Survey Finds Most Professors Are Comfortable Teaching Sensitive Topics
Ryan Quinn | 31 July 2024 | Inside Higher Ed
The war in Gaza, congressional interrogations of university presidents, new state restrictions on teaching about race and other topics, and faculty members being publicly investigated and punished for their speech and teaching. While it remains unclear just what kind of impact this has had on professors’ sense of academic freedom, new data provides some insight.
The recent report, from researchers at Ithaka S+R, says—perhaps counterintuitively—that most instructors “do not report feeling unsafe or uncomfortable discussing or teaching sensitive topics.” Moreover, “across a number of markers, we find that faculty are not raising concerns about their academic freedom.” The findings are based on an online survey Ithaka S+R fielded in February and early March. Respondents were U.S. faculty members with teaching responsibilities at four-year institutions…