What is privacy pedagogy for? Situating privacy in the purpose of the university

• Published in: Information and learning science Vol. 126; no. 5/6; pp. 383 - 400
• Main Author: Hartman-Caverly, Sarah
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Emerald Publishing Limited 23.05.2025
• Subjects: Philosophy of education; Wicked problems; Hannah Arendt; Life of the mind; Deliberative pedagogy; Privacy; Pluralism; University; Higher education; Privacy pedagogy; Intellectual privacy; Vita contemplativa; Privacy literacy
• ISSN: 2398-5348; 2398-5356
• DOI: 10.1108/ILS-06-2024-0073

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to consider the contribution of privacy pedagogy to the role of the university. Design/methodology/approach This paper takes up two arguments; first, it puts forward Arendt’s characterization that the purpose of the university is to prepare a new generation for the responsibility of renewing the shared human world (2006a). Second, it applies Wharton et al.’s (2023) philosophy of privacy pedagogy to the work of educating undergraduate students. This paper proposes that teaching about privacy as a “wicked problem” (Carcasson, 2017) under learning conditions that respect intellectual privacy (Richards, 2015) best prepares students for the deliberative engagement needed to renew the common world. Findings This conceptual paper concludes that conditions of intellectual privacy and academic freedom matter beyond the university setting because the work of the university is ultimately to critique, conserve, change and create the shared human world. Privacy pedagogy, with its dual emphasis on intellectual privacy as a condition of learning and privacy as a subject of inquiry, contributes to the university’s work of preparing students for deliberative engagement with wicked problems inherent in this work. Originality/value This paper situates privacy pedagogy within Arendt’s purpose of the university, to prepare a new generation to take responsibility for the shared human world. It discusses how privacy literacy education contributes to the purpose of the university by reinforcing intellectual privacy and academic freedom; fostering students’ capacity for dialogic thought and deliberation; and sustaining the private sphere to shelter plurality as a characteristic of the human condition and its possibility for renewal.