Teaching Comparative

Partisanship and Teaching and Learning

Do you let students know your political preferences? Do you work at playing devil's advocate with classes? How do your revelations, your acting, or your attempts at neutrality affect your students' learning?

These topics have come up often during discussions at exam readings and in workshops. They are questions we all have considered and found ways of answering for ourselves and our students. Our own values, our knowledge, and our debating and acting abilities all influence our choices. Is there decision-making guidance beyond the anecdotal experiences we and our colleagues have?

Patrick O'Neil, in his blog at the University of Puget Sound, referred to an interesting article in PS, a publication of the American Political Science Association.


The article is My Professor is a Partisan Hack: How Perceptions of a Professor's Political Views Affect Student Course Evaluations. It was written by April Kelly-Woessner and Matthew C. Woessner. (Free registration is necessary to read the article.)

What do the authors tell us?

As you might expect, students give more favorable ratings to professors they perceive as ideological "soul mates." The other part of the findings we need to pay attention to is that when students perceive political distance between their professors and themselves, they express less interested in the subject matter. Dr. O'Neil reminds us that "Striking a balance in the classroom, challenging students' existing ideological biases while not alienating them in the process, is no easy task."

The study did not tell us about learning, but we can probably infer that greater interest leads to learning. (Someone want to do another study?) In any case, here's some research to guide our choices as we teach politics in a political environment. The choices are important and they are still ours.


By the way, secondary teachers can join APSA at a reduced rate.

posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:23 AM