Faculty Publications

Distinguishing (The) Right From Wrong: Knowledge, Curriculum, And Intellectual Responsibility

Document Type

Article

Keywords

academic freedom, Critical Communication Pedagogy, curriculum development, metaphor, neoliberal capitalism

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Communication Education

Volume

68

Issue

4

First Page

481

Last Page

495

Abstract

Given the political Right's attacks on U.S. academics as too liberal, we broach questions about knowledge production and curriculum development. We first explore how the Right has used arguments for freedom of speech and ideological diversity to undermine higher education’s mission in the hope of polluting the public sphere with ideas that are deeply erroneous and destructive. We then describe the mission of higher education to serve as a quality control mechanism for ideas in the public sphere and reaffirm the importance of academic freedom in safeguarding that mission. We end by calling for communication and instruction scholars in particular, and academics in general, to safeguard their academic expertise against Post-Truth attacks.

Department

Department of Communication and Media

Original Publication Date

10-2-2019

DOI of published version

10.1080/03634523.2019.1645871

Repository

UNI ScholarWorks, Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa

Language

en

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