Academic Freedom: Ivory Tower Privilege or Model for Education?

Abstract

This article argues that the idea of academic freedom provides a conceptual angle for a critique of the ongoing educational reforms in Norway and in other countries, driven by economically oriented quality management (efficiency, standardization) and labor market orientation. A critique requires to make visible the price for the reforms, in particular the loss of freedom; here Hannah Arendt’s definition of double-tiered freedom is useful, and its main characteristics, the absence of instrumentality and its element of play can not only be applied to university research but to all levels of education.