As someone being allowed their weekly soapbox in a public forum, I can’t help but address the issue of personal bias. For those of you who haven’t noticed yet, I’m young, impassioned and not always so great at pulling my written punches. I definitely have an opinion and have made no effort to hide that. But, seeing as I’m sounding from an opinion column, this should come as no shocking surprise. Outside of op-ed, however, things get trickier.
Though in practical, real-world application the rules twist and turn nastier than a feline’s gooey hairball, journalists and media programs, etc. are supposed to either remain totally impartial or be open about their particular biases. In an industry where “bias” has become a four-letter word and everyone pretends that ad agencies aren’t stringing newsrooms up by their ears? Good luck.
What gets me is that anyone can see that we all have our own particular bias no matter how much we want to play otherwise. It’s inescapable right down to which facts we choose to utilize and share. The way in which we ‘overcome’ the limitations imparted to us by perspective is by acknowledging it both in ourselves and in the people and outlets around us. Shake the boogeyman’s hand, as it were.
Okay fine, journalists and news stations have biases. They’re part of the media machine. We’re getting used to this idea – I know I’m not the only one who spotted the Nazi propaganda references in the later Harry Potter films. But the more recent bias scare isn’t about the media; it’s about our schools. Specifically the fingers have been pointing at the liberal biases of college faculty.
Several institutions have performed studies (some more scientific than others) into the political bias trends of college professors. After all, internationally and historically colleges have been notorious centers for liberal, left wing activism. Despite the variations in final statistics, these studies are across the board showing a liberal lean. The legitimate concern is that this blatant bias is affecting the millions of college students that pass through the system every year. The question is what to do about it.
We could require colleges to orchestrate political balance across every department. But this would require a massive mobilization and reshuffling of professors throughout the US not to mention necessitating the upset of many tenured professors. Could we even legally do this without falling into the trap of political discrimination?
We could also force professors into contracts demanding impartial curriculum, assignments and grading, …which they should be doing anyway. This would call for a committee to review all curriculum and behavior. Now regardless of whether or not a college can spare the resources for such a committee, who monitors their bias?
Or we could just require all professors to state their bias in the professional biographies available to the students applying for their classes. The problem here is what criteria would we use to determine bias? How specific are we talking and how long before we impinge on personal rights to privacy? Next, would we then require students take a balanced curriculum? If there aren’t enough viable options for that, we’re right back where we started, aiming for a balanced faculty across all departments.
Maybe the solution lies in flipping the question. Instead of asking why colleges have more liberal professors we should look at why more liberals decide to pursue professorial professions. The more I read into this issue, the more it feels like a self-perpetuating problem.
In a 2010 article by the National Association of Scholars entitled “Typecasting: Why Nurses are Women, Cops are Conservatives, and Professors are Liberals” journalist Ashley Thorne cites two leading sociological researchers Neil Gross and Ethan Fosse. Thorne writes that, “professors are more likely to have fewer children, advanced degrees, ‘higher levels of tolerance for controversial issues,’ non-conservative religious beliefs, and a disparity between their education levels and their income.” These traits in conjunction with one another are more often compatible with liberalism than conservatism. Chicken or the egg?
This disposition has, supposedly, led to the majority we have now. That is not in any way saying that liberals are smarter than conservatives – a false claim often used to justify the status quo. The majority we have now is also responsible for selecting the next wave of professionals. And, again, bias is bias. How do we fight that?
I’m pretty liberal, no lie, but I do believe in a chance to weigh both sides of an argument (assuming there are only two, which there almost never is). Any individual’s best weapon against blind bias is education and awareness. Why don’t we teach classes that force students to take sides with opposing perspectives in debates, assign research papers that look into the other side of an issue? It seems to me that would be far better than just pointing more fingers.
Then again, as everything I write, that’s just my opinion.
