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Greatly concerned regarding lack of teaching objectivity

Hi I am posting to express my concern about the lack of teaching objectivity on my politics course. My lecturers are all socialistic cultural marxists who hate Britain, they openly hate our monarch and used a lecture to promote their vicious views towards her majesty. This was my first and only lecture this induction week. I am very worried as they seem to use the lectures as a tool to indoctrinate us into their ideologies, they shouldn't be doing this- they should be objective! I went to introduction session this week where my main lecturer was introducing himself and telling us more about the course, needless to say his dialogue was littered with inane remarks about UKIP and rightism in general, urging his students to 'vote communist' so they could get onto the property ladder. I am genuinely considering dropping out as I don't want to pay huge sums of money to have my work marked down for contrasting opinions and to endure incredibly one-sided bias lectures. I was expecting a leftist slant on the course but not quite to this extent! And before anyone mentions it I am not a far-right looney, just moderate conservative/libertarian with socialistic fiscal policy. Thanks.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by TsarBoy
Hi I am posting to express my concern about the lack of teaching objectivity on my politics course. My lecturers are all socialistic cultural marxists who hate Britain, they openly hate our monarch and used a lecture to promote their vicious views towards her majesty. This was my first and only lecture this induction week. I am very worried as they seem to use the lectures as a tool to indoctrinate us into their ideologies, they shouldn't be doing this- they should be objective! I went to introduction session this week where my main lecturer was introducing himself and telling us more about the course, needless to say his dialogue was littered with inane remarks about UKIP and rightism in general, urging his students to 'vote communist' so they could get onto the property ladder. I am genuinely considering dropping out as I don't want to pay huge sums of money to have my work marked down for contrasting opinions and to endure incredibly one-sided partial lectures. I was expecting a leftist slant on the course but not quite to this extent! And before anyone mentions it I am not a far-right looney, just moderate conservative/libertarian with socialistic fiscal policy. Thanks.


I would suggest going to your course coordinator and expressing your concern, on the grounds that the biased teaching you've experienced acts negatively towards a student's ability to approach political subjects from a neutral, academic perspective. If your course coordinator is one of your lecturers, then take it one step above.

Just make sure you don't go too high in the hierarchy at first, because going over people's heads when they may have wanted to help will just make things difficult, not to mention it's extremely... what's the word? Improper? Without decorum?
Reply 2
lol at studying a non-economics social science and expecting it to be anything other than a rabid bastion of political leftism

more seriously, this does partly depend on the department. The absolute top departments in these fields tend to favour quantitative work which tends to make them more scientific and closer to being value-neutral (although sometimes with a slant), but some departments tend to attract rabid social activist/political ideologue types, who are usually more on the qualitative side. Hopefully your lecturer was just some fringe nut and doesn't represent the department in general.
(edited 9 years ago)
Reply 3
Original post by XMaramena
I would suggest going to your course coordinator and expressing your concern, on the grounds that the biased teaching you've experienced acts negatively towards a student's ability to approach political subjects from a neutral, academic perspective. If your course coordinator is one of your lecturers, then take it one step above.

Just make sure you don't go too high in the hierarchy at first, because going over people's heads when they may have wanted to help will just make things difficult, not to mention it's extremely... what's the word? Improper? Without decorum?


Hi, yes I was considering this. I begin proper lectures next week and if the lecture is as bias and toxic as the last one, I will definitely have a word with the lecturer afterwards.
Original post by TsarBoy
Hi, yes I was considering this. I begin proper lectures next week and if the lecture is as bias and toxic as the last one, I will definitely have a word with the lecturer afterwards.


I would just drop an informal word in to the coordinator first - not a formal complaint or anything, just a quick comment. You may find that it was an experiment of sorts to see the responses of the class - depending on how much positive and negative feedback he receives from that first lecture, he can gauge the political standing of the class as an average, and structure his lectures from there. So if that's the case, then your comment will be useful (and so will everybody else's - don't ask if they're doing the same, they won't ask you). If not, then the coordinator will probably drop a word in and your lecturer will realise they weren't being completely professional and letting personal views interfere with academic thought.

One of my lecturers gave us a load of tips and not tips - very sneaky ones and often personal ones - on our first lecture, which he used to sort of work out what level he was dealing with, where people might go wrong etc.

For example (this is a Music Production degree):
"Multiband compressors are useful in mastering beacuse they'll keep your rogue frequencies from jumping out, and soften your tracks."

In actuality, yes, multiband compressors can be used to soften tracks, but they'll more often than not be used for the opposite effect - to make things sound punchy and dynamic when things are seeming a bit flat and lifeless. Now, most people agreed - hell, at the time, I agreed I'll admit. But all these little things he used, told us two lectures later, and structured his lectures from that.
Reply 5
Original post by XMaramena
I would just drop an informal word in to the coordinator first - not a formal complaint or anything, just a quick comment. You may find that it was an experiment of sorts to see the responses of the class - depending on how much positive and negative feedback he receives from that first lecture, he can gauge the political standing of the class as an average, and structure his lectures from there. So if that's the case, then your comment will be useful (and so will everybody else's - don't ask if they're doing the same, they won't ask you). If not, then the coordinator will probably drop a word in and your lecturer will realise they weren't being completely professional and letting personal views interfere with academic thought.

One of my lecturers gave us a load of tips and not tips - very sneaky ones and often personal ones - on our first lecture, which he used to sort of work out what level he was dealing with, where people might go wrong etc.

For example (this is a Music Production degree):
"Multiband compressors are useful in mastering beacuse they'll keep your rogue frequencies from jumping out, and soften your tracks."

In actuality, yes, multiband compressors can be used to soften tracks, but they'll more often than not be used for the opposite effect - to make things sound punchy and dynamic when things are seeming a bit flat and lifeless. Now, most people agreed - hell, at the time, I agreed I'll admit. But all these little things he used, told us two lectures later, and structured his lectures from that.


I greatly appreciate this helpful advice, thank you. He seems to have calmed down now and is less unpleasant, I am pleased to reveal.

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