A new study on student’s perceptions of their professor’s political ideology argues that while there is the potential for professors to evaluate or grade a student unfairly based on political differences between the two, it is actually more likely that the student will unfairly evaluate the professor based on their differences in political beliefs:

A new study -- soon to be published in PS: Political Science & Politics -- finds that students are the ones with bias, attributing characteristics to their professors based on the students’ perceptions of their faculty members’ politics and how much they differ from their own. The authors say that the study directly refutes the idea that students are being somehow indoctrinated by views that they don’t like.

“Students aren’t simply sponges,” says April Kelly-Woessner, part of the husband-and-wife team of political scientists who wrote the study. Further, she adds that the study suggests that not only do students not change their views because of professors, but may even “push back” and judge professors based on politics, not merit.

The study ends with a strong call for professors to be willing to present ideas that may upset some students. “College is not Club Med. As instructors, we ought not to refine our pedagogy exclusively for the purpose of making students comfortable or improving course evaluations,” write [the study’s authors].

It’s nice to have some research to illustrate the dynamics of classroom “culture wars” from the other side of the podium. I personally agree that we need to give students a lot more sense of agency than we currently do and to understand that students are free to agree or disagree with what we as professors have to say.

In other words, as this study shows, what’s actually going on inside classrooms is not “indoctrination” -- it is an exchange of ideas, opinions, and information -- otherwise known as “college.”