Pop Quiz on Faculty and the Law with Kent Kauffman

Share your thoughts about this episode as a text message. In the last year, we’ve seen many stories of college and university faculty being accused by students of teaching something that the student didn’t think the instructor should be teaching. These incidents have a lot of instructors worried about teaching controversial topics—and just about any topic can be controversial these days. Previously on the podcast, we've explored pedagogical responses to the current political climate. Today, we look at our legal options.Our guest is Kent Kauffman, author of the 2024 book Navigating Choppy Waters: Key Legal Issues College Faculty Need to Know. Kent knows the caselaw on academic freedom, and he has a lot of insight to offer faculty who are who are making hard decisions about what to leave on or take off their syllabi. In our conversation, he argues that academic freedom is under attack and he provides practical suggestions for preventing and responding to these attacks.However, we start the conversation in a little lighter mode. I invited Kent to give me a pop quiz of sorts by describing a few scenarios faculty might encounter and challenging me to identify the legal issues involved. You’ll have the chance to test yourself as you listen—and to find out how I did on Kent’s quiz. Episode ResourcesNavigating Choppy Waters: Key Legal Issues College Faculty Need to Know (Bloomsbury, 2024)Teaching in Higher Ed Episode 557 featuring Kent Kauffman Support the showPodcast Links:Order The Norton Guide to AI-Aware Teaching by Annette Vee, Marc Watkins, and Derek Bruff.Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association.Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribeSupport Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteachingFind me on LinkedIn and Bluesky.See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.