Academic Freedom Research Articles

Knowledge production at a crossroads: rising antidemocracy and diminishing academic freedom

ABSTRACT This essay links the global shift toward antidemocracy with the global attack on higher education. I argue that rising far-right politics in many countries is also politicizing higher education, in turn diminishing the freedom to research, think and teach. This is apparent across Europe, the Americas, Middle East, Asia, Africa and among supposedly leading liberal democracies such as the United States. A common strategy in far-right attacks on higher education has been to limit scholars’ claim to collective institutional autonomy and reduce scholarly conversation to an individual’s right to free speech. The new UK Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 illustrates this reductionism explicitly. To counter this trend, I argue for reframing academic freedom as social responsibility to wider societies, underscoring its collective dimensions and legibility and applicability to nonacademic audiences. This reframing is particularly important in global north countries given the dominance of the Euro-American academy in knowledge production, and the relative power of western scholars to push back against intellectual censorship. Drawing on the recent wave of political activism across social movements and union mobilization in the United States, I argue this presents an opportunity for connecting the defense of higher education with the defense of wider concerns around issues such as the climate crisis, labor conditions, anti-racism, conflict and abortion rights. I conclude that shifting the narrative about academic freedom is essential for building transnational support across class, race, ethnic, religious, gender and educational differences, and resisting escalating attacks on universities and colleges around the world.

Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom in Higher Education in England

ABSTRACT: This article considers the context, development, and significance of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 . The Act was relatively unusual in aiming to increase the normative strength of freedom of speech. The central justification given for the Act was the need to respond to an increasing number of interferences with free speech and academic freedom occurring at universities. The growth of a "cancel culture" was having a "chilling effect" on students, staff, and visiting speakers. The article examines a range of high-profile cases and incidents that have attracted political and media attention. Many of these have concerned contemporary debates related to trans issues and identity politics. The issues discussed in the article are of wider international interest. Similar controversies have been experienced in universities in other states. The article makes comparative reference to developments in the field in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The article examines the perceived issues and evidential bases for the Act, reviews the legal duties, and analyzes the key legal concepts. It considers these in terms of compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights (1950). It concludes by addressing three thematic issues: (i) a Model Code; (ii) challenging university ideologies; and (iii) securing cultural change.

THE PROBLEM OF PROFESSIONAL TRAINING OF FUTURE IT SPECIALISTS IN THE RECEPTION ROOMS OF DOMESTIC SCIENTISTS OF THE LAST DECADE

In the article was analyzed the problem of professional training of future IT specialists in the receptions of domestic scientists of the last decade. It is found that the modern system of training specialists in higher education in Ukraine is focused on global trends in the development of higher education, such as globalization, integration, democratization, continuity, humanization, openness of education, academic freedom, autonomy, digitalization, etc., which leads to the transformation of training of highly qualified specialists, including IT specialists. It is proved that reception as a new methodological technology involves interpretation – one's own interpretation, addition to the previously created. Based on the analysis, it is determined that the professional training of future IT specialists involves the formation of their readiness to work and acquire relevant competencies in information technology, mathematical and computer modeling of processes and systems of various nature, forecasting, optimization, system analysis and decision-making, etc. The article characterizes the research of Ukrainian scientists related to the professional training of IT specialists in its multi-vector dimension over the past decade, such as I. Gerasymenko, A. Stryuk, A, M. Rassovutska, S. Semerikov, I. Tarasov, Y. Sikora, O. Glazunova, A. Kocharyan, S. Nikolayenko, V. Shynkaruk, V. Kovalchuk Y. Vasylenko, L. Dmytritsa, T. Bodnenko, V. Vlasenko, V. Bykov, A. Gurzhiy, M. Shyshkina, T. Voloshyna, T. Vakaliuk, T. Potapchuk, O. Malykhin, T. Yarmolchuk, S. Berezenska, N. Oliynyk, I. Varava, A. Kapiton, A. Schlichta, and others. It has been established that in the last decade, Ukrainian researchers have considered the professional training of future IT specialists in the context of their professional activities in a rather different way and have drawn certain analogies with the concept of competence as a person's ability to perform a certain type of activity

The Left Must Rediscover Free Speech and Academic Freedom

The conflict in Gaza has brought to a boil the systematic threat to academic freedom and freedom of speech in Western liberal democracies. This neo-McCarthyism can only be countered by a united front not only within the Left, but across the left-right ideological divide.

