Fearless Faculty - Does It Live Up to Its Claim to Be Fearless?

Fearless Faculty by David J. Loewenstein, PhD, examines the relationship between a professor and his or her students. Professor Loewenstein, who has served as an associate professor of educational psychology at the University of Toronto for 25 years, examines the manner in which fearfulness relates to academic success and the likelihood of being hired for a teaching position. The book explores how students perceive tenure, their academic worth, and their sense of social responsibility.


Fearful Faculty shares insights into the characteristics of those faculty members who are successful and those who are not. Loewenstein says that many factors contribute to a successful faculty member's success and that fearfulness may even play a role in faculty recruitment and retention. Fearful faculty reflect three main characteristics. Professors who are fearful are able to be creative; they possess the imagination and the intuition that enable them to see things from other people's perspectives; and they are willing to endure peer reviews and rejections to maintain their sense of independence.

Many professors who are afraid are over self-confident and thus do not need to validate their creativity, intuition or imagination. Instead, they rely on their talent to provide a valuable service. This helps them maintain a sense of self-worth. Loewenstein says that this kind of self-worth causes them to be more willing to take risks and to engage with students' problems and needs rather than hiding behind their fears.

According to Loewenstein, "The most striking aspect of the faculty's personality is its willingness to be open and vocal in its praise of students." He says most professors who are afraid avoid praising students because doing so "signals insincerity." Instead of appreciating students, he says they "model feebleness, instability, ineffectiveness, indecisiveness, and, at worst, timidity or servility." Instead of looking to the future and building on the past, the "soft" faculty "cherish for the present." He continues; "Their fawning over students' accomplishments tends to undermine their own efforts as much as it rewards those who succeeded."

Fearless faculty members like David Loewenstein, J. Michael Talbott and William D. Bonds III are not afraid to be criticized, and they don't shy away from being forced to make difficult decisions. According to Loewenstein, "Faculty members who are afraid to be challenged are less effective and much less effective in their jobs." Indeed, he argues in his book; "The Academic Enthusiast", "Anyone who values quality should regard academic administrators--not just teachers--as the most important factor in the quality of school." For instance, he says that a school should not hire a teacher who cannot make his class look easy; "rather, the principal should be able to raise her class's standards through innovative methods and examples." In other words, an administrator's attitude toward her profession has much to do with the quality of students' performance in the classroom.

Some fearless faculty members have been criticized for their seeming arrogance or unwillingness to consider the needs of students in order to establish classroom rules and discipline. According to one college instructor, fearless faculty members "think that if they act this way, students will not question their authority or the rules because they will not dare contradict those authorities. Unfortunately, that is precisely what happens when teachers defy their colleges' mandates." Loewenstein agrees with this criticism that; "The problem is not with the officials but with the students. The more afraid a teacher is of creating rules and discipline, the more likely he will be to create the rules and disciplines that are unfair."

It seems that there is a thin line separating the high standards of behavior, acceptable to administrators and faculty and being afraid to get in the way of faculty and administration. For example, it may be perfectly acceptable for a teacher to threaten a student with the loss of class credit or to call a student on the carpet about his/her grades, yet faculty at some colleges and universities are so afraid to antagonize students that they are willing to tolerate blatant disrespect. Such a rejection of academic freedom is inconsistent with our country's dedication to academic freedom. Yet such refusal to be intimidated or to set the proper academic boundaries by means of threats or discipline is precisely the opposite of what we aspire to teach our students. We should welcome those who demonstrate a willingness to teach students, not fear them.

When we fear academic freedom, we also somehow protect the faculty from having to endure the harassment that some administrators may impose on them, even when such harassment violates academic freedom. Further, we reward those who engage in behavior that is legally wrong, while punishing those who do the right thing. It makes sense to believe in higher standards for our nation's faculty. Then our students will not only be safe, but they will also likely have higher standards for themselves.