Digital Library
Ideology in the Classroom How Faculty at US Universities Navigate Politics and Pedagogy Amid Federal Pressure Over Viewpoint Diversity and Antisemitism
Topic:
Antisemitism & Antizionism, Israel & Regional Politics
Principal Investigators:
Graham Wright, Shahar Hecht and Leonard Saxe
Study Date:
2025
Source:
Brandeis University,Crowne Center for Middle East Studies
Key Findings:
This report examines how faculty political identities, activism, and instructional practices intersect with contentious global and domestic issues, including climate change, racism, Donald Trump and American democracy, the Russia‑Ukraine war, and the Israel‑Palestine conflict.
Although more than two‑thirds of surveyed faculty identify as liberal, their views on controversial topics vary significantly: while climate change is widely regarded as urgent, fewer than half support returning colonized land to Indigenous peoples, and a notable minority adopt conservative positions on gender identity, immigration, and DEI policies. Remarkably, political activism is relatively muted across all issues: only 21% of faculty report engagement on Israel‑Palestine in social media or other activism contexts, compared with 44% for Trump and democracy.
The study also finds that the majority of these controversial issues rarely arise in actual classroom discourse—over 75% of faculty indicated that Israel‑Palestine was never discussed in their courses during the 2024‑25 academic year, and fewer than 10% report teaching these topics from a single perspective. Most faculty emphasize presenting multiple viewpoints and encouraging independent student thought, aiming to foster a balanced learning environment rather than ideologically driven instruction.
In relation to antisemitism, only around 3% of non‑Jewish faculty endorsed views denying Israel’s legitimacy or meeting formal definitions of antisemitism, and an additional 7% expressed explicitly hostile attitudes toward Jews. These attitudes cluster at ideological extremes—extremely liberal faculty are more likely to hold anti‑Israel sentiment, while conservative faculty more often express traditional biases. However, even among those strongly critical of DEI or Israel, outright hostility remains rare.
The authors caution against broad-brush assumptions that faculty are inherently biased or politically expressive in the classroom. They argue that punitive policies aimed at ideological conformity could undermine academic freedom and alienate educators, who overwhelmingly share the goal of educating, challenging, and supporting students.
Methodology:
The report is based on a large-scale faculty survey conducted in Spring 2025 of 2,185 faculty members who teach undergraduate courses at 146 U.S. universities classified as Carnegie R1 institutions (i.e., top-tier research universities). The sample included professors across a wide range of disciplines, with varying political orientations, teaching responsibilities, and academic ranks.
The survey collected both quantitative and qualitative data on faculty members’ political identities, their views on controversial social and political issues (such as antisemitism, Israel–Palestine, DEI, Trump and democracy, climate change, and gender identity), and their teaching practices—including how frequently controversial topics arise in their classrooms and whether they present multiple perspectives.
Faculty were also asked about their engagement in political activism, both on- and off-campus, including on social media, and their attitudes toward Jewish students and Israel. The survey included items that measured explicit antisemitic attitudes, based on definitions used by the U.S. government and other monitoring bodies.