Individual Academic Freedom and Aprofessional Acts

Abstract

In this essay, Liviu Andreescu examines the question of whether a certain category of aprofessional acts by academics (in particular, political speech) deserves protection against academic sanctions under the principle of academic freedom. Andreescu discusses two alternative views of academic freedom (the extensive and the restrictive) providing different answers to the question. He then examines some of the arguments advanced by the proponents of the more recent, restrictive theory of academic freedom against the broader, traditional theory, which in recent times has been on the defensive. Andreescu ultimately suggests that the choice between the two definitions of academic freedom is a question of sound policy in specific institutional contexts, rather than a matter of conceptual consistency.

Moral controversies and academic public health: Notes on navigating and surviving academic freedom challenges

“…While the topics of the amicus brief were not, and are not, my primary topic of research, I had read through much of the related empirical literature through 2015 (though I have not closely followed developments since), and I had provided critical feedback on a review of that literature, mostly concerning methodological critique of study designs. This work, along with my carrying out related conceptual, philosophical, and cultural readings on the topic, which put me in a position to reasonably sign the brief, were an exercise of academic freedom, though the signing itself was an act of freedom of expression, arguably protected by academic freedom [ 13 , 14 ]. I have in fact additionally been invited to participate in original empirical research on each of the three controversial topics mentioned above.…”

Defending academic freedom: Arts and Humanities research as constrained writing

“…While these addressed a range of aspects of the topic, all can be identified with one of three broad approaches: first-hand accounts of violations of the author’s academic freedom (Gottfredson, 2010; Peterson-Overton, 2011); examinations of particular features of the topic, e.g. academic freedom as ‘thought-time’ (Noonan, 2015), but see also Andreescu (2009), Coetzee (2016), Orenstein and Stoll-Ron (2014), and Schrecker (2012); and lastly: rationales for academic freedom (Bernstein, 2008; Karran, 2009; Tierney and Lechuga, 2010).…”

From professors’ barriers to organisational conditions in ICT integration in higher education

“…According to Andreescu (2009), academic freedom is the right of academics to be free from external constraints in teaching and research and to criticise their institutions freely (p. 561). In Universidad Nacional (UNA), academic freedom is a fundamental tenet (Universidad Nacional, 2015, p. 13).…”