This presentation will focus on the concept of “hierarchism” in academia. Hierarchism is one of the five fear generators described by Mellon [4] as endangering academic freedoms. The other four fear generators (anti/intellectualism, perfectionism, pugilism, and short-termism) will be briefly presented but the focus of this presentation will be on “hierarchism.” The presenter will orient the attendees by using the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) model to operationalize academic freedoms [2]: protections that include the freedom to teach/learn (lehrfreiheit and lernfreiheit; Commager, [1], freedom to inquire (research), and the freedom of expression (both internal and external). Hierarchism can manifest itself amongst the faculty by creating unnecessary “decision makers.” These decision makers sometimes delay decisions or shift responsibilities through a never-ending “chain of command.” This can often be identified through phrases, According to Holt [3] that include but are not limited to: 1) “If it were up to me;” 2) “I do not make that decision;” 3) “Let me check with my supervisor;” or, 4) “Let’s consider all proposals to a solution,” etc. Thereby, there is not a singular decision-maker that shoulders the responsibility creating unclear lines of reporting amongst the faculty. Many of these “decision-makers” are ambiguously identified with vague workload generalizations [7]. For example, some may be placed on committees that do not have “recognized” authority or others may be appointed by upper administration with vague titles and identified responsibility. Students also feel fear from hierarchism because they feel that they are too low in the hierarchy to be considered of value [5], especially lower classmen. At some colleges, for instance, students may be denied parking spaces due to their rank while at other colleges students may not be allowed priority registration due to a lower rank thereby creating fears that encroach on their lernfreiheit to engage the topics they desire. Finally, the presenter will make suggestions to governing academia using a “holocracy” as recommended by Patlogluo [6] and pose the critical question: should hierarchies be eliminated in higher academia? The presentation will conclude with questions and discussion from the audience.

Speaker: Brett J. Holt

Published in: London International Conference on Education (LICE-2024)

• Date of Conference: 4-6 November 2024
• DOI: 10.20533/LICE.2024.0005
• ISBN: 978-1-913572-74-7
• Conference Location: St Anne’s College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK