The core of civility issues in higher education lies at the heart of education itself—the classroom. The knee-jerk reaction to an effort to address classroom incivility might be to view students as the exclusive source of incivility. As one commentator noted, “ill-mannered antics of college students are a tradition as old as academe itself.” While it’s probably true that most civility issues involve students and their attitudes and behaviors towards others, sometimes professors are to blame.
The relationship between a student and a professor is a critical component of student learning. A professor’s ability to transmit knowledge and promote inquiry based on research, study, and practical experience is one of the fundamental purposes of education. While most instructors are committed to free discussion and open inquiry, there have been growing concerns that some college classrooms are becoming platforms for political and social indoctrination, where students are essentially attacked for reasoned views that are contrary to those of the instructor. When faculty publicly debase, humiliate, or invalidate students during classroom discussions, they essentially provoke student incivility.
Professors often rely on their right to academic freedom to justify uncivil actions taken in the classroom. Faculty academic freedom typically includes the right to study, discuss, investigate, teach, and publish. However, academic freedom does not give faculty the right to say or do whatever they want in the classroom. Specifically, academic freedom does not protect a professor who compromises a student’s right to learn in an environment free of hostility or engages in controversial speech unrelated to the course. For example, according to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), professors should “encourage free discussion, inquiry, and expression” and that “students should be free to take reasoned exception to the data or views offered in any course of study” regardless of the professor's views. AAUP further recommends that “students should have protection through orderly procedures against prejudiced or capricious academic evaluation.” The AAUP policies, while not mandatory, provide guidance as to how professors should engage students.
Poor classroom management may also cultivate an environment that breeds incivility. Some professors ignore incidents of student rudeness or incivility in the classroom. However, there is research to suggest that failure to address uncivil student conduct in the classroom sends the messages that the behavior is condoned and that incivility can be repeated. When a professor is unable to manage the classroom, and student incivility persists unchecked, student grades, learning, and achievement will be adversely affected. (see Classroom Decorum: What Happened and Does it Matter?)
Faculty behavior is an important component of promoting civility on campus. The attitudes of professors toward students may have profound implications on learning and civility. When promoting civility, colleges and universities must be willing to look within. Are administrators, teachers, and staff modeling civil behavior? If not, efforts to push civility may appear to be insincere and somewhat hypocritical to students.
Kent M. Weeks
