The Real Bias in the Classroom

Inside Higher Education

Much of the debate over the Academic Bill of Rights has concerned the
claims of conservatives that students are punished by liberal professors
for deviating from some sort of ideological orthodoxy.

There may be political bias in the classroom, but headed in the other
direction. A new study — soon to be published in PS: Political Science &
Politics — finds that students are the ones with bias, attributing
characteristics to their professors based on the students’ perceptions
of their faculty members’ politics and how much they differ from their own.

The authors of the study say that it backs the claims of proponents of
the Academic Bill of Rights that students think about — and are in some
cases concerned about — the politics of their professors. But the
authors also say that the study directly refutes the idea that students
are being somehow indoctrinated by views that they don’t like. “Students
aren’t simply sponges,” says April Kelly-Woessner, part of the
husband-and-wife team of political scientists who wrote the study.
Further, she adds that the study suggests that not only do students not
change their views because of professors, but may even “push back” and
judge professors based on politics, not merit.

Latin America's Autonomous Organizing

By Marie Trigona

Activists met in Uruguay for the fourth Latin American Conference of Popular Autonomous Organizations in February. Over 300 activist
delegates from Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Uruguay organized this year's annual event as a space to strategize autonomous
organizing and coordinate direct actions. This year's conference, held February 24-26, focused on building popular power in Latin America among organizations autonomous from the state, political parties and NGO's.

The participating organizations orient towards class struggle and
libertarian practices-grass roots organizing, direct democracy and mutual solidarity. Within the debate of how to build popular power, delegates discussed how people can solve their own problems without depending on the state or any other institution. The current context of Latin American governmental politics emerged as a focal point
during the two-day meeting. In each of the corresponding nations,
social organizations have faced new challenges due to the resurgence of "progressive" social democratic victories. Take, for example, the case of Uruguay's social movements. Many of Uruguay's social movements have demobilized after the inauguration of Tabare Vazquez. All eyes looked to Bolivia with the recent victory of MAS leader, Evo Morales. In all of the workshops, participants discussed how to prevent growing expectations in social democratic governments from impeding the
accumulation of popular power.

Everything at the congress was auto-gestionado (self-managed), from the olla popular (collectively cooked meal) to cleaning and
maintenance. Artists performed spontaneous theatre and Afro-Uruguayan popular music, Candome, into the wee-hours of the night. The 200
participants represented a diverse array of activist work and focuses that included human rights groups, community centers, alternative
media outlets, anarchist organizations, unemployed worker
organizations, student groups, popular education teams, movement of card board collectors, and several worker unions participating. Beyond each group's focus, activists within each country are working to
create venues for political formation and popular education as part of a larger plan for an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist Latin America.