Normative Tensions: Academic Freedom in International Education

(Hardback)

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The expansion of Western education overseas has been both an economic success, if the rise in numbers of American, European, and Australian universities rushing to set up campuses in Asia and the Middle East is to serve as a measure, and a source of great consternation for academics concerned with norms of free inquiry and intellectual freedom. Faculty at Western campuses have resisted the opening of new satellite campuses, fearing that their colleagues those campuses would be less free to teach and engage in intellectual inquiry, and that students could be denied the free inquiry that is normally associated with liberal arts education. Critics point to the denial of visas to academics wishing to carry out research on foreign campuses, the sudden termination of employment at schools in both the Middle East and Asia, or the last-minute cancellation of courses at those schools, as evidence that they were correctly suspicious of the possibility that liberal arts programs could exist in those regions. Supporters of the project have argued that opening up foreign campuses would bring free inquiry to closed societies, improve educational opportunities for students who would otherwise be denied them, or, perhaps less frequently, that free inquiry will be no less pressured than in the United States or Western Europe. Normative Tensions examines the consequences not only of expansion overseas, but the increased opening of universities to foreign students.

Reviews

Many academics who invoke freedom assume that it exists in an abstract realm apart from all social circumstances. The essays collected in Normative Tensions give the lie to that assumption and demonstrate how non-academic pressures--political, social, financial, cultural--work to shape and constrain the freedom academics can exercise both in this country and abroad. A salutary lesson.

This collection explores the implications underpinning the internationalization of Western education in response to contemporary pressures faced by institutions of higher learning chasing dollars and rankings. From the introduction onward, the book is very readable and informative, and the brief history of academic freedom in this initial section nicely sets the stage for the balance of the essays. The book adeptly explores the complex nexus of globalization and academic freedom across seven chapters. The first few chapters address government control of academia, while another explores restrictions on student learning. The final two chapters directly consider the state of academic freedom on foreign campuses, and the concluding chapter proposes a concise definition for this construct and adeptly distinguishes between such freedoms as they play out in both teaching and research. None of the contributors shy away from challenging questions, and the contexts of China and the Middle East offer fertile ground for considering these issues. Both newly minted and veteran faculty alike will benefit from the perspectives of the contributing authors, especially those in academic units that deal directly with international topics, scholars, and students--virtually everyone across the academy in the US today. This book is recommended for graduate students, faculty, and professionals.

This ought to be one of the most important books on higher education published in 2022[.]

Author Bio

Kevin W. Gray is a lecturer in political science at the University of Toronto.