I go to a public university.
One of my classes is what’s called ‘mixed delivery’.
we’re usually are given some documents to read, and then we’ll have a audio/powerpoint show, or a videocast.
Last weeks lecture was about keeping children engaged during class.
However, the documents are anti-abortion propaganda. They call woman selfish for aborting disabled children, and down right evil for aborting for any other reason. They say that if we allow abortion, we have to make murder legal. It says that anyone who supports abortion, in any instance, is disgusting. It also implies that woman should not work when they have children.
it was it was solely an emotive piece, with no research and had quite a few fallacies within it.
I really was not expecting that when I opened them, and I was quite taken back. I can not imagine how it’d make a woman feel if she had an abortion in the past.
Looking through my university’s code of ethics, it says that teachers have to use material that is current, accurate and relevant and that they have to respect different opinions and approach sensitive topics in a way that respects students views and feelings.
I believe that this anti-abortion propaganda has violated that.
Am I correct?
Is it worth complaining about?
It really makes me feel uneasy, and I really want to complain, but I’m afraid it have negative repercussions.
It really depends on what the intent of the material was. If the lecture was about keeping students engaged, perhaps the instructor knows damn well that it’s incredibly offensive and wants to discuss next lecture whether or not using offensive material is a good way to engage students in a class, and the benefits and drawbacks of that. In that case, I’d say it’s a noble and benevolent, if possibly ill advised, use of the material. Similarly to those English or Media classes that use porn (or whatever) to discuss taboos in society. While it can be stupid, because of the danger of causing an outrage in the news and getting fired, it’s actually a rather smart way to get students to think critically about society.
If the instructor is just a whackadoodle trying to push anti-abortion propaganda on everyone, then that’s out of line (and, to me, that would apply to pro-abortion propaganda calling anyone who opposes it an evil bigot just as well).
Overall, the class is about assessing children’s characteristics and considerations, and using those to create individual education plans and tailoring lesson plans to suit your students.
That particular lesson was about engaging children in learning, and trying to prevent children from becoming anxious and negative towards education. They talked about how ‘teaching to the test’ can cause lower academic achievement, and creating ‘happy, proficient learners’ should by our number one goal.
The students in this class are either specializing in primary education, or are specializing in primary and early childhood education. Usually they’d use examples that are relevant to our specializations.
It’s not really about using shock tactics. It’s more about looking at the interests of your students, their strengths and weaknesses, and using those to give the children the best chance.
I think that if they were using it as a shock tactic, they’d try to link it to the material, and they’d just explain what they did.
However, it’s just 'read this and this, watch the videocast (which mentions nothing about it).
In the answer box, talk about the impacts of testing and non-flexible education.
Considering that campuses are considerably left and liberal these days, with no tolerance of anything else, I would see this scenario as a small example of keeping balance.
Kinda like how a class on horticulture has nothing to do with ‘Why we shouldn’t have invaded Iraq?’
As long as professors use their class rooms as arena’s to spout their rhetoric, then no one is better off.
You know how, every once in a great while on here, somebody starts or responds to a thread but somehow posts the wrong link, to something that’s totally inappropriate to the thread that isn’t what they thought they were linking to? I have to wonder if something like that happened here. Because otherwise it sounds completely nutty. (And, obviously, counter to the code of ethics mentioned in the OP.)
I’m taking a class like that right now and I agree that’s highly unethical. I also understand that you are worried about repercussions since I am dealing with a similar situation in one of my other classes and I can’t decide exactly how to handle it. Is there a trusted professor in the department that you can talk to? At the very least I would provide a detailed recording of this in your end of semester evaluation of the class. If, like it is in my school, the evaluation is on paper and a student takes the envelope down to the office, I suggest offering to be the student and when no one is looking include a printed copy of the article in question and your typed concerns. I know that in my school the administration pays close attention to those evaluations.
I would definitely ask the professor teaching the class about it first, before taking things higher up. It seems quite possible that this is a simple mistake, and that you got material intended for another class, where it might have been appropriate and contextualized. Frankly, even is someone is trying to push anti-abortion rights propaganda on you, this seems an odd way for them to be going about it.
I’d say write up the complaint, word-smith it to say why it is offensive, inappropriate, and counter to university policies (listing them point by point). But hold off sending it until the next class meeting. If it starts with a huge apology and that the wrong file was sent, then its one thing.
