Study Finds Profs Don’t Impose Politics on Students

Posted on March 20, 2009
Filed Under News, The Daily Prereq | By Jessica Gross

Six months ago, a UCLA study indicated that peers influence students’ political leanings much more than their professors. A new study, from the University of British Columbia, provides a reason: college professors tend to keep their politics out of the classroom — even when their beliefs are central to their academic research.

The study — by sociologist Neil Gross and based on interviews with 57 profs in a range of disciplines — should comfort conservatives worried that professors (who tend to be more liberal than the average American) will trap students in their leftist webs.

It’s not enough to simply document professors’ politics, Gross writes. What is needed is more attention to how professors handle the “knowledge-politics problem” in their work.

The follow-up question: do professors need to completely exclude their beliefs from their teaching to let students think freely, or is encouraging open discourse enough?

(Source: Inside Higher Ed)

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

Comments

Leave a Reply




Security Code: