Below are some readings connected to general education and the larger context of liberal education; feel free to suggest other readings by commenting at bottom. Each publication generally includes a link to its Lewis & Clark Primo record for retrieval. If you’d like to join the shared Zotero library displayed here, please contact Jim Proctor.
Association of American Colleges & Universities. (2015). General education maps and markers: Designing meaningful pathways to student achievement. Washington, D.C.: Association of American Colleges & Universities. Retrieved from http://primo.lclark.edu/LCC:CP71215831610001451. Abstract: Written for faculty members, academic leaders, and policy makers, General Education Maps and Markers: Designing Meaningful Pathways to Student Achievement provides clear principles and guidelines to ensure that general education fosters the LEAP Essential Learning Outcomes and key proficiencies important for long-term success and flourishing, enriches students’ learning in the major, and prepares college students to successfully tackle the kinds of complex problems they will inevitably confront in work, civil society, and their own lives. [from AAC&U]
Association of American Colleges & Universities. (2015). Civic learning. Retrieved February 28, 2016, from https://www.aacu.org/resources/civic-learning. Abstract: “In this turbulent and dynamic century, our nation’s diverse democracy and interdependent global community require a more informed, engaged, and socially responsible citizenry. Both educators and employers agree that personal and social responsibility should be core elements of a 21st century education if our world is to thrive. Currently such learning is optional for some students rather than expected of all.…Through projects, publications, and collaborations, AAC&U builds national awareness of civic learning and social responsibility so essential for life, work, and citizenship.” [from page]
Cronon, W. (1998). Only connect… American Scholar, 67, 73–80. Retrieved from http://primo.lclark.edu/LCC:TN_gale_litrc53460163. Abstract: “What does it mean to be a liberally educated person? It seems such a simple question, especially given the frequency with which colleges and universities genuflect toward this well- worn phrase as the central icon of their institutional missions. Mantra-like, the words are endlessly repeated, starting in the glossy admissions brochures that high school students receive by the hundreds in their mailboxes and continuing right down to the last tired invocations they hear on commencement day…” [from article]
Ferrall, V. E. (2011). Liberal arts at the brink. Cambridge; London: Harvard University Press. Retrieved from http://primo.lclark.edu/LCC:CP71105479170001451. Abstract: Liberal arts colleges represent a tiny portion of the higher education market, yet produce a stunning percentage of America’s leaders. But the demand for career-related education has pressured them to become vocational, distorting their mission and core values. Liberal Art At the Brink is a wake-up call for everyone who values liberal arts education. A former college president trained in law and economics, Ferrall shows how a spiraling demand for career-related education has pressured liberal arts colleges to become vocational, distorting their mission and core values… [from source]
Gaston, P. L. (2015). General education transformed: How we can, why we must. Washington, D.C.: Association of American Colleges & Universities. Retrieved from http://primo.lclark.edu/LCC:CP71226699690001451. Abstract: This publication calls for a re-envisioning of general education with clear, purposeful pathways for all students, allowing them to actively demonstrate their learning through high-impact practices and teaching strategies that are transferable across disciplines, departments, institutions, and even state systems. Reflecting the core vision articulated in General Education Maps and Markers, it addresses student success in terms of both college completion and achievement of essential twenty-first-century learning outcomes, including those articulated in LEAP and in Lumina Foundation’s Degree Qualifications Profile… [from source]
Hanstedt, P. (2012). General education essentials: A guide for college faculty. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved from http://primo.lclark.edu/LCC:CP71114989110001451. Abstract: Every year, hundreds of small colleges, state schools, and large, research-oriented universities across the United States (and, increasingly, Europe and Asia) revisit their core and general education curricula, often moving toward more integrative models. And every year, faculty members who are highly skilled in narrowly defined fields ask two simple questions: “Why?” and “How is this going to affect me?” General Education Essentials seeks to answer these and other questions by providing a much-needed overview of and a rationale for the recent shift in general education curricular design, a sense of how this shift can affect a faculty member’s teaching, and an understanding of how all of this might impact course and student assessment… [from source]