If the prof makes it clear that this was an intentional part of the lesson plan (and not some weird experiment in student behavior/reaction) then send it after class to the appropriate Dean.
If you feel it will be this way for the full 6 weeks and if you can w/o a negative GPA effect, drop the class. If you get no results from the Dean then cc it to the Board of Trustees. Possibly even the school newspaper. But be smart in the class; don’t react.
If the prof even gets a whiff of how you feel, you’ll get enough red ink on everything you do to fill a fist full of pens.
It’s not ethical for a professor/instructor/lecturer/teacher/faculty of whatever sort at a public university in the US (and likely other countries) to use their classroom as a soapbox for their personal viewpoints. It’s another thing for a professor to share their own views with the class in a casual way or to expose their students to viewpoints that differ from their own. I once took a class at a public college in VA from a professor who happened to be teaching part time and also serving as an ordained minister in an Evangelical Protestant tradition. Afaik nobody got a bad grade for heresy, blasphemy, or for sins that did not violate local secular law or school policies.
If the material was handed out either to expose the students to ideas that can be disagreed or agreed with (hey, college is about learning!) or about dealing with materials that you might find personally offensive but might need to deal with professionally, it’s probably ok. If the professor is doing it to preach on the government’s dime or is grading your work based at least in part how much you agree with their viewpoint, that’s not right.
It sounds like this class relates to teaching pedagogy. If you want to become a teacher of some sorts, what are you going to do when you have to teach material that you personally disagree with or that stirs up negative emotions? Are you going to quit? You have to learn to deal with the material professionally.
And the way to deal with this sort of material professionally is to draw appropriate attention to the fact that it’s completely inappropriate. That means filing a complaint with whoever is in charge of the department.
Because it’s not just the type of garbage that she’s handing out (because some sort of aggressive ZPG abort-now propaganda would be just as bad), it’s the fact that a person who thinks it’s okay to hand this out as part of assigned reading won’t be capable of objectively grading anyone who disagrees with them.
Hopefully, an ethical teacher would do the same with other inappropriate material they were asked to teach, including treating Intelligent Design as a scientific theory in competition with or superior to evolution, telling students in a Sex Ed course that abortions cause breast cancer, or any of the other fallacious propaganda being shoehorned into legitimate curricula. You inform the school hierarchy, and if there isn’t sufficient response, you consider your options of resist, publicize, protest, and resign.
What the hell are you talking about? If I open up the algebra teaching manual one morning and find out that the children’s math lesson that day is going to include a graphic description of a D&C, then you’re damn right I’m not going to teach that shit and you’re damn right I’m going to complain.
Did you even read what happened? There was no link at all between the handouts and the subject matter of the class. Furthermore, not even a cursory attempt was made by the instructor to tie the two together. This is not some clever, edgy new pedagogy making the rounds among Child Education instructors. This is an indication that either the OP’s instructor is an insane moron or that she mixed up the class handouts with the flyers she was going to take to this weekend’s anti-abortion rally.
Either way, don’t bother complaining to the instructor, because you already know you ain’t gonna make headway there. Skip right up the administrative chain of command and don’t feel bad about it for a second. I hope they give this dipshit’s job to somebody who actually takes teaching seriously.
That is really messed up. I would start with your advisor and then the department head. As others have said, I do think I’d hold off until the next lesson to make sure it wasn’t some weird mistake.
I really doubt it was supposed to do any those things, and if it was, they’re delivery is lacking. All of those things require something a little bit more than ‘read this!’ and not mentioning it again, and not having any mention of it in the video cast, not even mentioning anything about those topics.
I am interested in teaching birth to about 8 years old. I don’t think I will be teaching them about abortion. Another class I took talked about abortion. It was factual, based on research, was sensitive, and it talked about both sides of the situation. If I had to touch on a sensitive topic, that’s how I’d do it. Not using emotive texts that don’t have factual base, not calling people who have a different view ‘selfish, evil, disgusting.’
Furthermore, it’s important for teachers to be advocates for their students. If I was told that I’d have to teach something like abortion to 5 years old, or I had to teach something that is biased (let’s say ‘all Christians are evil.’) I would refuse to, and I would try to get something done about the situation.
