Defending academic freedom: Arts and Humanities research as constrained writing

Abstract

This article notes that while there is a large literature lamenting increasing assaults on academic freedom, there is little literature to address ways in which it might be preserved. Sampling that writing, it finds some concern with protecting academic freedom in extreme scenarios, via discrete programmes, and generalised dissidence, but no discussion of determinate action applicable to all Arts and Humanities research. Defining academic freedom via the UK’s legal framework and elaboration in Judith Butler’s writing, the article inventorises significant assaults in recent times, noting the roles of government and the market in such. Following the literature review, it proposes a new, interventionist tactic for preserving academic freedom, suggesting that undue constraints should be annotated when research is written up, and that this space should also be used to suggest constructive alternatives. This strategy is demonstrated as the article acknowledges some of the constraints on its own production and suggests redress.

Validation of non‐formal and informal learning in formal education: Covert and overt

“…As a result, teaching staff may have subject knowledge in areas they do not teach, for example because the institution does not offer a course with which that knowledge fits. Cultural capital embodied in their staff, and the institutional cultural capital on offer may not correspond (Francis, 2020). Educational institutions could take steps towards the validation of knowledge, skills and competences in which their staff has expertise, but that has not been institutionalised through the offering of credentials at that institution.…”