Practicing Liberal Education Formative Themes in the Reinvention of Liberal Learning

CAROL G. SCHNEIDER Practicing Liberal Education Formative Themes in the Reinvention of Liberal Learning

THOUGH LIBERAL EDUCATION has assumed many forms across different times and places, it has always been concerned with important educational aims: cultivating intellectual and ethical judgment, helping stu-

FEATURED TOPIC dents comprehend and negotiate their relationship to the larger world, and preparing graduates for lives of civic responsibility and leadership. On the merits, then, we might expect that liberal education would be the uncontested prefer- Every college ence of virtually everyone who goes to college. student And yet, American society today exhibits a striking ambivalence to- wards the traditions of “liberal” or “liberal arts” education. Liberal educa- deserves tion is at one and the same time prized, despised, revised and disguised. a liberal Prized? Liberal education is recognizably the philosophy of choice at education the nation’s most famous institutions, the campuses where admission is seen as virtually synonymous with the expansion of opportunity. There is, moreover, a persistent identification of liberal education with democra- tic freedom, scientific progress and excellence that goes back to the revo- lutionary period when many civic and political leaders both extolled the liberal arts and also challenged them to embrace the scientific and practical needs of the new republic. W.E.B. du Bois reaffirmed the inter- changeability of “liberal education” and “excellence” when he argued, a century ago, that future leaders in the African-American community deserved a college-level liberal education—that is, the best kind of higher education, not just narrow occupational training. Most accred- ited colleges and universities still espouse this liberal education ideal and typically require that their students take some fraction of their studies in courses and programs aligned with the broader aims of education. Despised? Many analysts and policy leaders declare without apology that liberal education is already being consigned to the dustbin of history. Markets, they sniff, are keyed to short-term outcomes and have no pa- tience for forms of learning that pay off over a lifetime. Practical studies will sell; the rest will just wither away. First generation, low-income, and adult learners in particular, such observers contend, need job training

CAROL G. SCHNEIDER is the president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

