive, liberal political bias in the halls of academia has become commonplace in recent years. While research suggests that professors’ political beliefs have no measurable effect on students, the perception of bias is no less real and may be affecting the credibility of higher education as a whole. Real or imagined, perception becomes reality for students and the public alike. The professoriate needs to take the perception of political bias seriously and make steps to change this perception for the better.

Eliminating the perception of political bias in academia must begin in the classroom. When discussing important, politically sensitive issues with their students instructors must, whenever possible, give up what Freire refers to as “banking education” but others call simply the “I pitch, you catch” approach. Such instruction stems from the view that students are empty vessels into which knowledge is poured. Students do not come to college as blank slates, however, and it seems likely this approach to teaching is responsible for many experiences students perceive as political bias on the part of the professor.

Such instruction also does not take into account individual student development. Individual students react to new information differently depending on their intellectual development. Identity development, how students perceive themselves, and cognitive development, how they process information, both play a role in how students react to new ideas. Well-developed students are often more willing and capable of exploring unfamiliar concepts. It seems likely that students at some developmental levels may perceive ideas from their professors that challenge the students’ own established beliefs as indoctrination, regardless of their professor’s actual reasons for introducing these ideas.

Experts make various recommendations for teaching concepts while also fostering student development. Many such recommendations focus on presenting ideas in a manner that allows them to explore the intricacies of those ideas as a class, with the instructor creating an atmosphere of communication that is not uni-directional. Given the proper data as well as the tools to do their own research and an open forum for discussion, students are able to both learn new concepts and grow cognitively. Such learning comes without the risk of these lessons being dismissed by the student as political indoctrination.

While there is an ideological imbalance in the professoriate and certainly cases where ideology plays an inappropriate role in the classroom, current research does not show that such abuse is widespread or has any effect on student populations. College should be a place where students and their beliefs are challenged, but not intimidated. To do the former without the perception of the latter, instructors must take into account student development. Doing so will help foster an environment of open-minded inquiry to the benefit of the students and the institution alike.

References
Kemmelmeier, M., Danielson, C., & Basten, J. (2005). What’s in a grade? Academic success and political orientation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 31, 1386-1399.

A special report: The Chronicle survey of public opinion on higher education (2004, May 7). The Chronicle of Higher Education, 50(35), A12-13.

Mariani, M. D. & Hewitt, G. J. (2008). Indoctrination U.? Faculty ideology and changes in student political orientation. PS: Political Science and Politics, 41(4).

Darren L. Linvill, Ph.D., is the Basic Courses Director in the Department of Communication Studies at Clemson University.