Freedom Of Education Research Articles

Rise and fall of the comprehensive school idea in the Netherlands. Political and educational debates on the Middle School project (1969–1993)

Dutch comprehensive education eventually failed on a political level, despite support from many politicians, labour unions and branches in the educational practice. In the early 1970s denominational political parties strove for a Middle School to provide equal opportunities of all children by postponing school choice. From 1973 onwards, however, the Middle School was given a socialist appeal, which led to strong critique from both the right-wing Liberal Party and teachers in higher secondary education united in The Dutch Association of Teachers. By resisting, the right-wing Liberals struck a chord with the denominational parties over their fear of indoctrination and the threatening of the constitutional freedom of education. The many proponents, including those from the field of education, tried to influence the political debate by publishing their ideas on the Middle School, but their efforts were to no avail. The outcome, therefore, was that in 1993 there were to be no Middle Schools, only the realisation of a common curriculum for the first phase of secondary education.

New Challenges in the United States

Academic freedom in American higher education evolves in curious and often unpredictable ways. For those who teach at public or state-supported institutions, the courts play a major role in defining the scope of such freedom. For faculty at independent or private colleges and universities, whose policies are seldom subject to court review, standards are provided by organizations such as the American Association of University Professors. Some faculties at institutions of both types may also be protected by collective bargaining agreements. After a decade or so with relatively few critical tests of the rights and liberties of US scholars, the past year or two has brought academic freedom to the fore in dramatic fashion. Three current tests merit special attention: the cases of John Yoo, William Robinson, and Ward Churchill.

SUBJECTS AND OBJECTS OF EDUCATION IN THE PROJECTION OF VALUE-RELATED AND LIFE-MEANING RELATED ORIENTATIONS

In the article the authors consider the results of a study of givens of Education (freedom, responsibility, conscience, communications, love, uniqueness, creativity) and life-meaning orientations in comparison with anti-values and counter values (violence, compromise, submission, forced alienation, taboo, etc.). It was revealed that socio-material and instrumental-technological givens of education are dominantly selected.

Educational Freedom or Teaching State? : political discussion of the school subvention law in 1951. A key episode on a deep cleavage in the history of Chilean education.

Educational Freedom or Teaching State? : political discussion of the school subvention law in 1951. A key episode on a deep cleavage in the history of Chilean education.

Educational Expectations and Media Cultures

This article investigates themedia-supported educational resources that arecurrently under discussion, such as OERs and MOOCs. Considering the discursive connection between these formats, which is couched in terms of educational freedom and openness, the article’sthesis is that these are expectations which are placed on the media technologies themselves, andthen transferred to learning scenarios. To this end, the article will pursue such questions as: What are the learners, learning materials and learning scenarios allegedly free from or free for? What obstructive configurations should be omitted? To what extent are these characteristics which are of a nature to guaranteelearning processes in the context of lifelong learning or can these characteristics better be attributed to the media technologies themselves and the ways in which they are used? What advantages or new accentuations are promised by proponents of theeducation supplied by media technology? Which discourses provide sustenance for such implied “post-typographic educational ideals” (Giesecke 2001 and Lemke 1998)? The importance to learners, teachers and decision-makers at educational institutions of being well informed as far as media is concerned is becoming increasingly apparent.

Religious Freedom in Education: A Fundamental Human Right

From the earliest times, humans recognized the need to call on a higher being as they engaged in what today is described as freedom of religion. At the outset of the second decade of the twenty-first century, though, a palpable tension exists between two fundamental human rights, freedoms to education and religion. In fact, significant limitations exist in much of the world as to whether people can exercise the rights to religious freedom in education. Against this background, this essay reflects on the relationship between the rights to education and religion. The first two parts of the article highlight relevant passages in international agreements on the status of education and religion, respectively, as fundamental human rights. The third section discusses selected issues on why the rights to education and religious freedom are important. The fourth part offers recommendations for practice before the article rounds out with a brief conclusion.

Non-governmental religious schools in Europe: institutional opportunities, associational freedoms, and contemporary challenges

The European Convention on Human Rights guarantees freedom of education, including opportunities to create and operate faith-based schools. But as European societies become religiously more diverse and ‘less religious’ at the same time, the role of religious schools increasingly is being contested. Serious tensions have emerged between those who ardently support religious schools in various forms and those who oppose them. Given that faith-based schools enjoy basic constitutional guarantees in Europe, the controversy surrounding them often boils down to issues of public financing, degrees of organisational and pedagogical autonomy, and educational practices and management. This introduction to a special issue on controversies surrounding religious schools in a number of Western European countries briefly introduces structural pressures that affect the position of religious schools and sketches the relevant institutional arrangements in the respective countries. We then go on to introduce some of the main concerns that frame the relevant debates. The paper concludes by introducing the various contributions in the special issue.

