adminSharon Hofisi Legal Letters
IN and around Zimbabwe, there are academics that burn out for improving the theory and practice of education in many disciplines. Not just that but the iconic role and place of the academic in our society fit for the roll of honour. The academic has many hats: the voice of reason, the conscience of the society, and if truth be said, she towers head and shoulders over her contemporaries in many ways than one: teaching or lecturing; research; and supervision of student researches.
In this article I seek to achieve two basic goals. First I attempt to pick and examine what we see as the roles of an academic in a country where the reader of any media outlet is aware of the growing importance of various academic institutions. Without analysing the basis of academic freedom, we may end up getting interested in philosophical issues like why the grass is green; why the wind is never seen; why birds build nests; or who taught the tree to take a rest; why the moon is not fairly round and so forth.
Academics usually devise creative ways to introduce their ideas into their audience. Why? Consciousness! Ultimately, the academic has to demonstrate, through variegated forms of academic persuasion, that she possesses some sense of responsibility in dispensing knowledge. It has often been said somewhere that, ‘’knowledge is knowledge as it can be acquired and shared with others’’.
It seems, therefore, that academic freedom presupposes that the academic must give a good account of herself, in theory and practice. His world view must be presented with precision, brevity and coherence in ways which lead the society somewhere to a place of conscientious awakening.
Secondly, this article is premised on the need for the Zimbabwean society to understand the benefits of entrenching human rights and freedoms such as academic freedom. The Bill of Rights includes academic freedom under the freedom of conscience. To this end, the academic can assert his thoughts, opinions, or beliefs as matters of constitutional rights.
There is need for the academic to appreciate the fact that the Bill of Rights contains the duties of State institutions, agencies and citizens; the clauses on application and interpretation of the rights; various justiciable rights; elaborated rights and limitations of the fundamental rights.
Because of the fundamental rights Chapter, the Constitution is our major source upon which much of academic freedom relies. We must celebrate ourselves and the drafters of our home-grown Constitution for cherishing and entrenching a form of freedom which allows the academics in variegated forms of lecturers, masters, doctors, professors, research fellows, visiting lecturers and so forth to freely enjoy the classroom, the research project and other academic services.
We cannot forget the non-academic staff in this academic matrix. They are the backbone of the academic institutions. They manage the recruitment of staff and students. Are involved in talent identification and management and so forth.
When asserting freedom in the classroom, the academic must follow the rules and regulations at the institution where she is tenured. The four corners of the classroom must be used for lectures, analysis of the curricula, and interactive communication with the students through visual and non-visual aids. She packs her bag of written notes but also knows that we are in a visual age.
She doesn’t impose her views because the ‘teacher learns from her student in the same way the student learns from her teacher’. Appositely, her research paper is no different. She might be invisible in face, but is present to the reader in name and expression. Freely expressed thoughts and ideas on paper which can either attract or scare a tag-team of followers! The think-piece must strive to communicate the researcher’s ideas in a manner that cannot be easily bettered.
Constitutionally speaking, the right or freedom holder must understand how Chapter 4 rights are framed; their content, and the limitations imposed by the Constitution or other laws. Although academic freedom is entrenched in the Constitution, there are other rules, regulations and codes of conduct drawn by different institutions which provide content on various rights.
The academic must not only concentrate on her horizontal relationship with the student or her research. Admittedly both are essential units of academic lifestyle. She must understand at all material times that she is the conscience of her family, community and nation at large.
Her classroom modules or research interests produce strategic implications on various national or educational policies; and other key issues affecting the Zimbabwean society. She also educates several iconic figures who can drive the nation forward in many ways.
I may not exhaust the universe of the possible contributions of the academic to national development and social transformation, but her constitutional freedom is fundamental and must be used to develop society using the glasses of human factor approaches; scientific inquiries; psychomotor influence; and so forth.
This freedom is based on informed reasoning, and not on toxic emotions or desires. It is important to note that informed reasoning usually begets informed responses everywhere. At first sight it might be encouraging to note that academic freedom is constitutionally protected in Zimbabwe, but we should go a step further than ticking the boxes on democratic gains.
While the mother law affirms the above right, the individual academic must do more in the classroom, and research forums. She must treat the classroom student, the researcher, the non-staff member and other staff members as important stakeholders in the academic fraternity.
She must be proud to be associated with one of, not only the oldest, but noblest professions ever chosen by mankind-teaching. In this celebratory mood, academic etiquette must be a guiding pillar equated to academic diplomacy. It has been said that diplomacy is like telling someone to go to hell without offending them.
The same can be said of academic diplomacy. The discussant in a seminar; the Graduate Teaching Assistant in a tutorial; the lecturer in a classroom and the supervisor in a dissertation meeting must not simply wire-brush the presentation or contribution as ‘half-baked cake’ or gibberish.
The comments and contributions must take the parties to the spirit of collegiality. When the fellow academic or prospective academic moves on to his discussion of the day, he must use the contributions to redefine the term ‘contribution’ to include constructive criticism as well.
There is no need for academics to be ‘lions in the den’. I am not saying the academic must be generous with marks for instance. Students should get what they deserve. Those students who are beyond mark redemption have to repeat their failed courses or researches in a hard working manner.
How is academic freedom protected? The answer is simply that academic freedom must not be ‘very unsafe, very insecure’. The pertinent question which should have been asked first is: how does academic freedom come into existence?
Well, we know that the academic is some think-tank, who can write or research on think-pieces. We may talk about career academics, full time academics, part-time academics and so forth. The academic must accept both the objective and subjective methods of interrogating issues. She must test the veracity of facts, theories and model her experience in a way that doesn’t make her a social misfit.
She must feel comfortable to see her peer reviewers scrutinize her researches. She must continuously make contributions to academia and society; and should always keep up with the non-negotiable traits of academic life.
This is where the academic value comes in. After scientific inquiry which tests the validity of a particular hypothesis; or qualitative inquiry which tests the reliability of a particular proposition, she can make some academic sense on what is proven by research. She can propose a new theory, popularize the old one or discard the theory altogether.
Accepting academic criticism allows the professional to constructively engage on vital issues that affect the polity such as the new curriculum; shoddy supervisions; examination leakages; issues on academic tenures; allocation of tasks, and institutional funding for researches and supervision and so forth.
Sharon Hofisi is a lecturer in constitutional law and politics. Feedback: sharonhofii@gmail.
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