|
Roundtable: Political Partisanship in the Classroom
We live in a heightened partisan environment. This statement seems most true for the United States. But it is relevant to other countries as well. Richard Stanton reports that Australia is going through a similar process. Dominic Wring describes European politics as more politically cohesive these days. But it is a consensus bought at the expense of greater partisanship against the United States. Other countries, especially those in central and Eastern Europe that are experiencing democracy for the first time, have their own unique experiences of partisanship.
In an essay published last summer in PS: Political Science (volume 39, no. 3, pp. 495-502), April Kelly-Woessner and Matthew Woessner trace the impact of this trend for American political science classrooms. They find that student learning is filtered both by their own ideological leanings and by perceptions of their professors' political opinions. This filtering, Professor Kelly-Woessner explains in her commentary accompanying this roundtable, can inhibit student learning. Their ideological predisopositions may lead some students simply to dismiss key ideas. Or, they may refuse to participate in class discussions they feel are weighted against their views.
The subject seems especially vital for those of us who teach courses on media & politics. The topic is of such importance to partisan debates that many students come to our classes with preconceived ideas that can be difficult to pierce. Class discussions can easily become overheated, or veer off-topic, or, perhaps worst of all, be dominated by one political viewpoint. How ought we to handle these situations? As Elizabeth Skewes puts it in her reflection on teaching such a course on media & elections during the last presidential cycle: "How could I teach a class that was focusing on politics and elections—and do so in an election year that was being defined by Bush’s policies in Iraq—without injecting my own views into the class and while creating a classroom where students from a broad range of political perspectives felt free to express their opinions?"
One common response is to play things strictly down the middle—be devil's advocate for whatever view students express. This is perhaps the most traditional academic response to such issues. Our job is to teach, not to proselytize. But as Regina Lawrence notes in her reflection, these days such even-handedness can feel (both to instructors and students) like a sell-out—a version of the objectivity ritual that journalists often stand behind. A heightened partisan environment nearly demands that people take sides.
The alternative, of course, is to let our political leanings hang out, so to speak. Stephen Harrington argues that doing so can feel more natural than searching for an artificial balance. It may also energize students, inviting them to become political actors rather than merely consumers. Of course, this strategy has its own dangers. At the very least, students who do not share our views may feel threatened.
The complexities presented by the issue seem endless. A feminist scholar from India, it is very difficult for Sonora Jha to find a neutral stance in her classes. As she notes, the suggestion to hide one's ideology "is easier said than done, especially for a faculty member seen as being, for better or for worse, 'a woman of color.' To twist Shakespeare’s line for my own political purpose here, I would say: 'Some are born with ideology, some achieve ideology, and some have ideology thrust upon them.'"
And what of the situation in Poland, where, Agnieszka Stepinska reports, the problem isn't that students have ideological leanings toward one poliitical position or another; rather, they mistrust politics altogether. "[Students] are," she writes, "at once as passive as their parents generation and less knowledgeable about public affairs. Thus, although they are not satisfied with the current political situation, their response is rather to avoid than to change it." What is a teacher to do in this situation?
A refusal to respond is not an option. Whether we like it or not, the world outside impacts what happens in the classroom. It is our duty as teachers to figure out ways to make this connection productive for our students. The authors contributing to this roundtable have done us a great service by offering their experiences, and a few of the tricks they use to deal with the question of partisanship.
I thank all of them for their hard work.
Stephen Harrington, "Letting it All Hang Out...While Keeping the Passion"
Sonora Jha, "Role-Playing, Or Tap Dancing Through Partisanship in the Classroom"
Regina Lawrence, "Classrooom Politics in a Partisan Era"
Elizabeth Skewes, "Bridging Political Divides in the Classroom"
Richard Stanton, "Playing MediaPolitics: Reflections on the Conservative Right on Two Australian Campuses"
Agnieszka Stepinska, "Students Against Politics: How to Change Their Minds?"
Dominic Wring, "Partisanship Among American and European Students: A Comparison"
|
