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Not disposed for lawsuit
It's become common for schools of education to evaluate students according to their pedagogical "dispositions." The word, which has been elevated to the level of theory--as in "dispositions theory"--marks the formal adoption of ideological criteria for assessing aspiring teachers' competence, and as such opens ed schools to all manner of legal repercussions. Dispositions theory emerges from the new rhetoric of "social justice," another ideologically loaded if innocuous-sounding phrase that signals the academy's increasing willingness to collapse crucial distinctions between knowledge and belief, professional competence and political conformity.
American schools of education increasingly identify themselves with the rhetoric of social justice, noting that it is the work of the teacher to promote what amounts to a liberal agenda: Social justice, in ed school parlance, can only be achieved through such left-leaning projects as affirmative action and multiculturalism; it is the term of art for describing a pedagogical approach centered on the specifically political aims of running an "anti-racist," "anti-sexist," and "anti-homophobic" classroom. Ed schools that evaluate students according to dispositions theory are in fact assessing whether each student is in line with the school's own ideological positions.
The problems with that type of assessment are obvious, though they have not dissuaded the schools that employ it. Brooklyn College history professor KC Johnson has elaborately documented the manner in which the use of dispositions theory at BC's ed school has resulted in the punishment of students who object to both the heavily doctrinaire classroom environment at the school as well as to the manner in which ideological litmus tests have supplanted more objective and competency-based forms of assessment. That ed school faculty responded to Johnson's criticisms not with a reasoned defense of its methods, but with a threatening letter suggesting his own political nonconformity could well lead to professional sanctions, speaks loudly to the highly politicized atmosphere of intolerant entitlement ed schools ultimately promote.
Two cases of ed school students who have been expelled for failing to conform to their schools' liberal orthodoxy are now in the news. Each case centers on a conservative, Christian student who also happens to be a white male; each case involves the school's determination that the student does not possess the proper "disposition" to be a teacher because his beliefs do not tally with those his school thinks he ought to have.
The first is the case of Scott McConnell, who was cut loose by Le Moyne College's ed school after he expressed his opinion that corporal punishment is sometimes justified in schools; Le Moyne--a private, Catholic institution--favored McConnell with a letter informing him of the school's "grave concerns" about his "personal beliefs." Originally defended by FIRE, Le Moyne eventually sued the school for failing to live up to its own stated policies regarding tolerance and expressive freedom.
The second case is that of Edward Swan, a Washington State University education student who was threatened with expulsion after failing a character evaluation. Swan opposes affirmative action and gay adoption; he espouses traditional ideas about the roles men and women ought to take in the family. These beliefs earned him negative character evaluations; one teacher wrote him up for writing "diversity is perversity" on his textbook, while another wrote that Swan--who is the father of four mixed-race children--is a "white supremacist" who has an alarming tendency to wear camouflage clothing and to talk about how he enjoys hunting. Swan was given a choice this fall: agree to certain conditions or be expelled. The conditions included submitting to sensitivity training, doing certain assigned (presumably sensitizing) projects; and agreeing to greater-than-usual supervision as a student teacher. Swan responded by contacting FIRE.
A New York court recently found for Le Moyne over McConnell as the presiding judge evinced an unwillingness to interfere with the school's discretionary power to admit and expel students. McConnell plans to appeal. Meanwhile, FIRE has convinced Washington State to back off. Swan has been reinstated, and he does not have to undergo mandatory consciousness raising. Meanwhile, the dean has been motivated to review the school's evaluation practices to ensure that they can pass legal muster.
In June, ACTA called on the U.S. Department of Education, governors, and higher education administrators to disavow dispositions theory. With each new case, the need for such public disavowal becomes all the more urgent.
Posted by acta online on October 04, 2005 at October 4, 2005 08:12 AM
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