Dispositions: The Political Litmus Test for Ed Schools

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has been fighting against the "dispositions" litmus test in America's ed schools. In summary, dispositions is a code word for liberal ideology in college's education schools. FIRE has been engaged in a two year struggle and in a recent story in the March 30 edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education, FIRE President Greg Lukianoff is calling these schools on the practice. Lukianoff

discusses the fact that these institutions are telling students what beliefs and even what political views they must have in order to get a teaching degree. Noting that Teachers College requires students to believe that "social inequalities are often produced and perpetuated through systematic discrimination and justified by societal ideology of merit, social mobility, and individual responsibility," Greg asks, "Does Teachers College really believe that a student who thinks ‘social responsibility’ and ‘merit’ are positive societal values would not make a good teacher?"