Studies on Faculty Bias Are Severely Flawed, Says Study By Diverse
staff re****ts Jan 23, 2007, 06:45
http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_6910.shtml
Studies that indicate college faculty members are liberals who pound a
liberal ideology into the minds of impressionable college students rely
on flawed methodology, according to a new *****sment of faculty bias
studies. Those studies also exclude community-college faculty members,
which should further raise questions about the veracity of these
studies, say officials with the American Federation of Teachers, which
commissioned the review.
"Faculty Bias: Science or Propoganda?" by AFT consultant John Lee
looked at eight studies that determined a liberal bent in academia to
see if the studies met the minimum criteria for research standards.
The analysis found that none of the eight re****ts met the standards
required for a legitimate research study. Several authors speculate
about their research implications, writes Lee, but the speculation is
based on their perspectives and not as a result of their research.
"Passing off personal opinions is not science," says Lee.
"Objective research is essential, and clearly, that is not what we
find in the studies analyzed in this re****t," adds AFT President
Edward J. McElroy. "It doesn't matter if you are conservative or
liberal. Bad research and inaccurate characterizations are a disservice
to academia and to the students who are its central concern."
Take for example the 2005 study "How Many Ward Churchills?" which
attempts to prove colleges are overrun by professors like the
University of Colorado professor who argued American foreign policy
contributed to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In it's study, the
American Council on Trustees and Alumni reviewed course descriptions
from the top 12 private universities and top 13 liberal arts colleges
in the country as ranked by U.S. News & World Re****t.
"This is not a representive sample of higher education in the
country," writes Lee. "But at least a list [of schools] is
included."
According to Lee, the study's researchers focused on courses that had
certain key words: racism, discrimination, gender politics, gay issues,
oppression, women's studies and White studies, among others. The
study says all Americans "... should be outraged by the one sided,
doctrinaire perspective that, too often, today defines the college
experience."
But Lee found that "Nothing in the material they re****t sup****ts
these conclusions."
In Stephen Balch's "Words to Live By: How Diversity Trumps Freedom
on Academic Websites," the author used the search engine Google to
measure the frequency of the following terms: diversity, equality,
freedom, liberty and democracy. The AFT re****t says the "research is
inadequate to sup****t conclusions."
"The inherent complexity of Web sites and contextual uncertainty of
words render the results implausible," writes Lee.
Dr. William E. Scheuerman, an AFT vice president added: "Higher
education professionals teach. They don't preach. They are committed
to academic freedom and to the free exchange of ideas in the
classroom."
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