By Mira Sucharov, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science
Should students know a professor’s views? I read with interest a recent article in Carleton’s Teaching and Learning newsletter about those of my colleagues, who, like me, teach courses on “controversial issues.” One colleague, who teaches about animal rights, asks the students on the last day of class to guess his views. Most of them, he says, get it wrong.
I admit to feeling some envy toward those professors who manage to remain opaque about their opinions. On the selfish level, there is the assurance that one’s views will not be weaponized by students come teaching evaluation time. And there is the loftier pedagogical goal of not wanting to unduly influence students’ thought processes.
But I would argue that there’s also a potential missed opportunity in shielding students from one’s views. For one, in the age of Google, it probably means that the professor has eschewed the role of public intellectual or social commentator. When so much heat rather than light dominates public discourse around hot-button issues, bringing more scholars into the mix should — ideally, at least — elevate the state of public discussion. And taking on this role while sharing it with students can be a powerful teaching tool in modeling how to consider their role as engaged global citizens.
In my case, a quick Google search or social media foray will easily reveal to students what my positions are on the topic I teach — Israeli-Palestinian relations. Looking at my pieces over time might also reveal shifts and evolution in my thinking. And I indeed regularly assign my own op-eds in my courses. I occasionally put up one of my own pieces on the classroom projector, explaining to students how I constructed it, inviting them to offer criticisms (something that few take me up on, regrettably) and even aggressively picking it apart myself, offering thirteenth-hour comments of how I might have rephrased a portion or brought new evidence to bear.
Mostly, though, I want to model for my students how the kinds of attitudes that animate everyday conversations can and should emerge from a scholarly understanding of the issues. It’s an approach that’s not without its risks, though. Which is why that tiny bit of professional envy persists.