The Repository @ St. Cloud State

Open Access Knowledge and Scholarship

Date of Award

8-2023

Culminating Project Type

Dissertation

Styleguide

apa

Degree Name

Higher Education Administration: Ed.D.

Department

Educational Administration and Higher Education

College

School of Education

First Advisor

Steven McCullar

Second Advisor

Rachel Friedensen

Third Advisor

Mumbi Mwangi

Fourth Advisor

Judith Siminoe

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Keywords and Subject Headings

academic freedom, new knowledge, and knowledge production

Abstract

This research aims at exploring the impact of institutional policies on professors’ academic freedom in higher education institutions in Minnesota. This research used a qualitative method and an in-depth interview approach to explore the topic. Data were collected not only from research participants’ perspectives, but also from their real stories and experiences. Research findings indicated that research participants from both private and public institutions had foundational concepts of academic freedom. Research participants perceived critical roles of academic freedom in their professional life, in the institutional life, and in students’ life. Research findings showed critical factors in research participants’ career life that undermined academic freedom, thus, knowledge production. These factors came from different sources such as students, research funding criteria, political agenda, accrediting agencies, institutional policies, organizational culture, and personal identities. More than ever before, academic freedom needs defense if students, institutions, and society want to have a functional and excellent education and if new knowledge is the ultimate goal for this civilization.

Download

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.