The Legacy of Daantjie Oosthuizen: Revisiting the Liberal Defence of Academic Freedom

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dc.contributor.authordu Toit, André
dc.date.accessioned2017-07-11T08:18:44Z
dc.date.available2017-07-11T08:18:44Z
dc.date.issued2005
dc.description.abstractThe classic formulations of the liberal notion of academic freedom in the South African context date from the period of the late 1950s and early 1960s when the ‘Open Universities’ had to define their stance in the face of the onslaught of Verwoerdian apartheid ideology and rampant Afrikaner nationalism. Adumbrated in the hallowed T. B. Davie formula (‘our freedom from external interference in (a) who shall teach, (b) what we teach, (c) how we teach, and (d) whom we teach’) and articulated more extensively in two short books, The Open Universities in South Africa (1957) and The Open Universities in South Africa and Academic Freedom, 1957-1974 (1974), jointly published by the universities of Cape Town and Witwatersrand, these classic formulations were, above all, concerned with a defence of academic freedom essentially conceived as the institutional autonomy of the university vis-à-vis possible interference or regulation by the state. Forty years on, it is time to revisit these classic defences of academic freedom from the very different vantage point of the newly democratic South Africa. Both the external and the internal contexts of academic freedom have radically changed. Not only has the statutory framework of the apartheid state been dismantled and the ideological force of Afrikaner nationalism spent but the former ‘open universities’ have themselves been transformed in various ways (though not in others). The relatively small-scale collegial institutions almost wholly dependent on state subsidies are now part of a massively expanded tertiary sector subject to the macro-politics of educational restructuring as much as the domestic impact of the managerial revolution within the university itself. In this new context academic freedom no longer has to be defended primarily against the external threat of state intervention; rather it has to be defined in relation to basic democratic norms of accountability and in the often non-collegial context of the contemporary academic workplace.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationdu Toit, A. (2005). The Legacy of Daantjie Oosthuizen: Revisiting the Liberal Defence of Academic Freedom. <i>African Sociological Review</i>, http://hdl.handle.net/11427/24727en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationdu Toit, André "The Legacy of Daantjie Oosthuizen: Revisiting the Liberal Defence of Academic Freedom." <i>African Sociological Review</i> (2005) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/24727en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationdu Toit, A. (2005). The Legacy of Daantjie Oosthuizen: Revisiting the Liberal Defence of Academic Freedom. African Sociological Review, 9(1): 40-61.en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn1027-4332en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Journal Article AU - du Toit, André AB - The classic formulations of the liberal notion of academic freedom in the South African context date from the period of the late 1950s and early 1960s when the ‘Open Universities’ had to define their stance in the face of the onslaught of Verwoerdian apartheid ideology and rampant Afrikaner nationalism. Adumbrated in the hallowed T. B. Davie formula (‘our freedom from external interference in (a) who shall teach, (b) what we teach, (c) how we teach, and (d) whom we teach’) and articulated more extensively in two short books, The Open Universities in South Africa (1957) and The Open Universities in South Africa and Academic Freedom, 1957-1974 (1974), jointly published by the universities of Cape Town and Witwatersrand, these classic formulations were, above all, concerned with a defence of academic freedom essentially conceived as the institutional autonomy of the university vis-à-vis possible interference or regulation by the state. Forty years on, it is time to revisit these classic defences of academic freedom from the very different vantage point of the newly democratic South Africa. Both the external and the internal contexts of academic freedom have radically changed. Not only has the statutory framework of the apartheid state been dismantled and the ideological force of Afrikaner nationalism spent but the former ‘open universities’ have themselves been transformed in various ways (though not in others). The relatively small-scale collegial institutions almost wholly dependent on state subsidies are now part of a massively expanded tertiary sector subject to the macro-politics of educational restructuring as much as the domestic impact of the managerial revolution within the university itself. In this new context academic freedom no longer has to be defended primarily against the external threat of state intervention; rather it has to be defined in relation to basic democratic norms of accountability and in the often non-collegial context of the contemporary academic workplace. DA - 2005 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town J1 - African Sociological Review LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2005 SM - 1027-4332 T1 - The Legacy of Daantjie Oosthuizen: Revisiting the Liberal Defence of Academic Freedom TI - The Legacy of Daantjie Oosthuizen: Revisiting the Liberal Defence of Academic Freedom UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/24727 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/24727
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationdu Toit A. The Legacy of Daantjie Oosthuizen: Revisiting the Liberal Defence of Academic Freedom. African Sociological Review. 2005; http://hdl.handle.net/11427/24727.en_ZA
dc.languageengen_ZA
dc.publisherCODESRIAen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Political Studiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.sourceAfrican Sociological Reviewen_ZA
dc.source.urihttp://www.codesria.org/spip.php?rubrique42&lang=en
dc.titleThe Legacy of Daantjie Oosthuizen: Revisiting the Liberal Defence of Academic Freedomen_ZA
dc.typeJournal Articleen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceArticleen_ZA
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