How Political Are Political Science Professors in the Classroom?

• In Event: Poster Session: Political Methodology & Political Science Education & Civic Engagement
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Political Science Education

Abstract

While there are many complaints in the public square about how liberal professors try to indoctrinate their students, as well as growing academic literature meant to rebut the charge, we still do not know much about how prevalent political advocacy is. I analyze thousands of Ratemyprofessor.com profiles from the fields of Political Science, History, and English to estimate what percentage of political science professors are perceived by students to be engaged in classroom politicking, and how this compares to professors in other fields in which political discussions are likely to occur. The Ratemyprofessor.com platform is chosen as a source of information because it is an anonymous and low cost real-world setting in which students can express their perceptions of inappropriate political discourse by the faculty. I also analyze the institutional factors which predict whether professors are more likely to be perceived as engaging in this behavior.

Author

• Scott Liebertz, University of South Alabama