My Professor is a Partisan Hack: How Perceptions of a Professor's Political Views Affect Student Course Evaluations

Abstract

In recent years, a number of prominent political commentators have raised concerns about the lack of ideological diversity on college campuses (Shapiro 2004; Black 2004; Kors and Silvergate 1999; Kimball 1998). Among other accusations, they claim that liberal college professors may actually penalize students for expressing conservative opinions by assigning them lower marks on exams and assignments (Horowitz 2003; Hebel 2004). Their concern is not without merit. Researchers have found that, when evaluating a colleague's research, college professors are more critical of work that contradicts their own views (Mahoney 1977). It is logical to assume that the same bias influences professors' evaluations of students' arguments. It is also reasonable to expect that students, charged with the important task of evaluating their professors, are vulnerable to their own ideological biases.We thank Markus Kemmelmeier and Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier for their helpful suggestions and valuable guidance. We also acknowledge the valuable support of research assistants Jessica Defenderfer, Cristina Ciocirlan, and Kathleen Winters. Finally, we would like to acknowledge a debt of gratitude to the dozens of political science faculty throughout the country who took the time to distribute our survey to their undergraduate students. This project would not have been possible without their generous assistance. This research was funded through a Faculty Research Grant from Elizabethtown College.

The Professor, Pluralism, and Pedagogy: A Reflection

“…Recently, much scholarship and not a little debate has centered around the ways in which faculty characteristics ''bias'' student learning (Helium 2010;Horowitz 2008); despite the focus on ideological characteristics, recent scholarship has shown our political impact on our students may be much less than the tone of current public debate might lead us to expect (Kelly-Woessner and Woessner 2006). Another strand of research has explored how our own racial, gender, and class characteristics have influenced the way students receive our teaching (Anderson and Smith 2005;Delgado and Bell 1989;Sprinkle 2008) and our attempts to expand the curriculum (Kupenda 1997;Williams 1991).…”

The Consequences of Teaching Critical Sociology on Course Evaluations

“…Another research study in political science by Kelly-Woessner and Woessner (2006) targets the political perspective of the student and the perspective of the professor. Students are asked to provide an assessment of the political orientation of the professor and also their own political ideology.…”

“…Even though some literature (Dixon & McCabe, 2006) demonstrates that the presentation of diverse perspectives is associated with higher evaluations, other literature (Kelly-Woessner & Woessner, 2006) shows that the difference in perspective between professor and student is an important predictor of evaluation scores. Thus, having diverse perspectives in the classroom may be necessary, but not sufficient, for higher evaluations if students' perspectives differ from their professors'.…”

When Tenure Protects the Incompetent: Results from a Survey of Department Chairs

“…The research to date has done little to clarify the matter, for it has dealt with such matters as how posttenure reviews are structured (Goodman 1994;Wood and Des Jarlais 2006); the use of external review letters in tenure cases (Schlozman 1998); whether the materials used in tenure reviews can predict successful academic careers (Lewis 1980); how well peer reviews, student evaluations, and portfolios measure teaching (Boyer 1990;Algozzine et al 2004;Kelly-Woessner and Woessner 2006;Kohut, Burnap, and Yon 2007;Langbein 1994;Yon, Burnap, and Kohut 2002); the standards differing types of departments use in tenure decisions (Rothgeb and Burger 2009); and what variables are associated with the denial of tenure and with promotions in political science departments (Hesli, Lee, and Mitchell 2012;Marshall and Rothgeb 2011). This absence of research regarding when tenure protects the incompetent leaves a serious gap in our understanding of an important professional issue.…”