Is teaching always political? New challenges in higher education (original) (raw)
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Freedom of Speech in Universities
Routledge eBooks, 2023
2023 addition: This book explores tensions regarding freedom of speech and extremism in the UK university sector. Among its contributions are an analysis of major philosophical ideas regarding freedom of speech; a critique of populist binaries which frame debate about universities; a review of empirical research regarding student and staff views about freedom of speech; and a sensitive discussion of our ethical responsibilities in using language. Since the publication of this book in 2021, three major escalations have taken place of the phenomena we identified in the UK higher education sector. Firstly, there has been an increase in political and media commentary about the supposed chilling of speech on campus. This escalation is illustrated in the media by a few striking and disturbing examples of adversarial use of language on campus. A prominent example is the case of Kathleen Stock, former Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sussex, who resigned from her post in October 2021 following student protests regarding her views on gender identity. Secondly, these commentaries have been amplified and strengthened by the use of emotive, ambiguous vocabulary such as ‘culture wars’ and ‘woke’ (Scott-Baumann, 2023). Such terms are used to ridicule attempts to increase the range of voices on campus through, for example, decolonising historical narratives or providing guidance on how to reduce discrimination. This language increasingly frames, and constrains, the ongoing public debate about the role of universities in this and other liberal democracies. Thirdly, these phenomena have culminated in long promised legislation, the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023, which imposes penalties on universities and students’ unions which are deemed to be failing in their duty to uphold freedom of speech. The impact of this legislation is yet to be seen. It is likely to create many difficulties for the Office for Students and universities, as the legally enforceable stipulations about freedom of speech on campus will conflict with universities’ existing duties to limit free speech and protest (one such duty is the counter terror policy known as Prevent). A constant feature in this free speech debate, both before and after 2021, is the lack of practical suggestions for how to discuss complex topics. Many of us in society experience difficulties in speaking with reasonable honesty, because of the polarised nature of much talk that takes place both off and online. In this book we give clear advice about how to identify and neutralise such polarities, through the model of a ‘community of inquiry.’ Scott-Baumann follows this in her 2023 book with explanations of how to use democratic group processes within and beyond the classroom and in Westminster, for finding one’s voice. We hope our work offers a positive way forward, for universities and wider society, rather than the dominant simplistic debate about whether there should be more or less free speech. Alison Scott-Baumann and Simon Perfect October 2023 Freedom of speech and extremism in university campuses are a major source of debate and moral panic in the UK today. In 2018, the Joint Committee on Human Rights in Parliament undertook an inquiry into freedom of speech on campus. It found that much of the public concern is exaggerated, but identified a number of factors that require attention, including the impact of government counter-extremism measures (the Prevent Duty) and regulatory bodies (including the Charity Commission for England and Wales) on freedom of speech. This book combines empirical research and philosophical analysis to explore these issues, with particular focus on the impact upon Muslim students and staff. It offers a new conceptual paradigm for thinking about freedom of speech, based on deliberative democracy, and practical suggestions for universities in handling it. Topics covered include: The enduring legacy of key thinkers who have shaped the debate about freedom of speech, the role of right-wing populism in driving moral panic about universities, the impact of the Prevent Duty and the Charity Commission upon Muslim students, students' unions and university managers Students' and staff views about freedom of speech, alternative approaches to handling freedom of speech on campus, including the community of inquiry This highly engaging and topical text will be of interest to those working within public policy, religion and education or religion and politics and Islamic Studie
2021
This paper was written for the doctoral course/module Education Policy at the University of Glasgow. The UK Department for Education’s ‘Higher education: free speech and academic freedom command paper CP 394’ (henceforth HEFSAF and referenced in-text as (DfE, 2021) was initially published in February 2021 and is under consideration before Parliament. The HEFSAF proposes to strengthen academic freedom and freedom of speech within the context of English higher education. As a member of the higher education community, I feel that, in time, the implications of such a proposed policy can reach further than England. This paper attempts to illuminate how the HEFSAF furthers cultural hegemony. Specifically, this paper argues that the policy represents an expansion of neoliberal and neoconservative cultural hegemony within the context of UK higher education by inflaming pre-existing culture wars that focus on the conflation of the ideas ‘academic freedom’ and ‘free speech’. I choose the lens of hegemony and more specifically cultural hegemony in part due to the notion of repressive tolerance. In discussing radical teaching, Brookfield and Holst (2011:109) make reference to Marcuse (1965) and repressive tolerance, arguing that a person’s upbringing is steeped within a particular ideology that manifests itself in the choices that they make when presented with a range of perspectives on a particular topic. As a result, such a person may choose a perspective that most aligns with their ‘ideological conditioning’ (ibid) which to them might appear as common sense and/or ‘normal’. Consequently, an educator’s role is to ensure all ideas are considered critically and fully, and this can extend to the awareness, studies and understanding of education policy by educators. Discourse used within policy can represent the political nature of the day; specifically, the language used within policy can help educators to understand how ideas and identities are constructed to then understand how cultural hegemony ‘is secured and contested, and of the prospects for emancipatory social change’ (Olssen, Todd & O’Neil, 2004:36).