The Prosecution of Professor Chandler Davis: McCarthyism, Communism, and the Myth of Academic Freedom by Steve Batterson

The Prosecution of Professor Chandler Davis: McCarthyism, Communism, and the Myth of Academic Freedom by Steve Batterson

Human and Divine Law at the Secular University: The Divide between Classical Liberalism and Post-Classical Liberalism

The American university has been guided by classical liberalism in its defense of the freedom of speech and academic freedom. The idea is that a university is a place where all ideas and perspectives can be debated. However, this idea is increasingly being challenged by those who want the secular university to be a place that advances a social philosophy that promises to transform society by dismantling structural racism and providing for greater equity. In this article, I will argue that both of these models have been shaped by democratic legal ideals and both share a common skeptical assumption about the basic questions of meaning that each person must answer. The legal structures developed by Westphalian modernity attempt neutrality on questions about meaning. This can be seen even in recent Supreme Court decisions affirming the individual’s right to determine meaning for themselves. This skeptical root has produced the conflict between classical liberals and the social transformation that we are witnessing at our universities. I argue for a third option that I find in the Declaration of Independence, which affirms that we can and should know the answers to basic questions which then provide the foundation for education and law.

Alex J. Plajer.

"A key experience in my education/career was receiving a lot of scientific freedom during my PhD which gave me the confidence to go independent comparatively early… My favorite saying is: 'Failure is success in progress.' " Find out more about Alex J. Plajer in his Introducing… Profile.

Rhodes Must Fall and the incongruence of academic freedom and decoloniality

ABSTRACT This study explores the rise of decolonial-styled politics within the University of Cape Town and the University of Oxford and the natural limitations of this form of politics within the ambit of academic freedom as understood by both universities. Leveraging the Rhodes Must Fall movement as a case study of translocal student activism which emerged at both institutions, the paper underscores the necessity of delineating the pursuit of decoloniality within the university into two constitutive components: decolonial thought and decolonial action. The paper argues that without this delineation, the decolonial projects within universities will remain inept.

Unveiling Self-Identity of Teachers: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Perception and Interpretation of Selected Poems of Rupi Kaur’s “Homebody”

This study focuses on the unique amalgamation of linguistic and visual elements in Rupi Kaur’s Instapoetry, and how it contributes to the self-identity representation of university-level teachers in English Literature or Linguistics. Ten participants, each with considerable teaching experience and active research engagement in their respective fields were individually invited to participate in this research from various universities in Pakistan. Data collection includes two sessions of semi-structured interviews. Additionally, a supplementary questionnaire was used to gather demographic information and insights into participants’ academic backgrounds. The transcribed data were analyzed using Norman Fairclough’s Three-dimensional framework of CDA, revealing the transformative role that linguistic and visual elements play in shaping teachers’ self-identity by fostering their innovation, individuality, and inclusivity as professionals and individuals. However, the study also highlights persistent challenges related to cultural conservatism and academic freedom when adopting new trends in Instapoetry. The study suggests practical implications for teachers and educational institutions to benefit from a subtle understanding of the relationship between Instapoetry and self-identity. The study has two main limitations: a small sample size of university-level teachers and a primary focus on selected poems from Rupi Kaur’s “homebody” for analysis.

