Today's climate of supercharged patriotism and apparent intolerance for comment or critique calls to mind an earlier period of U.S. history. The Cold War that began in the mid-to late-1940s, along with McCarthyism and the anti-communist movement in the early 1950s, created an atmosphere of national hysteria and paranoia. For the past decade,…

Women are more intolerant of hate speech than men. This study examined relationality measures as mediators of gender differences in the perception of the harm of hate speech and the importance of freedom of speech. Participants were 107 male and 123 female college students. Questionnaires assessed the perceived harm of hate speech, the importance…

Since the 1990s participation has become a buzzword in education as well as in development contexts. In those contexts, participation has more particularly been linked up with personal promises of self-fulfilment, ownership and self-determination as well as with democratic ideals such as justice, equivalence and freedom. In the paper, we focus on…

This study situates Green's educational philosophy and practice in the context of his overall approach to philosophy. In Green's view, education should aim at the realisation of the common good, but what Green means by this term is closely connected to his views on human nature, ethical endeavour and indeed the evolution of human history. These…

Public school leaders must be certain that students' freedom of expression rights are not suppressed based on a conflict with their own personal views. School leaders must also refrain from regulating student expression based solely on content, unless there is evidence that speech content creates material and substantial disruption to school…

According to Jay Worona, general counsel for the New York State School Board Association, "Balancing safety and student constitutional rights is not easy. It has to be a careful balance. School officials must be prudent and not overreact. But one part of the equation has to be paramount. And safety should be the primary concern"…

Many teachers in Guatemala City had grown up under an oppressive government. They were educated in a culture of silence, in which it was dangerous to voice any ideas. Guatemalan educators are working to change the approach to education in their public schools, but in many ways it has not changed. Most teachers only know the methods by which they…

Participation has become very popular as a new strategy and approach in research, in policy, in private and public affairs. As an alternative to top-down approaches participation promises to empower people, to acknowledge and to build competence and (local) knowledge, to recognise and to be responsive to people's different and differentiated needs…

After September 11, 2001, the Bush administration initiated large-scale electronic surveillance within the United States to gather intelligence to protect citizens from terrorists. Media commentary, public reaction, and classroom practices regarding this program have tended toward either-or positions: either for presidential power and national…

Postgraduate student supervision at the level of doctoral and masters studies can be enjoyable, frustrating and demanding. In this article I identify some of the challenging moments in postgraduate student supervision I have encountered over the past few years, focusing on the notion of learning as understood by some students. My contention, based…

This paper examines the potential threat that a conservative sociopolitical culture poses to academic freedom in state colleges and universities. Already a number of states are considering legislation that would restrict professors' rights to discuss political issues within their classes, especially political issues having religious or moral…

This article presents the case of of Martin Zelnik v. Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) et al. and the ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on the case. Zelnik served on the faculty of FIT from 1969 to 1999, retiring as a full professor of interior design. Zelnik applied for an emeritus status but was denied by FIT. The…

Computer-assisted teaching and assessment has become a regular feature across many areas of the curriculum in higher education courses around the world in recent years. This development has resulted in the "digital divide" between disabled students and their nondisabled peers regarding their participation in computer-assisted courses. However,…

One's commitment to intellectual freedom is manifested not just in the creation of a strong and clear selection policy or the celebration of Banned Books Week but by his or her willingness to examine his or her practices openly with others. In this article, the author proposes four questions to explore in one's teaching and in professional…

In May 2005, university administrators were rudely awakened from their civic slumbers by a "notice of implementation" from the U.S. Department of Education. With little advance comment from the academy, Congress had passed and the President had signed into law a requirement that "each educational institution that receives Federal…