Lieberman, D. (2015). Rethinking how we perceive and approach service learning. Retrieved February 28, 2016, from https://www.aacu.org/leap/liberal-education-nation-blog/rethinking-how-we-perceive-and-approach-service-learning. Abstract: “Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa wrote that “if we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.” Those words ring especially true for service learning over the last three decades, as many universities have shifted from the original intent of service learning—preparing students to become engaged citizens by introducing them to the challenges experienced by underserved communities—to connecting students and communities in mutually beneficial ways that are deeper, more sustainable, more committed, and more meaningful.” [from page]
Nussbaum, M. C. (1998). Cultivating humanity: A classical defense of reform in liberal education. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Retrieved from http://primo.lclark.edu/LCC:dedupmrg487092785. Abstract: How can higher education today create a community of critical thinkers and searchers for truth that transcends the boundaries of class, gender, and nation? Martha C. Nussbaum, philosopher and classicist, argues that contemporary curricular reform is already producing such “citizens of the world” in its advocacy of diverse forms of cross-cultural studies. Her vigorous defense of “the new education” is rooted in Seneca’s ideal of the citizen who scrutinizes tradition critically and who respects the ability to reason wherever it is found—in rich or poor, native or foreigner, female or male… [from source]
Oakeshott, M. (1989). The voice of liberal learning. New Haven: Yale University Press. Retrieved from http://primo.lclark.edu/LCC:CP71158800830001451. Abstract: By 1989, when Michael Oakeshott’s Voice of Liberal Learning was first published by Yale University Press, books that held a negative view of education in the United States, such as Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind and E. D. Hirsch’s Cultural Literacy, had garnered a remarkable amount of attention. There have been countless lamentations about the state of schooling in America in recent years, and there have been countless recommendations toward what is invariably called “educational reform.” To those weary and wary of the cacophony about what’s wrong with education in America and what ought to be done about it, Oakeshott’s voice beckons… [from source]
Roth, M. S. (2014). Beyond the university: Why liberal education matters. New Haven; London: Yale University Press. Retrieved from http://primo.lclark.edu/LCC:CP71198128450001451. Abstract: Contentious debates over the benefits—or drawbacks—of a liberal education are as old as America itself.…In this provocative contribution to the disputes, university president Michael S. Roth focuses on important moments and seminal thinkers in America’s long-running argument over vocational vs. liberal education. Conflicting streams of thought flow through American intellectual history: W. E. B. DuBois’s humanistic principles of pedagogy for newly emancipated slaves developed in opposition to Booker T. Washington’s educational utilitarianism, for example. Jane Addams’s emphasis on the cultivation of empathy and John Dewey’s calls for education as civic engagement were rejected as impractical by those who aimed to train students for particular economic tasks… [from source]
Taylor, M. C. (2010). Crisis on campus: A bold plan for reforming our colleges and universities. New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc. Retrieved from http://primo.lclark.edu/LCC:CP71103432420001451. Abstract: In Crisis on Campus, Mark C. Taylor…expands on and refines the ideas presented in his widely read and hugely controversial 2009 New York Times op-ed. His suggestions for the ivory tower are both thought-provoking and rigorous: End tenure. Restructure departments to encourage greater cooperation among existing disciplines. Emphasize teaching rather than increasingly rarefied research. And bring that teaching to new domains, using emergent online networks to connect students worldwide.As a nation, he argues, we fail to make such necessary and sweeping changes at our peril… [from source]
Whitehead, D. M. (2015). Global service learning: Addressing the big challenges. Diversity & Democracy, 18(3). Retrieved from https://www.aacu.org/diversitydemocracy/2015/summer/whitehead. Abstract: “Drawing on elements of global learning and international service learning, global service learning is an emerging, holistic practice that encompasses service experiences both in the local community and abroad. Global service-learning experiences are guided by a global learning framework, designed to support global learning outcomes, and involve direct engagement with difference. By providing an anchor for active involvement with diverse communities engaged in real-world challenges, global service-learning experiences can support the achievement of such learning outcomes as civic knowledge and intercultural knowledge and competence…” [from article]