I don’t think that shared governance or academic freedom are self-referential, though I can see how they might kind of gel into jargon terms that don’t explain much to outsiders.
Which is definitely an issue, because then Greg Abbotts of the world can act like those things don’t matter or mean anything on their way to dismantling any part of higher ed that serves the common good.
That's my exact concern about them. Too many folks expect to be able to say, "But our academic freedom" or "That violates the principle of shared governance" and have that serve as an argument for people who don't already value those the same way we do.
FWIW, if it were up to me, I'd use the term "professional autonomy" all the time instead of "academic freedom" because I think that says what I mean more precisely.
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