The Adjunct Track

Keeping Your Politics Out of the Classroom

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By Jill Carroll

Maybe you read about the controversy this spring at Citrus College, where students accused an adjunct instructor of offering them extra credit if they wrote letters to President Bush that opposed going to war in Iraq. Although the instructor denied the allegation, the college placed her on administrative leave. The instructor also was accused of having the students write letters to a state lawmaker on the importance of adjuncts in higher education.

Many of us see clearly what is problematic about such actions. At least, I hope we do. Situations like this have popped up across academe in recent months, but much of the debate over whether professors should air their political views in the classroom has revolved around full-time faculty members. As the case at Citrus shows, adjuncts need to be especially cautious on this front, given our tenuous, if ubiquitous, presence in academe.

For purely practical reasons, I would argue that adjuncts should refrain from offering their personal political views in class. We don't have tenure, and what we say -- if it's unrelated to the topic of our courses -- could get us fired. For this reason alone, I advise adjuncts to stick to the syllabus.

But let's set aside for the moment the practical matter of losing your job over this. Adjuncts, and perhaps all faculty members, should reflect deeply about the pros and cons of airing personal views -- of any kind -- unrelated to the course content. Whatever the topic, my advice would be the same: Refrain from using your classroom to express your personal views.

As instructors, one of our primary tasks is to establish a good learning environment in the classroom, one that is safe. By safe, I mean one in which students feel that they can write, think, explore, and express ideas without being punished. A safe environment is one of equanimity, where all students are treated as equals, all take on the same or equivalent assignments, and all are evaluated according to the same scale. Too often, the airing of personal views of any kind, but especially controversial ones, compromises the classroom environment.

When you offer extra credit only to those students who agree with your personal political views, you destroy the equanimity in the classroom. Students who don't share your views are immediately vulnerable no matter how well-written their letters are. They are forced to strategically protect themselves from you, their instructor. Such an environment is not a learning environment at all.

Another problem with faculty members' airing political views in class is that, depending on how it's done, it's often patronizing to the students.

A student at my university recently told me of an art-history professor who took 20 minutes of class time to lecture the students on the unjustness of the war with Iraq. She went through all the familiar reasons for opposing the war, then told students she felt the need to "explain" these events to them "because of the tragedy that's happening to the Iraqi people."

The students, apparently, were angry and felt patronized and manipulated -- even those who agreed with the professor's stance on the war. They were in the classroom for an education on art history. As young adults and citizens of the world who have as much access to the global news coverage as we do, they are entitled to make up their own minds about current world events without us standing at the lectern "explaining" and telling them how it is, without debate. In this case, the professor took on the role of parent or priest -- sole mediator of "the truth" -- when the "truth" is still very much in question. This, in itself, undermines the spirit of free inquiry that supposedly grounds the modern, secular university.

Both of these scenarios illuminate what is perhaps the most troubling aspect of airing personal views in the classroom -- that it is a problematic use of professorial power.

Like it or not, professors have the power in the classroom, and not merely because we hand out the grades. We are also "in power" simply by the fact that we stand behind the lectern and say whatever we say before a captive audience. I realized this tremendous power for the first time as a new instructor many years ago when I saw students furiously taking notes of everything I said. I became immediately more aware of the huge responsibility I have when I stand in front of a classroom to present information accurately and conscientiously, with integrity and with respect not only for the subject matter but for the students sitting in my class.

But what if the students ask for your opinion point blank? That obviously gives you an opening to share your views, but I'm not convinced that the simple fact of their asking does anything to mitigate the potential damage you can do to the teaching environment if you're not careful. When students ask my opinion about some issue -- and I decide to answer -- I try to make clear that these are my personal views only and that if students have a different perspective, I am happy to hear it.

Some will argue that if the Dixie Chicks get to say what they think about the war during a concert, why can't we -- some of the world's most educated and informed on the planet -- say what we think in the classroom?

Well, we can say what we think -- just not to a captive audience whose GPA's and degree status are at our mercy. Hold a public lecture or a forum on campus and state your views to the heavens. Publish an open letter in a newspaper or journal denouncing or extolling the cause of your choice. Your students aren't forced to listen or read that.

And when you walk back into your classroom, check those personal views at the door as much as possible, and adopt a more balanced, professional posture so that the students know they don't have to agree with what you said in order to pass the class.