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I think there should be passion on the subject, expertise and personal opinion in certain areas, but REALLY turns me off and makes me just shut my brain down and do the minimum to get by in the class is a teacher who pushes his religious and political agendas on me without any consideration that I probably have a totally different perspective on both and his job is NOT to tel lme that my political/religious views are wrong and thus makes my history knowledge irrelevant, but is supposed to make me see how those two subjects, from multiple points of view, shaped history and my values are equally as relevant as his.
Sounds like to me you've had a bad experience along the way.
I have, but quite honestly, this seems to be the SOP outside of the classroom as well. Forums, study groups, organizations, everyone seems to be consumed with injecting their personal agendas into the topic at hand as opposed to the actual topic.I'll be upfront and state that I have a right-learning political viewpoint as well as being a Christ centered Christian (Protestant) and yes, I have opinions regarding events, but when it get's down to the brass tacks, in context of the topic and discussion I do my utmost to keep these viewpoints in check and relevant. Let's just say my last class was full of liberal youngsters who think they have it all figured out and an instructor, who wasn't as liberal as I have ran into, but enough that his viewpoint was just a little to the right of the classroom full of kids. Everything was based on today's viewpoint by these kids, and the instructor, who I believe was looking at the topic with a somewhat balanced viewpoint, constant;y brought religion, current politics and personal viewpoints onto topics that went so much further than that.Anyway, yeah, some bad experiences, but honestly, I sort of expected it. I reckon it could be a lot worse if I was in a larger, more liberal part of the country. So I'll count my blessings. 😉
Oh trust me Notch, I wholeheartedly understand what you've been through. I've repeatedly told the others here that if you're conservative leaning, you're in for some bumps in the road that may discourage you from the field altogether. I think Scout1067 has experiences something similar and he seems to be shying away from academia for this reason (which is unfortunate if he really wanted to teach). But I understand it, and I sympathize with everyone going through it.
Yes, I have experienced the same thing of instructors injecting their personal politics and views into class. It beyond irritates me but it is a phenomenon not limited to the classroom. It seems like in today's world everything is politics of some sort. Maybe it has always been like that but I cant stand it. Apparently it is impossible to even discuss sports or cooking without politics being injected into the conversation at some point. The political professors I have run into both left and right have turned me off academia. If I have to wear my politics on my sleeve or even hide them to be successful as a professor then I don't need it. I guess I will be an entrepreneur instead.For the record I blame postmodernism/post-structuralism with its emphasis on the primacy of politics and opinion in all facets of life. I have waxed eloquent on my dislike of postmodern/post-structural thought and philosophy elsewhere so I wont belabor it here. I will just say that contrary to the postmodern/post-structural thinking sometimes if someone says they like hamburgers it just means they like hamburgers.
I must say that I have not experienced much injection of personal politics into the classroom. Yes, it's more or less possible to tell which way a professor leans (right or left), but only through subtleties. Perhaps it's my field or time period; discussion on Obama or the Tea Party doesn't come up much when speaking of the Italian Renaissance or ancient Rome or medieval England.Â
For the record I blame postmodernism/post-structuralism with its emphasis on the primacy of politics and opinion in all facets of life. I have waxed eloquent on my dislike of postmodern/post-structural thought and philosophy elsewhere so I wont belabor it here. I will just say that contrary to the postmodern/post-structural thinking sometimes if someone says they like hamburgers it just means they like hamburgers.
I would pin the blame on the broadening of historical methods (which probably results from the same postmodernism you speak of). So many of the "modern" historical methods seem to be rooted in socio-political objectives. Whereas in the earlier part of the 20th century one could study history on its own terms, after the 1960s and 1970s the focus became the plight of the oppressed minority (postcolonialism) or the oppressed woman or homosexual (feminist/gender studies). History became a tool for changing present policies. This meant that history professors would have to become judges of history rather than mere presenters.
