Misrepresenting Academic Credential [closed]

Question

In one of her TEDx Talks (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQTUtBJE5fs), a Stanford professor of Math Education, Jo Boaler, claimed to be a "mathematician" when in fact, her work lies solely in math education (she in fact, likely has not even taken intro to proof course or any of the upper-division courses). What would be in general, a potential legal consequence for misrepresenting academic expertise in public?

Here are some lingering questions:

1. The word "mathematician" does not seem to me to be legally protected, so does that mean anyone can claim to be a "mathematician" if they say that they like doing math?

2. To abstract further, is there any legal accountability of individuals with degrees in a field X, but claims an expertise in fields X', X'' which look superficially similar to X but in reality, very different? Let's also say that the individual does not claim a specific degree in fields X', X'' etc. - merely expertise (e.g. French major claims expertise in European history, or medical doctor claims expertise in evolutionary biology).

3. Does Stanford University (or in general, any other top universities) have policies against faculty members misrepresenting credentials or others' research (as Boaler has done in several occasions), or is it protected under "academic freedom"?

4. Boaler runs several online courses, and if say, students signs up for a course believing that Boaler is a "mathematician" and later finds out that she isn't, what recourse would a student have against Boaler? Is there no legal recourse due to reasons in 1)?

5. Are there anything legal-related that I'm missing from this?

Thanks

Answer 1

"Mathematician" is not a legally regulated term, so there are no laws that would prohibit me from calling myself a mathematician (I am not one). I do know a tiny bit about number theory, set theory, formal language theory and logic, but mostly I know about African languages. If I have no shame, I can legally call myself a mathematician. My employing institution has no policy that regulates self-appellation. In fact it is very common for people to self-mislabel in the fashion that you describe. Many people claim to be "linguists" when they are actually "English teachers" or are "translators".

However, if I were to claim to have a PhD from the Department of Mathematics at Yale University, that would be a false statement of fact, and potentially internally-actionable by the institution. My actual mathematician colleagues cannot sue me for damages (they have not been objectively harmed), but an institution could sack me for material misrepresentation of credentials (for which reason they might actually demand a copy of said credential). It is possible that a materially false statement of credential could be actionable as fraud, though I can't come up with a plausible scenario at the moment.

Answer 2

Your description reflects a confusion between "having an academic credential" in a field and "having advanced skills or expertise" in that field. The former is not requisite for the latter.

An academic degree only certifies that the person has met the requirements of a standardized curriculum in certain field. The degree is by no means indispensable for attaining expertise in that field. A skilled singer or a player of a musical instrument can reasonably represent himself as musician even if that person has never undergone formal training. Similarly, it is valid for a person with no academic credentials but with notorious math skills to portray himself as mathematician.

Nor does the fact that a person's "work lies solely in math education" negate that his math skills and identification therewith could be vastly superior to those of the average. A shorthand way of communicating the latter is by saying that the person is a mathematician. If anything, the fact that Boaler works in math education strengthens the notion that she is a mathematician (a lack of sufficient math skills would actually preclude her employment or career as math educator).

if say, students signs up for a course believing that Boaler is a "mathematician" and later finds out that she isn't, what recourse would a student have against Boaler?

A priori, none. In and of itself a misrepresentation of that sort is not actionable, in part because mathematician as a profession is not regulated. Actionability requires additional elements.

For there to be any viable claims, the student would need to prove that the extent of Boaler's intentional misrepresentation is so material that the neither the student achieved, nor a reasonable person could have achieved, the purpose (i.e., learning mathematics) that prompted the student to pay for the course.