EXAMINING ACADEMIC FREEDOM
LEONISA A. MANLAPAZ
We are facing a continuous issue that can affect the intellectual and moral upbringing of our country-academic freedom. The Encyclopedia Britannica defines it as “the freedom of teachers and students to teach, study and pursue knowledge and research without unreasonable interference or restriction from the law, institutional regulations, or public pressure.”
On the positive side, this freedom’s basic element is that it allows teachers to inquire about any subject that arouses intellectual concern and to present and publish their ideas without censorship. Among students, academic freedom allows them to study subjects they are interested in and express their opinions in the process. On the other hand, there is a big issue and questions what if teachers choose to teach what will lead to a scorn for soundness and morals? The question is will academic freedom still serve the interest of individuals and society? In this situation, institutions have the responsibility to regulate the course of our universities and colleges academic freedom to ensure the protection of an individual towards misconduct and unrightful doings.
Academic freedom is not without restrictions. General laws like obscenity, libel, and robbery still apply. No one can invoke it to do evil. To rightfully exercise academic freedom, a mentor could have diverted to other issues or use nontraditional methods, but not sacrifice the basic content of a subject.
Our government must be guided on how to regulate the academic freedom of higher education institutions. According to Carry Nelson, the president of the American Association of University Professors, wrote some things that academic freedom does not do:
Academic freedom does not mean a faculty can harass, threaten, intimidate his her students, student academic freedom does not deny members the right to require students to master course material and the fundamentals of the disciplines that faculty teach, neither academic freedom nor tenure protects an incompetent teacher from losing his/ her job , academic freedom does not protect faculty members from non-university penalties if they break the law, academic freedom does not give students or faculty the right to ignore college or university regulations, though it does not give faculty and students the right to criticize regulations they believe and academic freedom does not protect faculty members from sanctions for professional misconduct, though sanctions require clear proof established through due process.
It only emphasizes that academic freedom has his limitations and boundaries of up to where we can enjoy the power and freedom to use it. If the issues is focus on the good side of both teachers and learners’ academic freedom exist.
As an educator we exercise our academic freedom in a sense that we can choose the strategy and approach we want to use in delivering our lessons effectively if the learners understand and meet the competencies in the curriculum. In the new normal set up, we can still apply our academic freedom in teaching – learning process although there are some rules and guidelines on how to teach in the new normal, we can still apply the strategy and approach that we think is suited to the capability of the learners.Academic freedom is one of the freedoms we enjoy in the teachinglearning process through the proper implementation of it we ensure the educational progress in our country.
-oOoSenior at San Pedro National High School San Pedro, San Simon , Pampanga