A while back I wrote this post about the influence of a professor's political views on those of his students. As I was catching up on my "internet reading" from the last few days, I found this article that relates to the discussion.
The Woessners' research sheds new light on the issue & offers an interesting twist to the story. Apparently, professors DO influence their students, and not only their political persuasions. Liberal students are more likely to follow in their professors' footsteps toward academia than are their conservative classmates.
Check it out & post comments! Despite leaning to the right, I do enjoy a good intellectual discussion now and again!
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2 comments:
oh wow this is opening up a huge can of worms! well, i feel profs do have a big influence but not as much as people are going on about... however, i am completely against professors who censor students based on beliefs - that goes completely against freedom of speech! just a thought... -rc
I agree wholeheartedly about the freedom of speech bit! While I'm sure it happened "back in the day" and may still happen in some institutions, I'm hopeful that for the most part we've moved past that & the classroom has become an open-minded environment.
As for the influence on career paths, I think that professors play a significant role. The question remains about how political orientation fits in to that picture. Do we naturally gravitate towards professors who share our beliefs? And in that case, given that professors largely identify themselves as liberal, do liberal professors have more influence on today's college students? I don't profess to know. The researchers seem to be on to something though & I'm interested in the discussion regardless!
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