International Perspectives on Academic Freedom

IF 0.4 0 RELIGION Religion & Education Pub Date : 2021-07-28 DOI:10.1093/obo/9780199756810-0285
{"title":"International Perspectives on Academic Freedom","authors":"","doi":"10.1093/obo/9780199756810-0285","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The beginnings of academic freedom are testimony to internationalism. European universities in the Middle Ages were self-governing to a degree, but the Church or the state controlled them for centuries. As modern science emerged in 17th-century England and as partaking in research and scholarship began to spread in the 18th and 19th centuries throughout Europe, an interest in the protection of free inquiry intensified. Students who pursued advanced education did so in Europe where many of them became professors, and where, consequently, the idea of Lehrfreiheit emerged: the right of the university professor to freedom of inquiry and teaching. Modern notions of academic freedom began to coalesce in the 19th century and on into the early and mid-20th century with the ascendancy of the research role performed by academics. Yet the point should not be lost that a broader interest in freedom of thought and teaching predates this process of formalization. Assertions of scholarly freedom in the 13th and 14th centuries at the University of Paris constitute a legacy of protections in the pursuit of knowledge, and the term scholastic freedom is traceable to Pope Honorius III in the 13th century. Owing to its span across time and cultural contexts, it is unsurprising that understandings of academic freedom have evolved and are thereby also susceptible to misunderstanding and misapplication. That there might be simply one way to construe academic freedom is a modern paradox. More accurately, academic freedom is nestled in a constellation of cultural, social, and political settings and traditions and histories. Academic freedom is often assumed to be a necessary condition for an authentic academic profession wherever professors are employed. In only a limited number of national systems, particularly the United States, academic freedom is strongly associated with tenure. But globally, most systems of higher education do not have tenure. This fact begs the question of how academic freedom, however construed, can exist in an absence of tenure protections. Answers to the question are again conditioned by histories and traditions, long or limited, that situate professors’ work in a relationship between the state and higher education. The reality that academic freedom is understood differently in different parts of world makes comparison difficult. This likely accounts for the relative paucity of explicitly empirical treatment of academic freedom in international comparative focus. In actuality it is challenging to offer a universal definition of “academic freedom.”","PeriodicalId":43359,"journal":{"name":"Religion & Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2021-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Religion & Education","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199756810-0285","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"RELIGION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

The beginnings of academic freedom are testimony to internationalism. European universities in the Middle Ages were self-governing to a degree, but the Church or the state controlled them for centuries. As modern science emerged in 17th-century England and as partaking in research and scholarship began to spread in the 18th and 19th centuries throughout Europe, an interest in the protection of free inquiry intensified. Students who pursued advanced education did so in Europe where many of them became professors, and where, consequently, the idea of Lehrfreiheit emerged: the right of the university professor to freedom of inquiry and teaching. Modern notions of academic freedom began to coalesce in the 19th century and on into the early and mid-20th century with the ascendancy of the research role performed by academics. Yet the point should not be lost that a broader interest in freedom of thought and teaching predates this process of formalization. Assertions of scholarly freedom in the 13th and 14th centuries at the University of Paris constitute a legacy of protections in the pursuit of knowledge, and the term scholastic freedom is traceable to Pope Honorius III in the 13th century. Owing to its span across time and cultural contexts, it is unsurprising that understandings of academic freedom have evolved and are thereby also susceptible to misunderstanding and misapplication. That there might be simply one way to construe academic freedom is a modern paradox. More accurately, academic freedom is nestled in a constellation of cultural, social, and political settings and traditions and histories. Academic freedom is often assumed to be a necessary condition for an authentic academic profession wherever professors are employed. In only a limited number of national systems, particularly the United States, academic freedom is strongly associated with tenure. But globally, most systems of higher education do not have tenure. This fact begs the question of how academic freedom, however construed, can exist in an absence of tenure protections. Answers to the question are again conditioned by histories and traditions, long or limited, that situate professors’ work in a relationship between the state and higher education. The reality that academic freedom is understood differently in different parts of world makes comparison difficult. This likely accounts for the relative paucity of explicitly empirical treatment of academic freedom in international comparative focus. In actuality it is challenging to offer a universal definition of “academic freedom.”
查看原文
分享 分享
微信好友 朋友圈 QQ好友 复制链接
本刊更多论文
学术自由的国际视角
学术自由的开始是国际主义的见证。中世纪的欧洲大学在一定程度上是自治的,但教会或国家控制了它们几个世纪。随着现代科学在17世纪的英国出现,随着参与研究和学术研究在18、19世纪开始在整个欧洲传播,保护自由探究的兴趣日益浓厚。追求高等教育的学生在欧洲也是这样做的,他们中的许多人成为了教授,因此,在那里,Lehrfreiheit的概念出现了:大学教授有研究和教学自由的权利。学术自由的现代概念在19世纪开始融合,并一直延续到20世纪早期和中期,学术界的研究角色占据了主导地位。然而,不应忽视的一点是,在这一形式化过程之前,对思想自由和教学自由的更广泛的兴趣。13世纪和14世纪巴黎大学对学术自由的主张构成了对追求知识的保护的遗产,学术自由一词可以追溯到13世纪的教皇霍诺里乌斯三世。由于其跨越时间和文化背景,对学术自由的理解发生了演变,因此也容易受到误解和误用,这并不奇怪。或许只有一种解释学术自由的方式,这是一个现代悖论。更准确地说,学术自由与文化、社会、政治环境、传统和历史紧密相连。学术自由通常被认为是真正的学术职业的必要条件,无论教授在哪里工作。只有在少数几个国家的制度中,尤其是美国,学术自由与终身教职密切相关。但在全球范围内,大多数高等教育体系都没有终身教职。这一事实引出了一个问题:无论如何解释,在没有终身教职保护的情况下,学术自由如何存在?对这个问题的回答再次受到历史和传统的制约,这些历史和传统或长或短,将教授的工作置于国家与高等教育之间的关系中。世界不同地区对学术自由的理解不同,这使得比较变得困难。这可能解释了为什么在国际比较焦点中,明确地对学术自由进行实证研究的相对缺乏。实际上,要给“学术自由”下一个普遍的定义是很有挑战性的。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 去求助
来源期刊
CiteScore
1.30
自引率
0.00%
发文量
16
期刊最新文献
50 Years of Religion & Education: The Origins of the Journal and the Interdisciplinary Study of Religion and Education Religion, Education, and the Future of Democratic Pluralism Review: Spirituality That Makes a Difference, by Charles R. Kniker, Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2022; ISBN: 978-1-6667-1789-1 “One More Thing”: Clarifying the Evidence Around Christian Privilege in Higher Education Catholic and Public Schools Compared: Examining Achievement Growth in an Urban Center
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
现在去查看 取消
×
提示
确定
0
微信
客服QQ
Book学术公众号 扫码关注我们
反馈
×
意见反馈
请填写您的意见或建议
请填写您的手机或邮箱
已复制链接
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
×
扫码分享
扫码分享
Book学术官方微信
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术
文献互助 智能选刊 最新文献 互助须知 联系我们:info@booksci.cn
Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。
Copyright © 2023 Book学术 All rights reserved.
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号 京ICP备2023020795号-1