What does it mean to liberate learning? Who is doing the liberating, and what do we think someone being liberated from? For Becky Lindner and Martin Compton, the answer to the first question is essentially to find, nurture, and celebrate the inherent joy of learning and teaching. For fifty years (at least), as they point out, we have been having these conversations about rekindling joy and love of learning, which, if nothing else, signals that we have been uncomfortable with some of the absurdities, constraints, and expectations of contemporary higher education for a long time. Yet that sense of hope continues to drive us forward, looking for ‘care-full’ ways of bringing our students and colleagues along with us. And that brings us to the second question: we must be our own liberators. Our role is to enable to liberation of the university by acting with compassion, equity, and humanity, through collaboration, co-creation, and curiosity, one small step at a time. 

The resources we mentioned

Oliver Burkeman (n.d.). The imperfectionist: Seventy per cent. Available from https://ckarchive.com/b/wvu2hghk5m82zf9r552rqtn34kzxxc8 

Kerri-lee Krause (2023). Learner centred leadership in higher education: A practical guide. Routledge

Choose your own impenetrable writer to inversely learn from!

And the issue we talked about

Compton, M. and Lindner, R. (2025) Liberating learning in the empathetic university, Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, 35. Available at: https://doi.org/10.47408/jldhe.vi35.1576.