Academics should be free to call into question our most cherished beliefs - to slaughter a whole herd of sacred cows, if that's what is required. Critical inquiry is the starting point for stable and enduring knowledge about the world, and that often means upsetting people.
But academic freedom doesn't mean that academics can say whatever they like, whenever they like. Academic freedom doesn't mean freedom to swear at their students in class, just as it doesn’t mean freedom to behave badly at dinner parties. There are certain standards and restrictions that academics should be expected to comply with, given their position as professional - and adult - members of society.
So that is why the case of Sal Fiore, a senior lecturer in computing at Wolverhampton, sacked for criticising his employers online, is not really an academic freedom issue. In an online discussion forum, Fiore linked Wolverhampton to bullying allegations, and he also conributed to a blog, 'Bulliedacademics.blogspot.com', discussing his university. Heretical books are one thing, but this is an academic behaving like his students on Facebook, who moan about people they don't like.
Academic freedom means something very specific: the pursuit of knowledge and understanding. This is inherently valuable, and can be exempted from normal administrative and professional regulations. The deputy director of a company would not expect to keep his job if he criticised the ideas of the top director. This is not the case in academia, a sphere based on the free contest of ideas. But an academic could expect the sack if he criticized his boss's hair colour or personality, which is not a matter of ideas at all, but merely a matter of bad behaviour.
So defend academic freedom - for academics that know the difference between ideas and tittle tattle.
Josie Appleton
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4 comments:
I would agree that the issue isn't one of academic freedom, which is generally understood to mean the freedom to research topics of one's own choosing in a way one deems fit and to make the argument one believes to be appropriate. But to write Salvatore Fiore's complaints off as Facebook-esque "tittle tattle" is naiive. Academics are coming under increasing scrutiny and pressure as knowledge is increasingly commercialised and universities become increasingly like factories. Sal Fiore didn't make snide comments about people's hair colour, he made allegations about the bullying that he observed at his university and he was sacked for speaking out. That isn't an academic freedom issue, but that equally doesn't mean that Wolverhampton University was right to sack him. So -- support academic freedom, and support the right of employees to criticise their employers.
Dear Josie,
as an academic I would have appreciated if you could have provided some evidence. At least a couple of links to the articles you mention. Your Real acdemic freedom look more like a sausage for anorak dogs!!!! :))))))
"...Academic freedom means something very specific: the pursuit of knowledge and understanding. This is inherently valuable, and can be exempted from normal administrative and professional regulations..."
Yes, of course it is inherently valuable, BUT it is not 'exempted from normal administrative and professional regulations.'
Check this out:
http://scientific-misconduct.blogspot.com/2006/07/procter-research-shenanigans-part-1.html
In fact, 'normal administrative and professional regulations' are/have been used to silence academics in pursuit of the truth.
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
http://www.bulliedacademics.blogspot.comlj
Josie,
I believe that my partner is publishing the hearing papers related to my dismissal.
http://www.austen-v-universityofwolverhampton.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9543
Regards
Sal Fiore
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