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Media images of unrealistic beauty have been identified as a determinant of women's body dissatisfaction. This experimental study aims to explore whether the negative impact of such images could be reduced by a one‐time educational intervention consisting of a presentation and discussion, teaching women to be critical of media images.

Female psychology students (n=176) from a university in the UK were randomly assigned to the control or intervention group and completed measures of body dissatisfaction after being challenged by images of the perfect female body. Follow up data were collected four weeks later.

The results suggested that the intervention had no immediate buffering effect on body dissatisfaction but participants in the intervention group showed a long‐term improvement for confidence, attractiveness and body‐parts dissatisfaction.

This one‐time intervention could be used to protect young women against the detrimental impact of media images in the longer term.

This study provides an evidence base for the use of an educational intervention for young people in schools and colleges.

During the months leading up to and immediately following President Donald Trump’s election, the unique intersection of classroom academic freedom and teacher and students’ first amendment rights would be duly tested, as headlines reminded citizens, parents, and pundits that the reach of raw emotions and political viewpoints did not stop at the schoolhouse door. School and classroom-based events would eventually test the norms of community, the interpretation of legal precedents, the resolve of district and school leadership, and the rights or limits thereof of the teachers themselves. This analysis is grounded on case studies of eight such incidents, all of which occurred at the high school level in public school districts. These eight cases are analyzed in terms of the incidents, the teacher’s actions or speech, the consequences, the relevant legal precedents surrounding academic freedom, the parental, student, and community reaction, and the short- and long-term impacts moving forward.

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the relationship between foreign-born faculty and academic freedom. Upon identification of the focal population, a literature review of the multifaceted challenges that foreign-born faculty face in academy is offered. It is followed by an analysis of the ways in which faculty respond to these challenges and an investigation of scholars’ proposals for institutions of higher education that aim to provide inclusive spaces. This chapter concludes with a discussion of ways in which institutional initiatives can assist foreign-born faculty and promote spaces for their exercise of academic freedom.

The mission of education programs is to provide opportunities for preservice teachers (PSTs) to become comfortable working with all students they will encounter; therefore, changing the face of teacher education is important. Allowing professors a certain level of academic freedom to strategically and purposefully build curriculum designed to respond to an ever-changing educational landscape while making space for authentic experiences is invaluable. If we are wanting our future teachers to lead successful diverse classrooms, opportunities must be developed and provided even if this means thinking outside of the box and in our experience outside of the university. When developing future teachers, this cannot be taken lightly. Experiences must be developed to help prepare future teachers who will be challenged by parents and communities on the content decisions they may make in their own classrooms. If we model flexibility and independent decision-making skills, then our PSTs will learn these dispositions. In addition, allowing them to take the authority in developing and implementing professional development experiences such as the experience in Hato Mayor will be valuable in developing their knowledge of leading in the classroom, school, and teaching profession.

Academic freedom is an area of interest for many academic faculty and students who are typically protected from persecution or retribution from what they say within the context of the university. There is significant history of this freedom, and this protection has been challenged and as colleges and universities have focused attention on diversity and inclusion efforts, some have considered if this hinders academic freedom. The growing criticism of what is referred to as speech codes (limits on free speech) has created discussion in the academic community as to what extent, if at all, these limits negatively impact the spirit of free speech. Several of John Dewey’s works provide guidance on this topic, and in this chapter, the authors examine its relevance to academic freedom.

The First Amendment so states,

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. (United Nations, 2006)

Within the confines of this law are the foundational touchstones of our democracy identifying the protection of five critical freedoms of religion, press, speech, assembly and the freedom to petition to the government. Many institutions of higher education and spheres of academe outline academic freedom as the right of a scholar to express ideas without risk of potential professional consequence. Within that domain of the freedom to express and share information, the American Library Association defines intellectual freedom as,

the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored.

In a time where democratic freedoms are being challenged, the concepts of intellectual freedom and academic freedom require examination as key tenets of our democracy to be upheld, celebrated and honored. This chapter will critique and consider how institutions, organizations and entities have a keen ability to be empowered and disempowered by the appropriate execution or the lack of execution of both the tenets of intellectual and academic freedoms. This chapter will deconstruct both concepts through the lens of a social justice framework, thereby posing the question how challenging key democratic elements of the citizenry to express and share ideas, inform and responsibly disseminate ideas handicaps both the will and core of a democracy to thrive. This chapter will highlight how communities expand and narrow the domains of intellectual and academic freedom, from within the United States exploring the role of the Constitution, yet also infusing a global perspective. This chapter will examine what both academic and intellectual freedoms look like outside of the United States, and how theoretically and tangibly the concepts are applied. This chapter explores the application of the core tenets of intellectual and academic freedoms through a social justice framework and the introduction of reframing the consideration of both freedoms as human rights. A social justice framework incorporates the principle of fair and impartial treatment being afforded and entitled to all members of the citizenry. Seemingly to oppose and prevent these modes of expression and foundational elements of freedom both obstruct the principles of social justice and disrupt a democracy.