How Can We Prove that the Scholarship is Ideological?
Now, I do not think these critics are all of a kind, but rather fall on a range. At one end are those who seek to defend the sort of research critiqued in the report, not on the merits, but rather through a strategy of “deny, deflect, disparage.” Those at the other end simply want our conversations about these matters to be more empirically grounded. To the former group, there isn’t much to say that will be constructive. To the latter, I reply: OK, fair enough.
Admittedly, for those of us who have long been observing, documenting, and decrying ideological scholarship, these dismissals can feel like a bit of gaslighting. Higher ed reformers have published books, articles, and edited volumes, blogged, tweeted, held conferences, and founded organizations, all dedicated to calling out and addressing this very problem. Given all these receipts, it is tempting to dismiss the dismissals of ideological scholarship as an act of willful ignorance.
Yet if we’re honest, we must admit that none of these efforts add up to a point estimate, a hypothesis test, or any other concrete empirical statement of the sort the report’s critics demand.
If a skeptic asks us just how serious or extensive the problem of ideological scholarship is, really, then we can regale them with tales of slanted sloppy scholarship and outlandish activist absurdities for days on end. But suppose they interrupt us and demand, “OK, OK, I get the gist. It sounds bad. But what’s your evidence?” We might respond in some puzzlement: “What are you talking about? I’ve been sharing evidence this entire time!” “No,” the skeptic counters, “you’ve been giving me anecdotes. I want something hard. What percent of scholarly claims are compromised by ideology? What proportion of published research falls below appropriate scholarly standards?” At this we might hesitate, stammer a little, and admit we can’t produce a figure. To which our skeptic, shaking their head ruefully, might sigh, “You really had me going there. Come find me when you have a spreadsheet in hand.”
