From the Project 4 research proposals that I’ve read through thus far, many of my students wanted to ask political driven questions along the lines of, “How does your news source reflect who you vote for?” For one, I made all of these students re-write and re-focus this question, because they wanted to ask a research question that that already knew the answer to- it’s clear that CNN watchers vote liberal and FOX news watchers vote conservative. So, I implored them to focus their projects on the rhetoric or language used by these new sources, or otherwise cater their projects to something more specific and deep. But many of my students are very much aware of the political world around them.  

These proposals, combined with some personal and group conversations in my class, have caused me to notice that a majority of my students appear to have more liberal ideas, or at least many of them appear to have more progressive opinions. When having one-on-one conversations with my students, a majority of my female students have expressed a dislike of Trump, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that these students are liberal, because liberals and conservatives alike, (basically just any sane individual) should express a dislike of Trump. But besides these personal conversations, during a group discussion in the beginning of the quarter, I remember the class joking around over Trump’s tweets, as we looked at the genre of social media, constricted character count, and the overall idea of “informal” writing. From that group discussion, I’d say that my students seem incredibly aware of their surrounding world and socio-political environment, but again this is all conjecture. I haven’t seen any of my students with hardcore Republican pride, but I have seen one or two students rep some “Bernie” apparel; this really isn’t surprising though as young people tend to be pro-Bernie, especially with his acknowledgment to the crippling effect that loans have on the average college student.  

From their writing, I wouldn’t say that my students make their worldviews very apparent, I see their worldviews more when they interact with each other through dialogical learning and group discussions. I’ve overheard a number of small group discussions make mentions of politics or Trump when making my rounds around the classroom. Specifically, I remember a group of students discussing the importance of literacy, and how everyone, even the President, needs to have an education where they can understand the importance of appropriate language and audience. These students were clearly taking a jab at Trump, but I could hear them making real-world connections to the discussion prompt which was awesome. Overall I’d say my students seem pretty aware of their political worldview and many of them feel comfortable sharing these opinions in the classroom.