From the Constitution to the Classroom: Educational Freedom in Antwerp’s Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Schools

This study explores how the constitutional right to educational freedom penetrates to the schools of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish (Haredi) community in Antwerp, which is one of the largest Haredi communities in the world. The findings indicate that the constitutional educational freedom is altered by various legal rules, social norms, and implementing agents that transform it on the way down to the Haredi schools. The complex, illusive operation of the cogwheels of education policy demonstrates that education laws should be shaped with considerable thought, taking into account their long journey across the arenas of education policy.

Portuguese

Brazilian University and Higher Education had been the subject of systematic study and research. But only recently the history of education has been addressing the education and training as a goal to be investigated. This study analyzes selected theses related to university and higher education regarding to Congress Instruction, occurred in 1883. This study allow us to highlight the most relevant ideas and proposals, adopted by an intellectual elite, which was representative of the Brazilian higher education values in the nineteenth century. The ideas of decentralization of education, gratuity, education as a mandatory issue, establishment of a national educational system, teaching formation schools, teacher training, education financial, freedom of education, co-education, popular education, public education, secularization - aimed to inspire and guide the necessary reforms, and help us to illustrated exactly why the elite show modernity educational, pedagogical innovations and achievements in more developed countries. We think it could be helpful to legitimate Brazilian proposals to improve the education system. Received: 09/11/2012 / Accepted: 10/02/2013 How to reference this article Bastos, M. H. C. (2014). Intelectuais e Universidade: O Ensino Superior no Congresso de Instrucao Publica (Rio de Janeiro, 1883-1884). Foro de Educacion , 12(17), pp. 23-44 . doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14516/fde.2014.012.017.002

Educación y libertad cultural en México ¿Un camino abierto hacia los Estados plurales?

In this paper it is argued that cultural freedom in education is a necessary condition to build a plural state. It proposes that to be truly intercultural and bilingual institution, education should ensure conditions for people to exercise their freedom to choose their cultural identity and live the life they have reason to value without being discriminated against or excluded thereby. Multiculturalism in education means that the values, knowledge, procedures and lifestyles of the diverse cultural groups that make up a society should be reflected not only in the curricula and in educational approaches, but also in the teacher education, pedagogical methods, and learning materials.

The right to freedom of conscience and religious education

The study of the place and role of religious education in the post-secular world is undoubtedly increasing. First of all, this is due to the loss of religion of its influence on modern society, the growth of globalization processes, and attempts to preserve national and cultural identity. At the same time, we are talking not only about the problems inherent in whole countries and peoples, but also about the right of an individual to his own worldview and moral choice - freedom of conscience, and most importantly - the possibility of realizing this choice.

Free Education: Pro and Contra

The humanistic paradigm of free education as a form of manifestation of universal moral values is a historical and cultural phenomenon in the philosophy of education and at the same time a contradictory phenomenon of education at the moment. The theory of free education being objectively considered a historical and cultural component of the basic humanistic tradition of education is in close connection with the problems handled by the pedagogy of freedom. In teaching there is still no clear attitude to free education, to its pros and cons. That's why we can observe a permanent debate in the modern formulation of this aspect. Moreover, the concept of “free education” has no exact definition. The article generalizes key points and discloses “pro and contra” of free education.

Education, Freedom, and Temporality: A Response to Biesta and Säfström's Manifesto

Since it was first published in 2011, ‘A Manifesto for Education’ by Gert Biesta and Karl Anders Säfström has received numerous enthusiastic reviews and been hailed as providing ‘an alternative vision for education’. Such enthusiasm, however, is perhaps not purely attributable to the substance of the text but also to the form that it adopts. In this regard, I attempt to explore what the authors refer to as the ironic usage of this genre of writing in relation to its message. The authors diagnose a problem in education related to the modern understanding of time, and they suggest an alternative ‘non-temporality’ in which we ‘stay in the tension between “what is” and “what is not” ’. While I appreciate the Manifesto's attempt to offer criticism based on the link between freedom and temporality in education, I take issue with aspects of their analysis. I discuss temporality and freedom through a reading of Martin Heidegger in which the concept of time in education is understood in terms of human freedom as possibility.

Intellectual Freedom Education in Japan and the United States: A Comparative Study

The rapid development of information technology has dramatically changed the basic paradigm of access in libraries, as well as librarian's roles and responsibilities. In order to remain abreast with these changes, instruction on intellectual freedom in Library and Information Science education needs to be reexamined and revamped. There have been few studies which examined the state of intellectual freedom education in library science programs, and even fewer examined from an international or comparative approach. The present study is an examination of the state of intellectual freedom education in Japan. Interviews and a survey were applied to five Library and Information Science educators in Japan. The findings were analyzed in comparison with the results of Bruce Shuman's survey (1977). The University of Hawaii Library and Information Science curriculum was also used as a reference for comparison. Other recent smaller-scale survey studies are supplemented to illustrate American practice as well. Two findings of this study merit further investigation. First, the Japanese approach to and perspective on teaching intellectual freedom are more theoretical while the American counterpart attempts to be both theoretical and practical. The differences are attributed to their social cultural environment in libraries, higher education, and society at large. The study also found differences in how intellectual freedom education is perceived in relation to the other subjects in the curriculum. Some of the Japanese respondents in this study see it as a specific subject matter to be taught in designated courses. On the contrary, American subjects argued it should be taught throughout the curriculum.

