Inside Higher Ed reports today on a UCLA survey that found some some significant changes in faculty views on their role and “the social responsibility of higher education.”
Compared to three years ago, faculty members were more likely to believe it is part of their job to “help students develop personal values” (66.1 percent, an increase of 15.3 percentage points over 2004–05), “enhance students’ self-understanding” (71.8 percent, a 13.4 percentage-point increase), “develop moral character” (70.2 percent, a 13.1 percentage-point increase) and “provide for students’ emotional development” (48.1 percent, a 12.9 percentage-point increase).
• 75.2 percent of professors now say that they work to “enhance students’ knowledge of and appreciation for other racial/ethnic groups.” That is a gain of 17.6 percentage points in the three years since the survey was last done.
• 55.5 percent of professors consider it “very important” or “essential” to “instill in students a commitment to community service,” an increase of 19.1 percentage points since the last survey.
• 71.0 percent believe that colleges should be “actively involved” in solving social problems, up 4.1 percentage points in three years.
While about one third of professors in the survey use multiple-choice exams, the latest survey found gains for those more likely to use short-answer questions (45.5 percent vs. 36.9 percent three years ago) and those more likely to use term/research papers (44.3 percent vs. 34.7 percent).
Based on the same survey, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports that
the proportion of professors who believe it is very important to teach undergraduates to become “agents of social change” is substantially larger than the proportion who believe it is important to teach students the classic works of Western civilization.
According to the survey, 57.8 percent of professors believe it is important to encourage undergraduates to become agents of social change, whereas only 34.7 percent said teaching them the classics is very important….
And what does the UCLA institute that conducted the survey think of its findings?
Sylvia Hurtado, a professor of education at UCLA who directs the research institute, said the gap between those who value teaching Western civilization and those who value teaching students to be social activists reflects a shift in emphasis from the abstract to the practical. “The notion of a liberal education as a set of essential intellectual skills is in transition,” she says. “It’s also about social and personal responsibility, thinking about one’s role in society, and creating change.”
I’m sure this new emphasis on social activism is quite “practical.” The new and coming graduates are no doubt being prepared very well to be ACORN activists and Democratic Party organizers.
well, I’ve been saying this for a while, but….if you’d pay us college profs (or teachers as a whole) more, you’d get more conservative college profs. education and research are core values for liberals-so we’re willing and eager to do it even if we get low salaries. (and I’m not talking about business and medical profs. I’m talking about social sciences and humanities people, who do in fact not get paid much). If you make teaching more financially attractive, you’ll get a broader spectrum of people who want to teach, and education will become more inclusive of different ideological stances. That’s the bottom line.