The common perception is that teachers have to teach according to what is laid out in the curriculum. Little is spent on reflecting on the effects of teaching a prescribed content to which design the practitioner did not contribute. This article is not refuting the existence of prescribed content for classroom interaction, but the freedom of the teacher in preferring parts of the content to teach. We set out to seek the perceptions of academic staff at higher education level on freedom to decide what to teach. We found that political interference is the major threat to the freedom of academic staff regarding the decision on the content. We conclude that there is lack of higher education policy regarding academic freedom to choose the content to teach, and there is also no specific internal policy to safeguard academic freedom. We recommend establishing institutional policies and national laws to foster academic freedom; promoting freedom of expression beyond constitutional rhetoric; and allowing free operation of higher education institutions.

Participatory learning is the active involvement of the learner in teaching and learning process. It entails participation by all partners in the learning situation. Successful learning outcomes result from supplementing lectures with active learning strategies and engaging students in discovery and scientific processes. Active engagement in learning processes allows students to shape their own learning path and places upon them the responsibility of making their education meaningful. The process shapes their critical thinking, and also places them in better position to critically encounter social, political and economic challenges. This study investigates the nature of learner's freedom of expression in lecture theatres in Makerere University. Basing on students' voices, we find that interactions are still very restricted and depriving the right to expression. The study recommends establishing policies that promote learner ownership of interaction, free expression, and change of teacher mind-set.Keywords: Critical thinking, participatory learning, academic freedom, freedom of expression INTRODUCTION Students' perception of freedom in learning has called for a lot of debates and how teachers facilitate the learning process in academic institutions. One of the remedies to solve this issue was participatory approach to teaching and learning. Participatory method is an active approach that encourages students to think for themselves. Participants actively contribute to teaching and learning process rather than passively receiving information from the teachers. This approach motivates the learners and also sometimes makes them read ahead of the lecture. It encourages learners to share information with each other and work together to solve common problems. As learners continue to master the approach, they take increasing responsibility for planning their own learning sessions. Students develop good perception of freedom in learning.

The Education Quarterly Reviews is an Open Access publication. It may be read, copied, and distributed free of charge according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.The Asian Institute of Research Education Quarterly Reviews is a peer-reviewed International Journal. The journal covers scholarly articles in the fields of education, linguistics, literature, educational theory, research, and methodologies, curriculum, elementary and secondary education, higher education, foreign language education, teaching and learning, teacher education, education of special groups, and other fields of study related to education. As the journal is Open Access, it ensures high visibility and the increase of citations for all research articles published. The Education Quarterly Reviews aims to facilitate scholarly work on recent theoretical and practical aspects of Education.

The nature of aspiration for leadership is a necessary reflector of democracy, equality and equity is any situation. Although leadership in itself has intrinsic and extrinsic benefits to the leader and the led, there are many distractors to attaining it. Much research has been carried out in Western and Asian contexts on male dominance in leadership but less on-campus male dominance as reflected in the nature of female aspiration for leadership. This study sought to explore how the nature of campus female students' leadership aspirations results from the dominant male presence in the context. Using an institution in developing countries and drawing on the semistructured interviews to access female students' voices on their leadership aspirations, the study finds and concludes that females are internally and externally disadvantaged through complexity, esteem, and strength. The study recommends institutions to formulate policies strategies and practices that promote and foster female integrated cultures; provide appropriate emotional support and mentorship, and develop a leadership framework that closes the gender numeric and financial gap.

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