Editorial: Professor bias doesn’t always hinder learning

The question of whether students’ education is compromised
by the political biases of their professors has come up recently in
various media. Concern emerges from the belief that students will
mold their intellect and ideology around the ideas communicated by
their professors, rather than formulate their own belief system
based on an unbiased education.

Professors are biased; that’s the bottom line. At UCLA,
about 90 percent of professors in the political science department
registered with a major political party are Democrats. It’s
understandable why conservative students might feel they are in the
minority, when so few openly Republican professors teach their
classes.

But a professor’s political preferences do not necessarily
inhibit him or her from establishing a productive, diverse learning
environment. Bias exists because professors are just as human as
students, and so have developed sets of values throughout their
careers that often affects the orientation of their research. Often
time these biases may not come through at all because the subject
matter for many disciplines, such as engineering or the physical
sciences, does not actively ask students to think about
controversial issues as much as classes in the political science,
sociology or public policy fields would. That the biases exist,
though, should not be regarded as the problem: biases become
problematic when they lead to unintelligent political banter that
can hinder student education.

Many professors and teaching assistants of liberal persuasions
are known to off-handedly joke about the president or the
Republican Party for the sake of joking, not education. Though
seemingly innocent, unsubstantiated humor has the effect of
belittling the values students in the classroom may hold. When
their values are made the subject of professors’ amusement,
students will be less likely to voice those values and challenge
the positions taken by their professors. Conservative students are
already “surrounded” by liberal peers; to have the
professor make light of the classroom minority is unfair. It
defeats the whole purpose of college. College should be a safe
place for the free interchange of ideas leading to personal
intellectual enrichment.

Professors cannot separate themselves from their ideology,
especially when teaching about politics and contemporary social
issues ““ and there’s no reason why they should try to.
Teaching students about the research they have done supporting
their ideas about society will help students on the same
ideological plane develop a foundation for their own ideas.
However, professors must also make certain to create an environment
where students who disagree with them have no reservations about
contradicting them in class. Having an open, frank debate about
political issues where multiple ideological frameworks are analyzed
and students are allowed to grow no matter what their political
persuasions are is the ideal.

It’s not productive for professors to pretend they are
neutral, or to compromise the extent of the research they present
in class in an effort to seem unbiased. Intelligent debate is key.
And this can be accomplished through a relationship of mutual
respect between professors and students which emphasizes student
learning regardless of personal biases.