European Variations in Socioeconomic Inequalities in Students' Cognitive Achievement: The Role of Educational Policies

In the light of past sociological research in education, we analyze socioeconomic inequalities in cognitive competences among students reaching the end of compulsory schooling, in a time and European comparative perspective. Using the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2000, 2003, 2006, and 2009 data sets, we examine a broad set of institutional parameters that might play a role in the generation of social differentials in cognitive achievement. Analyzing PISA data for 22 European countries is particularly advantageous for pursuing our concerns, as they allow applying multilevel analyses (student; school; country) and assessing the interaction effects between the characteristics of the educational system on the one hand and student’s and school’s socioeconomic backgrounds on the other hand. We find descriptive evidence that institutional parameters that foster freedom in education, such as an early selection with numerous tracks of study, a great significance of public selective schools, as well as of private schools with fees, jointly amplify socioeconomic inequalities in performances between students essentially by magnifying the effect of schools’ social composition on students’ competences. We find ambiguous results concerning the effect of grade retention, which challenge past and current researches showing negative short-term effects of grade retention. Our hypotheses about the equalizing effect of national support measures, such as financial aids for disadvantaged students, are not empirically confirmed.

An Educational Management of Alternative Schools in Northeastern Thailand: Multi-cases Study

The aim of this research is to study situations thus propose guidelines of educational management of alternative schools in Northeastern Thailand. Research samples included two alternative schools as a multi-cases study. Instruments comprised of a semi-structured interview questions, observation note and participatory and non-participatory observation record. Triangulation technique is used for reliability verification and validity of data before analyzing it by content analysis method. Finally, data is summarized by applying descriptive approach. The results revealed that the situations of educational management as such: (i) the policies and goals are determined to focus on the vision of moral, ethic, knowledge and life skills, right and freedom of education, being happy, forming a justice community, loving a local community. Instructional management emphasized on an integrated and flexible curriculum, student-centered instruction, helping students to solve their problems, participation of community and multi-disciplinary sectors and developing the potential of teachers and administrators using contemplative concept; (ii) policies and goals are driven by focusing on participatory networks of parents and multi-disciplinary sectors in order to provide lifelong education management and student development; (iii) learning management activity pattern are focusing on contemplative concept application, informal education, critical thinking activities with parent and community and psychological and life skills development program. In addition, the proposed guidelines are schools are encouraged to accept fully qualified students, alternative education should be managed concurrently with the regular system and all the related sectors should participate in management.

Balancing freedom, autonomy and accountability in education

Balancing freedom, autonomy and accountability in education

Families, School Choice, and Democratic Iterations on the Right to Education and Freedom of Education in Finnish Municipalities

This article analyzes the ways in which the right to education and freedom of education are expressed in local school choice policies in Finland. We aim to discover the elements that form democratic iterations on the right to education and freedom of education by contrasting their manifestations in three local institutional spaces for parental school choice. We focus on different levels of structures and agents including national legislation, local spaces for school choice, municipal demographics, and the impact of socioeconomic status and institutional space for school choice on parental attitudes.

Free to manage? A neo-liberal defence of academic freedom in British higher education

Much of the rhetoric opposing managerialism in higher education can be ascribed to philosophical and political objections to the neo-liberal ideology which is alleged to underlie the phenomenon. This paper approaches managerialism from a different direction, addressing it within a neo-liberal framework. The paper argues that there is no intrinsic reason why support for a neo-liberal philosophy should equate with a belief in the need for managerialism in higher education. In particular, the author argues that neo-liberalism values freedom above other principles and that managerialism curtails academic freedom through control, instrumentalism and ideology and that, in all of these respects, it is counter-liberal. The paper concludes by suggesting an alternative approach to higher education which would enhance the importance of academic freedom within a neo-liberal policy framework.

Religious Diversity, Education, and the “Crisis” in State Neutrality

Abstract Education—and particularly public education—has become a crucible for the relationship between state and religious diversity, a principal site for contemporary debates about the meaning of secularism and the management of religious difference. This is so across a variety of national traditions, and despite wide differences in the historical and “emotional inheritances” surrounding the configuration of law, politics, and religion. Through an exploration of Hannah Arendt’s thought about responsibility and freedom in education, this article works towards a better understanding of why education is such a crucial and fraught field in the modern encounter between religion and law. The article turns to the recent jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of Canada to draw out the implications of these ideas, arriving ultimately at a claim about the nature and limits of the concept of state neutrality.