In an article for the Journal de Québec, Benoît Lacoursière (Fédération nationale des enseignantes et des enseignants du Québec) highlights the importance of academic freedom for cégep and private college instructors. Lacoursière advocates for ensuring instructors–the experts in teaching–have the autonomy they need to excel in their work. He writes that academic freedom is a fragile element of academic life and argues that actions such as pressuring instructors to adopt specific pedagogical practices or reducing their representation on boards constitutes an attack on academic freedom. While he outlines that recent negotiations have strengthened protections for academic freedoms in the cégep sector, Lacoursière concludes that more progress is needed to reach the standards set by UNESCO.