‘“By ones and twos and tens”: pedagogies of possibility for democratizing higher education’
Published in Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 2014, 22(2): 275–294. This paper concerns the relationship between teaching and political action both within and outside formal educational institutions. Its setting is the recent period following the 2010 Browne Review on the funding of higher education in England. Rather than speaking directly to debates around scholar-activism, about which much has already been written, I want to stretch the meanings of both teaching and activism to contextualise the contemporary politics of higher learning in relation to diverse histories and geographies of progressive education more generally. Taking this wider view suggests that some of the forms of knowledge which have characterised the university as a progressive institution are presently being produced in more politicised educational environments. Being receptive to these other modes of learning cannot only expand scholarly thinking about how to reclaim intellectual life from the economy within universities, but stimulate the kind of imagination that we need for dreaming big about higher education as and for a practice of democratic life.
You can also locate this piece at Academe, the AAUP Blog--where you can leave comments. https://academeblog.org/2018/03/31/i-will-not-be-silenced-the-vital-work-of-free-expression-in-the-academy-in-the-education-of-free-citizens/ Enclosed is an account of my continuing efforts to gain greater attention and solidarity concerning recent attempts to repress academic freedom--and the university administrations who, out of either paralyzing aversion to controversy or active complicity, aid and abet the effort to intimidate, harass, and ultimately silence professors. There is so much more to be said--especially about the connection between the deliberate work of white nationalists, the suckering of students into believing that education exists for not other purpose than better wages, and the privatization and/or corporatization of the academy. We live in dark times, and apparently it must get yet darker before the light.
Teaching and Learning Politics: a Survey of Practices and Change in UK Universities
Political Studies, 1999
The paper presents the results of a survey of practices and change in respect of teaching and learning politics in UK universities for the period 1991/92±1994/95. It begins by contextualizing the survey; summarizing changes that occurred in higher education in the UK in the early 1990s and reviewing key strands in contemporary British literature on teaching and learning in higher education. Following a methods section, the ®ndings of the survey are then presented. These suggest that, in 1994/95, UK politics departments were struggling to cope with increased student numbers and resource constraints whilst retaining a broadly traditionalist approach to teaching and learning. Implications of these ®ndings are then considered in a short concluding discussion.
ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries, 2013
What we are faced with at present is a blatant neoliberal transformation of universities, whose social relevance depends increasingly on the ability to serve the needs of neoliberal capitalism. If we see this as a problem – as many of us do – then we also feel the need to defend (and develop) the traditional practices of universities, such as “pure” research and critical reflection on society. Yet such a response, inevitably, goes hand in hand with critique of and struggle against ideology behind capitalism itself, against the logic of competition and profit. Drawing on the legacy of Freire and Althusser, the article highlights some of the links between the English language teaching and the neoliberal politics, and gives suggestions about ways in which departments of English in general, and language classes in particular, can be a part of the socially critical forces rather than a part of the so-called liberal-progressive camp.
Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2020
With increasing influence of illiberalism, freedom should not be considered or interpreted lightly. Post-truth contexts provide grounds for altright movements to capture and pervert notions of freedom of speech, making universities battlefields of politicised emotions and expressions (Peters et al., 2019). In societies facing these pressures around the world, academic freedom has never been challenged as much as it is today (Gibbs, 2019). As Peters and colleagues note (2019), conceptualisations of 'facts' and 'evidences' are politically, socially, and epistemically reconstructed in post-truth contexts. At the same time, with intelligence commodified, reified or marginalised, freedom of speech and of mobility can entail fights for entitlements, or escapes from local responsibilities (Calitz, 2018; Lo, 2019). The decline and corruptions of democratic free speech and academic freedom, or the absence of forces to defend them, are thus serious challenges. These challenges grow as the competition of ideas, sometimes under the rubric of academic freedom, often implies the power struggle and questioning of statuses in the so-called 'marketplace of ideas'. Competition as a value invoked in some conceptualisations of freedom, becomes more important than human dignity, which was originally supposed to expand and strengthen under democratic conceptions of freedom in higher education (Macfarlane, 2016). What had been happening to freedoms, of speech, teaching, and learning, across different subject positions and cultures of higher education, remains largely underexplored, as alt-right movements, neoliberalism and illiberalism, and post-truthism values and orientations expand.
A Place from Where to Speak: The University and Academic Freedom
British Journal of Educational Studies, 2009
the university is promoted as 'a place from where to speak'. Academic freedom is examined as a crucial value in an increasingly uncertain age which resonates with Barnett's concern to encourage students to overcome their 'fear of freedom'. My concern is that the putative university space of freedom and autonomy may well become constricted by those who would limit not just our freedom to speak but also our freedoms to be and to do. Without academic freedom students and teachers, who might be able to fly, will not be permitted to fly. I review issues of academic freedom and free speech raised especially by Berlin, Voltaire, von Humboldt, Mill, Milton and Rorty. I discuss problems raised when free speech is heard by others as harmful and offensive to their beliefs and values. I offer a set of suggestions to ensure that the university may envision itself as a space of freedom, pluralism and tolerance. Finally, I reflect that the university, of all democratic institutions, should be the one which best serves its society as 'a place from where to speak'.