Willinsky’s 2002 article brings up several topics that I discuss in one of the courses I teach, Theory of Knowledge (TOK), an introductory epistemology course for secondary students. Various aspects of the article such as the issue that many academic journals are behind a paywall, the contrast between experts and the public, and arXiv as an example of an open-access database of academic journals have been brought up as topics of discussion in my course. Willingsky’s suggestion of open access to publication could be a potential solution to the rising issues of disinformation spreading on the internet (such as the rise of flat earthers) by making research and the critical comparison of articles commonplace.
That said, I feel that there is large differentiation between making scholarly articles open access and asking students to publish, and after weighing the merits and issues, I’m inclined to shy away from asking students to publish in my own practice. One concern that came to mind is the recent rise in online harassment and other unacceptable behaviour, especially around certain topics such as social justice and LGBTQ2S+ rights. For example, on Twitter/X someone posted images of the classroom of a Surrey secondary Social Justice teacher, highlighting LGBTQ2S+ flags and posters about issues of colonialism, claiming that the Surrey teacher is indoctrinating children and that “she needs to be fired immediately.” When said Surrey teacher pointed this out, she was met with a flood of comments calling her a groomer, pedophile, and other hurtful outlandish messages. I shudder to think about the kind of vitriol that would be flung at educators and students if the students publicly published their thoughts in courses such as Genocide Studies and Social Justice.