Re-framing student academic freedom: A capability perspective
Macfarlane B.
2012
Higher Education
20
10.1007/s10734-011-9473-4
The scholarly debate about academic freedom focuses almost exclusively on the rights of academic faculty. Student academic freedom is rarely discussed and is normally confined to debates connected with the politicisation of the curriculum. Concerns about (student) freedom of speech reflect the dominant role of negative rights in the analysis of academic freedom representing 'threats' to academic freedom in terms of rights which may be taken away from a person rather than conferred on them. This paper draws on the distinction between negative and positive rights and the work of Sen (1999) to re-frame student academic freedom as capability. It is argued that capability deprivation has a negative impact on the extent to which students can exercise academic freedom in practice and that student capability can be enhanced through a liberal education that empowers rather than domesticates students. © 2011 The Author(s).
Academic freedom; Capability; Rights; Students
Altbach P., Academic freedom: A realistic appraisal, International Higher Education, 57, pp. 2-5, (2009); Declaration of principles on academic freedom and academic tenure, (1915); Freedom in the classroom, (2007); Academic freedom and educational responsibility, (2006); Barnett R., The idea of higher education, (1990); Barnett R., Learning for an unknown future, Higher Education Research and Development, 23, 3, pp. 247-260, (2004); Berlin I., Four Essays on Liberty, (1969); Bissell C., Academic freedom: The student version, Queen's Quarterly, 76, 2, pp. 171-184, (1969); Churchill D., Educational applications of Web 2.0: Using blogs to support teaching and learning, British Journal of Educational Technology, 40, 1, pp. 179-183, (2009); Higher Ambitions: The Future of Universities in a Knowledge Economy, (2009); Annual Reports and Accounts, 2006-2007, (2007); Furedi F., Therapy Culture: Cultivating Vulnerability in an Uncertain Age, (2003); Giles A., Martin S., Bryce D., Hendry G., Students as partners in evaluation: Student and teacher perspectives, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 29, 6, pp. 681-685, (2004); Horn M., Students and academic freedom in Canada, Historical Studies in Education, 11, 1, pp. 1-32, (1999); Hutchison P., Universities accused of pressuring students over satisfaction survey, The Daily Telegraph, (2010); Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals: Writing and editing for biomedical publication, (2008); Josephson P., Lehrfreiheit, Lernfreiheit, Wertfreiheit: Max Weber and the University Teachers' congress in Jena 1908, Max Weber Studies, 4, 2, pp. 201-219, (2004); Karran T., Academic freedom: In justification of a universal ideal, Studies in Higher Education, 34, 3, pp. 263-283, (2009); Kenber B., Matthew T.M., Universities 'pressured students to inflate league table, (2010); Lazar R., Up for grabs-Authors are a dime a dozen: The problem of multiple authors, Acta Paediatrica, 93, pp. 589-591, (2004); Macfarlane B., Researching with Integrity: The Ethics of Academic Enquiry, (2009); Macfarlane B., Saitoh Y., Research ethics in Japanese higher education: Faculty attitudes and cultural mediation, Journal of Academic Ethics, 6, 3, pp. 181-195, (2009); Macintyre A., The very idea of a university: Aristotle, Newman, and us, British Journal of Educational Studies, 57, 4, pp. 347-362, (2009); Magsino R.F., Student academic freedom and the changing student/university relationship, Ethics and Educational Policy, pp. 36-57, (1978); Marshall L., Meachem L., Widening access, narrowing curriculum: is the expectation of software training changing the culture within visual communications' higher education?, Published proceedings for 5th International Conference on Educational Technology in Cultural Context (ICALT 2005), Kaohsiung, Taiwan, July. In Proceedings: The 5th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, pp. 1052-1056, (2005); Monypenny P., Toward a standard for student academic freedom, Law and Contemporary Problems, 28, 3, pp. 625-635, (1963); Mostrous A., Kingston University students told to lie to boost college's rank in government poll, TimesOnline, (2008); Mumford J.H., The American concept of academic freedom, AAUP Bulletin, 46, 1, pp. 66-72, (1960); Otto J., Sanford D., Ross D., Does ratemyprofessor.com really rate my professor?, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 33, 4, pp. 355-368, (2008); Student attendance and engagement, (2009); Patel S.H., Graduate students' ownership and attribution rights in intellectual property, Indiana Law Journal, 71, (1996); Pavela G., Academic freedom for students has ancient roots, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 51, 38, (2005); Robinson S., Values, spirituality and higher education, Values in Higher Education, pp. 226-241, (2005); Russell C., Academic Freedom, (1993); Sadler D., Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems, Instructional Science, 18, pp. 119-144, (1989); Sen A., Development as Freedom, (1999); Sursock A., Smidt H., Trends 2010: A Decade of Change in European Higher Education, (2010); Trow M., Problems in the Transition from Elite to Mass Higher Education, (1973); Twaddle M., The Oxford and Cambridge admissions controversy of 1834, British Journal of Educational Studies, 14, 3, pp. 45-58, (1966); Global Education Digest 2008, (2008); The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, (2009); The State of Higher Education in the World Today, (2009); Weber M., The academic freedom of the universities (originally published in 1909), Max Weber on Universities: The Power of the State and the Dignity of the Academic Calling in Imperial Germany, pp. 18-23, (1973); Weber M., The Meaning of Ethical Neutrality in Sociology and Economics (originally published in 1917), Max Weber on Universities: The Power of the State and the Dignity of the Academic Calling in Imperial Germany, pp. 47-54, (1973); Welfare L.E., Sackett C.R., Authorship in student-faculty collaborative research: Perceptions of current and best practices, Journal of Academic Ethics, 8, pp. 199-215, (2010)
Article
All Open Access; Green Open Access; Hybrid Gold Open Access
Scopus