Endeavor for Self-Realization

This paper focuses on the reactions of three professors and architects (Jan E. Koula, Vladimír Karfík, and Alfred Piffl) to how the totalitarian political regime restricted and interfered with creative and academic freedoms in the period starting with the introduction of architectural education at the Slovak University of Technology and ending with the so-called “normalization” period in the former Czechoslovakia. All three of them were already active in interwar Czechoslovakia and thus had rich experience with working under democratic conditions, and their early work was influenced by the interwar avant-garde movements. After World War II, in part thanks to their pioneering work at the Slovak University of Technology, they got caught up in the system of the authoritarian socialist state. The central question that this study asks is how the trio dealt with the totalitarian regime, which stood in contrast with the democratic period of interwar Czechoslovakia that formed them as architects, and brought further limits to their work. Based mostly on material from their personal estates and period publications, we reveal how each of them found his own way to deal with the totalitarian regime, and we argue that even its limitations did not make Koula, Karfík, and Piffl abandon their beliefs and creative credos completely.

The Evolution of Modern Standards of Academic Freedoms In Poland

The various forms of academic freedom are an integral and necessary component of modern academia. This does not mean, however, that they can be easily framed in static terms. Being closely connected with all academic life, those forms, as it were, are intrinsically subject to the same constraints and the pressures of the environment as the university itself. Another difficulty in precisely defining this phenomenon stems from terminological ambiguity. Additionally, both levels of the primary sources of the law are crucial here, i.e. the Constitution in the first place and the so-called “ordinary” laws as secondary sources. This fact dictates the research assumptions and structure of this study. The objective is to analyse and evaluate the Polish regulations shaping the sphere of broadly-understood academic freedom with a view to presenting the manner of regulation and the legal approach to modern “academic freedom packages” in the historical perspective of their evolution, starting with the interwar period. Capturing the trends and directions of legislative changes makes it possible to define and verify the current catalogue of academic freedoms included in the so-called Act 2.0. In order to achieve this research goal, dogmatic, normative and historical-legal methods are employed.

Critical Qualitative Inquiry: An Optimistic Counter in/to a Conservative Backslide

In this conceptual paper, we theorize possibilities for critical qualitative inquirers who work in the face of and in response to escalating authoritarian threats to democracy, academic freedom, and belonging. We explore seemingly failed methodological, pedagogical, and activist resistances that arose from our experiences as critical qualitative methodologists in states marked by oppressive conservative driven democratic backsliding. Drawing inspiration from Manning’s account of the minor, Malabou’s plasticity, and Butler’s radical interdependence, we share how new collective, creative, and clever countermoves emerged from the failure of planned resistances. Our examples exist in the space of radical hope, offering provocations for critical qualitative researchers as we (re)conceptualize and (re)enact movements toward justice amid a conservative backslide.

Academic Freedom and International Students, Part 5: The gray areas

Computer science and software engineering students and researchers are busy with their courses, in their labs, working on their studies and research - for the most part not really thinking about the impact of politics on their research. However, there are increasing restrictions on the information researchers are allowed to share with their students, and who researchers are allowed to collaborate with respect to national security and increasing concerns with China. To an increasing extent researchers are made aware at grant time. Research institutions must follow federal rules in the grant and hiring process and are conducting workshops and roundtables on issues of national security. The AIP, The American Institute of Physics provides through their mailing list an informative brief on national science policy titled "FYI: Science Policy News from AIP, This Week." The issue for January 23, 2023, invited those interested to join a National Academies of Science, Engineering, Medicine workshop called a "Meeting of experts," on the topic of "Fundamental Research, Openness, and Protecting the U.S. Technological Advantage: NSDD-189 in the New Global Context."

Shaping the Future of Criminal Justice Education: Insights from ACJS Leadership Survey Analysis

Higher education has been in a time of rapid evolution and significant challenges prior to COVID-19, but a large and continuously growing body of empirical evidence suggests that the pandemic greatly accelerated those trials and brought them to a flashpoint. To our knowledge, the present work is the first post-pandemic to explore perceptions about the future of criminal justice (CJ) education. The present work seeks to address this gap and explore what factors CJ educators and advanced students identify as current and future challenges, concerns, and areas they need training or support. To gauge these perceptions, feedback was solicited from a select group of leaders, students, and journal editorial board members. Results explore priorities surrounding the increasing politicalization of higher education and the field in general, as well as the use of artificial intelligence, attacks on academic freedom, balancing research and teaching responsibilities, creating curriculum relevant to new forms of crime, teaching diverse populations, declining program enrollments, and negative public perceptions about the value of CJ degrees as central concerns. Implications and direction of future research are offered.

