Welcome to the Journal of Educational Controversy — an interdisciplinary electronic journal of ideas. The purpose of this peer reviewed journal is to provide a national and international forum for examining the dilemmas and controversies that arise in the education of citizens in a pluralistic, democratic society.
JEC has been published since 2006 and we have recently transferred previously published issues to Western CEDAR. Our first issue published directly in Western CEDAR was in 2015. Download usage figures during the first ten years are not included.
NEW CALL FOR PAPERS
Volume 17
Theme:The University in the Crossfire: Quandaries over Neutrality, Moral Responsibility, Corporatization, and the Protection of Free Speech in Difficult Times
You will see a description of the controversy to be addressed in the Call for Papers Link
Deadline for manuscripts: December 15, 2024
Current Issue: Volume 17, Number 1 (2025) The University in the Crossfire: Quandaries over Neutrality, Moral Responsibility, Corporatization, and the Protection of Free Speech in Difficult Times
Important Announcement: The Journal of Educational Controversy Has Been Suspended Due to Budget Cuts
I am saddened to inform our readership that the journal has been suspended due to budget cuts by the university and the state of Washington. We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to all our readers for their support over the past twenty years. Our journal’s electronic management system will continue to automatically provide authors with monthly reports on the number of downloads their articles receive. We hope our YouTube channel will remain accessible, as it features not only insightful conversations with our authors but also compelling examples of children actively engaging in democratic practices within their elementary school classrooms. These videos were part of a specific initiative associated with the journal’s affiliation with John Goodlad’s League of Democratic Schools. Whatever the future holds, the journal stands as a twenty-year chronicle of controversial educational debates—captured during a critical moment in our nation’s democracy. I want to express my gratitude to the college and to the colleagues who supported this journal and had faith in my vision. I hope it will be resurrected in the future.
Lorraine Kasprisin, Editor
Articles in Response to Controversy
Caught in the Crossfire: Navigating Institutional Neutrality Amidst Campus Controversy & Competing Demands
Jamie Herman and Sally Moore
Vol. 17, Iss. 1
Theme: The University in the Crossfire: Quandaries over Neutrality, Moral Responsibility, Corporatization, and the Protection of Free Speech in Difficult Times
Advancing Conservative Agendas Under the Guise of Neutrality: An Analysis of Utah’s Higher Education System
Brianne Kramer
Vol. 17, Iss. 1
Theme: The University in the Crossfire: Quandaries over Neutrality, Moral Responsibility, Corporatization, and the Protection of Free Speech in Difficult Times
Freedoms and Rights of Academic Citizenship are Essential. Reflections on the Situation at Universities in Denmark
Asger Sørensen
Vol. 17, Iss. 1
Theme: The University in the Crossfire: Quandaries over Neutrality, Moral Responsibility, Corporatization, and the Protection of Free Speech in Difficult Times
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CONTROVERSY ADDRESSED IN THIS ISSUE
Is institutional neutrality enough? Caught between students and donors, our institutions of higher learning have sought refuge from hard moral choices by moving to a role as neutral observers, facilitating the expressions of their individual members but not of the institutions themselves. Is this position adequate? Are there no universal principles the university should advocate? There are particular reasons underlying the existence of universities that differentiate them from corporations of other kinds. Have we lost our understanding of how we are distinct? Are we of such neutrality that we cannot articulate our distinct societal identity? In that identity may lie our reason for being. We invite authors to bring clarity and understanding to this issue that again has found itself in the public debate with the recent student protests and testimony of university presidents at a contentious hearing before the U.S. Congress on the balance between neutrality, moral responsibility, and protecting free speech. We welcome papers that will elevate the public discussion of this issue.