The "IDRA Newsletter" serves as a vehicle for communication with educators, school board members, decision-makers, parents, and the general public concerning the educational needs of all children across the United States. The focus of this issue is "Breaking Barriers to Learning." Contents include: (1) The Importance of…

Honesty is widely understood as an ethical imperative in science and scholarship. This article examines the operation of this ethic in an area crucial to academe but which has not received sufficient attention: faculty review of candidates seeking appointment to academic rank--in hiring and promotion--in U.S. higher education organizations.…

This article introduces the thinking and life of dissident investigative journalist, social justice activist, writer and educator, Chris Hedges. He has established himself since leaving the "New York Times" in 2003 as a bold, outspoken thinker and activist in the US, not based in academe, in a sense now free and freelance. He has…

In this report, Corey Stoughton, the Advocacy Director of the human rights organisation Liberty, looks at the issue through history, international experience and recent legal changes. She notes that asking disempowered people to accept a total right to free speech is expecting them to put down a tool of resistance. She also claims the biggest…

Since 2020, a network of actors and organizations have united in the implementation of education censorship--posing school-wide implications and impositions on the practice of mental health practitioners. States have outlined race and diversity curricula bans, sports and restroom bans, anti-Diversity, Equity and Inclusion legislation, and laws to…

Research suggests fear of parental backlash is a primary reason why teachers preemptively censor books, yet parents' beliefs about challenged children's books are understudied. This study's purpose was to investigate adults' beliefs about challenged children's literature as expressed through reading and discussing challenged books within an adult…

Books are often the targets of anti-intellectual censorship efforts in schools for two reasons. First, they are integral to the process and practice of reading, which is how people encounter new ideas. Second, the coercive nature of curriculum means that students must read books with controversial ideas. Emily Knox argues that the people who…

The belief that we are living in a post-truth age raises a number of complex, paradoxical questions. Does it suggest, for example, that truth no longer matters? Or, that the idea of truth no longer exists? The university, of course, has long been associated with the interests of truth -- not only in searching for truth, but in telling the truth.…

"Civility, Free Speech, and Academic Freedom in Higher Education: Faculty on the Margins" represents a multidisciplinary approach, deploying different theoretical, methodological, sociological, political, and creative perspectives to articulate the stakes of civility for marginalized faculty within the landscape of higher education. How…

Educators face a reality that was unimaginable a few years ago: inclusivity is now a dirty word; anti-racist actions are labelled discrimination and lies have become a convenient substitute for facts, reality, logic, and decency. It is, indeed, dystopian and mirrors a worldwide trend towards authoritarianism (McNeill 2023). In the USA, Thomas…

As we approach the third decade of the 21st century, new ideas, new ways of life, and new methods of art education are all around us. Pedagogy is both changing and has already changed. Art educators are experiencing a high level of attention from other fields through science, technology, engineering, art, and math programs and the business world…

If high school history courses are meant to introduce students to the paradoxes and debates of American history, then they should study the 1619 Project, the authors argue in this article. College history students regularly debate the extent to which slavery was formative to the development of American systems of law, business, medicine, religion…

A special place belongs to the historical thought of the late 19th-early 20th centuries in the spiritual heritage of the Tatar people. In a short time, Tatar historians have achieved significant results in the reconstruction and study of the national past. Their successes were appreciated by Russian and European scholars and orientalists, and…

This article positions theatre as a site for victims and activists to action their resistance against Gukurahundi related incarceration and human rights abuse perpetrated in the 1980s. Through case studying Talitha Koum and 1983, we examine resistance strategies deployed through theatre performance to expose Gukurahundi violence, invigorate debate…

Drawing on empirical data from student surveys, as well as insights from faculty and higher education leaders across the country, ACTA's report details how the rapid shift to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the ongoing free speech crisis on college campuses, further suppressed viewpoint diversity, and encouraged more…