Academia's Big Tent

Campus Report ^ | March 24, 2008 | Malcolm Kline

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Academia’s Big Tent

by: Malcolm A. Kline, March 24, 2008

You can get a pretty good idea of where academics are coming from politically and where they expect their junior colleagues to fall on the political spectrum by what they tell each other, particularly when they put it down on paper. “The numerous ways of teaching suggest that there are varying philosophical or personal visions put forth about college teaching,” Michael W. Galbraith writes in College Teaching: Developing Perspective Through Dialogue....

“Once you discover what beliefs, values, and attitudes you hold, you will have the basis for a focused and action-oriented vision or philosophy for your teaching.”....Galbraith goes on to show that he does not envision an exceptionally huge tent philosophically that feeds into the faculty lounge.

Galbraith is a professor of leadership studies at Marshall University Graduate College in South Charleston, West Virginia. “Several approaches can help you gain insight,” he explains. “One approach is to complete the inventory developed by Zinn (2004).”

“This self-administered, self-scoring, and self-interpreted inventory will place you in one of five philosophical orientations:

• “Liberal;

• “Behaviorist;

• “Progressive:

• “Humanistic: or

• “Radical.”

Notice what is missing:

• Conservative;

• Libertarian;

• Objectivist;

• Traditionalist; or even

• Moderate.

“The social Reform Perspective is the final perspective on teaching I will briefly examine,” writes Galbraith. “This perspective is based upon an explicitly stated ideal or set of principles that are linked to a vision of a better social order (Nesbit, 1998).”

“If you, as a college teacher, conform to this perspective then you would make three assumptions:

• “That the ideals held are necessary for a better society;

• “They are appropriate for all; and

• “That the ultimate goal of teaching is to bring about social change, not simply individual learning.”

[epluribus_2]

“That the ultimate goal of teaching is to bring about social change, not simply individual learning.”

says it all. Lenin asked for the children...

[vikingd00d]

Everytime a college professor opens his mouth, I keep hearing a parody from the Blues Brothers:

“What kind of politics do you usually have here?”
“Oh, we got BOTH kinds Maoist AND Stalinist”.

[polymuser]

Google “The Frankfurt School” for some background on the genesis of this.

[wintertime]

ping