JERRY
L.
MARTI N
651
versity teacher, declares the American Association of University Professors'
1915 Statement of Principles, should
set forth justly, without suppression or innuendo, the divergent
opinions of other investigators; he should cause his students to be–
come familiar with the best published expressions of the great historic
types of doctrine upon the questions at issue; and he should, above
all, remember that his business is not to provide his students with
ready-made conclusions but to train them to think for themselves,
and to provide them access to those materials which they need if they
are to think intelligently.
The ethic of teaching that follows from these principles supports the
academic freedom of students as well as professors and restricts the right
of teachers
to
use their power over students, which is psychological as
well as practical,
to
push their own agendas.
By contrast, the mission of the transformative university is to pro–
duce students who are agents of social transformation. This mission as–
sumes that professors have the right to use the classroom to advance their
own political agendas. Teachers should be "transformative intellectuals,"
says Henry Giroux, "not merely concerned with forms of empowerment
that promote individual achievement and traditional forms of academic
success" but also with "social engagement and transformation" and with
"educating students to take risks and to struggle within ongoing rela–
tions of power."
But what right do teachers have, one may ask, to push their own
political agendas in the classroom? To justifY such a role requires, accord–
ing
to
Giroux, a "theory of ethics that provides the referent for teachers
to
act as engaged and connected intellectuals." Giroux bases this new
ethics of teaching on the concept of "emancipatory authority," the idea
that "teachers are bearers of critical knowledge, rules, and values" which
allow them "to judge, critique, and reject" prevailing social authorities.
"In my view," he says, "the most important referent for this particular
view of authority rests in a commitment that addresses the many instances
of suffering that are both a growing and threatening part of everyday life
in America and abroad."
In
any case, political commitment is the touchstone; and hence the
goal of critical pedagogy is not open-ended inquiry but the political
transformation of the students. This goal presents a pedagogical chal–
lenge, since many students do not share the political views of their
transformationist professors. This disagreement is not, according to
transformationists, a healthy sign, a tribute to the diversity of free minds,