Navigating complex narratives: understanding challenges of Russian-related research in Kazakhstan

ABSTRACT The idea for this research note emerged in the aftermath of a survey that we conducted with Kazakhstani experts about their perceptions of the Western and Russian vectors in Kazakhstan’s foreign policy. We found that most of our respondents felt uncomfortable and tended to avoid answering questions related to Russia. In this research note, we seek to discuss and explore the challenges that Kazakhstani researchers experience while studying Russia. While doing so, we find that Kazakhstani academics are facing now what we call a wave of new-Sovietism from Russia that not only instils anxieties but also silences scholarly voices in Kazakhstan and beyond. We call for robust academic dialogue to foster understanding of issues faced by academics within and beyond the country. By highlighting these challenges, we aim to enrich discussions on studying Russia and emphasize the importance of safeguarding academic freedom and intellectual diversity in research.

Perfectionism Negatively Affects Academic Freedom

Perfectionism Negatively Affects Academic Freedom

Legal Protection for Students as Whistleblowers of Corruption Cases in Universities

A whistleblower is necessary for corruption cases in universities. by emphasizing previous research that discusses related, legal protection for reporters to eradicate corruption about academic freedom. Then, the weak coordination of law enforcement corruption. And the pattern of corruption in universities shows that corruption can concern all professions, including academics. This study aims to make a real contribution to the efforts of ethics enforcement and anti-corruption in the university environment. Increasing legal protection for students as reporters is expected to create a more supportive and safe environment for those who want to disclose corruption. So, the researchers used socio-legal methods in this study. This study highlights the relationship between law and society to create a more complex answer to the problem raised. The results of this research contain conclusions about the difficulty of the active role of students and what legal protection efforts are obtained in combating corruption in universities. This study offers something : (1) barriers and legal protection efforts to students as whistleblowers in eradicating university corruption; (2) on how to handle corruption cases in universities, especially students as reporters. This study concluded that the government and university leaders must be able to provide legal certainty by protecting students as reporters, and those who reveal corruption need to be strengthened to avoid retaliation or intimidation so that students are safer reporting allegations of corruption without fear of facing repression or other reprisals.

Development of the United States’ University tenure system from the perspective of the protection of teachers’ rights and interests

As a fundamental system for protecting the rights and interests of teachers, the university tenure system plays a crucial role in the development of universities in the United States. The tenure system has developed and evolved over a long period of time, from the dual track system of university teachers under church management in the 17th century to the formal establishment of the university tenure system in the 20th century and then to the “up-or-out” policy in the 21st century. The foundation of this system’s development has always been maintaining teachers’ academic freedom and guaranteeing their livelihoods. This article explores how universities and related institutions in the United States have integrated the protection of teacher academic freedom and economic security throughout the development of higher education by studying the development of the US university tenure system.

Politics, Academic Freedom, and Social Justice

The main letter from the editors of this special issue ends with a very optimistic message about the potential "long future of social justice research...in the online pages of ISTL." However, recent events have prompted us to temper this with an open acknowledgement of the difficult political context of this research.

The effect of academic freedom on electoral democracy in the Asian region

AbstractThis paper examines how academic freedom influences electoral democracy in 44 Asian nations drawing on country‐wide panel data (2000–2019) obtained from the Varieties of Democracy (V‐Dem)‐2022. For its analytical framework, this study employs dynamic panel regression models. The Asian region, which represents the world's largest and most economically dynamic democracies, is an interesting research site to investigate this nexus due to the region's long‐term struggle to achieve its democratic aspirations. The study finds that the current‐level of electoral democracy in Asian countries is significantly associated with their antecedent level of academic freedom. Moreover, the results reveal that it takes approximately 7 years for academic freedom to yield a significant impact on electoral democracy. These results are robust across different sets of model specifications, sub‐samples, and definitions of academic freedom.