ERIC Number: EJ889459
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Oct
Pages: 11
Abstractor: ERIC
Reference Count: 17
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0092-055X
The Behaviors that College Students Classify as Political Bias: Preliminary Findings and Implications
Tollini, Craig
Teaching Sociology, v37 n4 p379-389 Oct 2009
There have been a number of recently published books and reports about the existence of a liberal bias in academia (e.g., ACTA 2005, ACTA 2006, Berube 2006, Black 2004, Horowitz 2006, Horowitz 2008, and Shapiro 2004). Sociology is one of the disciplines that is most frequently cited as "producers" of bias in two of these studies (ACTA 2006, Horowitz 2006), as well as in two Web sites on which students can post accusations of bias (No Indoctrination, http://noindoctrination.org/cgibin/view_listings.cgi, and Students for Academic Freedom, http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org/comp/default.asp). Furthermore, sociologists may be accused of bias because students often resist or object to the material presented in sociology classes, especially when faculty members discuss sex and gender and/or race and ethnicity. For these reasons, sociologists should have a comprehensive understanding of the debate surrounding academic bias, including the behaviors students are likely to interpret as bias. Researchers need to directly address how students define bias and to include a wide range of students in their sample. This research is necessary because, if college students define bias differently than researchers, faculty, and other interested parties, the previous literature on bias and, therefore, understanding of the prevalence and range of bias may be fundamentally flawed. This article reports the preliminary findings of a survey conducted to determine which professorial behaviors college students classify as political bias. (Contains 5 tables and 3 footnotes.)
Descriptors: College Students, Bias, Political Attitudes, Definitions, Classification, Teacher Behavior, Sociology, Questionnaires, Controversial Issues (Course Content), College Faculty, Teacher Attitudes, Student Surveys, Student Attitudes
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers: N/A

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