6LIBERAL E DUCATION S PRING 2004 Annual Meeting FEATURED TOPIC Annual Meeting 8L innovations areindisputablyreinven programs andpedagogies.Themajorityofthese with avibrantnewgenerationofinnovative plainly thatthenation’s campusesaredotted and universities,mycolleaguesIcansee unreported—change today. it isinthemidstoffar-reaching—if largely has changedradicallyoverthecenturies,and Historically, thepracticeofliberaleducation century isanythingbutamoribundtradition. liberal educationatthestartoftwenty-first promising andconstrained.Thetruthisthat complex picture—apictureatonceboth Colleges andUniversities,weseeamuchmore centrality tosubsidizedmarginality. way oftheclassics,movinginexorablyfrom the widersociety, thattheywillsurelygothe silos andsoresistanttothepracticalneedsof critics suggest,aresoensconcedindisciplinary victim toitsownrigidity. Theliberalarts,these itself, believethat morOther observers, tional skillstoeveryoneelse. ucation toelitesandvoca- content toprovide“elite”ed- higher educationrealistsare the twentiethcentury, these opment. rather thanintellectualdevel- As weworkwithliterallyhundredsofcolleges Revised? IBERAL Like schoolleadersin E DUCATION At theAssociationofAmerican liberal educationisfalling S e criticaloftheacademy PRING 2004 of innovativeprograms vibrant newgeneration The nation’scampuses tions ofa are dottedwitha are and pedagogies tive learning. judgment, socialresponsibility, andintegra- first century. Thesethemesareintellectual and practicalliberaleducationforthetwenty- themes emergeaskeystothenewlyengaged trum ofhighereducationreform,threemajor As wesurveydevelopmentsacrossthespec- reinvention ofliberaleducation Three formativethemesinthe adult students—cangainfromitsbenefits. more students—includingfirstgenerationand and evenontheimperativeofensuringthat reinvigorated liberaleducationshouldentail more sophisticatedlevels.Fromintensive “across-the-curriculum” andatprogressively analytical andcommunicationskills,honed help today’s diversestudentsdevelopstrong strategies—online aswellface-to-face—to signing newcurriculaandteaching take courses.Instead,facultymembersarede- capability emergesautomaticallyasstudents universities nolongerassumethatanalytical Inquiry andIntellectualJudgment: sensus onwhatthisnewly outlines ofanemergingcon- deed, wearestartingtoseethe population ofstudents.In- and fortoday’s newlydiverse tion forthisnewglobalera more traditionalliberaleduca- College and first-year seminars on liberal arts topics to to integrative learning helps ensure that stu- writing-in-the-disciplines programs to under- dents will learn to take context and complexity graduate research to senior capstone projects into account when they apply their analytical and courses, colleges and universities are pio- skills to challenging problems. The new im- neering new educational practices clearly in- portance of integrative learning also holds the tended to teach all students how to make power to bridge—at last—the long-standing sense of complexity, how to find and use evi- cultural divide in which one set of disciplines, dence, and how to apply their knowledge to the arts and sciences, has been regarded as in- new problems and unscripted questions. In tellectual but not practical, while the profes- doing so, they are bringing new vitality to one sional fields are viewed as practical but, for of the oldest and most enduring goals of lib- that very reason, inherently illiberal. Analysis FEATURED TOPIC eral education: the thoughtful and creative and application are starting to come together, use of human reason. where once they were presented as alternative Social Responsibility and Civic Engagement: educational pathways. There is also a pervasive new focus on putting Each of these new designs for undergraduate social and civic responsibility into the cur- learning is intended to help today’s diverse riculum. From Hawaii to Indianapolis to the Bronx, faculty at every kind of college and OFTEN CONFUSED TERMS university are providing students with real- world experience and rich opportunities to Liberal Education address social problems in cooperation with A philosophy of education that empowers in- others. This revival of civic engagement and dividuals, liberates the mind from ignorance, and cultivates social responsibility. Character- social responsibility is happening in nearly ized by challenging encounters with important every field—from science courses taught issues, and more a way of studying than specific through the lenses of important contemporary content, liberal education can occur at all social and ethical questions such as HIV/AIDS types of colleges and universities. to social justice issues addressed in professional fields to internships, service learning, and Liberal Arts field-based projects where students work with Specific disciplines (the humanities, social the community to solve important problems. sciences, and sciences). Simultaneously, the diversity and global education movements also have developed a wealth Liberal Arts Colleges of programs—curricular and co-curricular— A particular institutional type—often small, often residential—that facilitates close inter- that help students develop essential intercul- action between faculty and students, while tural skills and a sophisticated sense of how to grounding its curriculum in the liberal arts collaborate “across boundaries” in a diverse disciplines. but still highly fractured and violent world. Collaborative, intercultural, and community- Artes Liberales based learning is the new civic frontier for our Historically, the basis for the modern liberal twenty-first century world of diversity, contes- arts; the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, tation, and inescapable interdependence. astronomy, and music) and the trivium Integrative and Culminating Learning: Educa- (grammar, logic, and rhetoric). tional leaders are rapidly inventing new forms of integrative and culminating studies for their General Education The part of a liberal education curriculum students. From first year learning communities shared by all students. It provides broad expo- to senior year interdisciplinary general educa- sure to multiple disciplines and forms the basis tion courses to capstone projects and the pop- for developing important intellectual and civic ularity of field-based learning, today’s students capacities. now have multiple, structured opportunities to make connections across disciplines and fields, —from Greater Expectations: A New Vision for to connect theories to practice, and even to en- Learning as a Nation Goes to College gage their own lived experiences in the context of what they are learning in general education and in their majors. This commitment

S PRING 2004 LIBERAL E DUCATION 9 FEATURED TOPIC campus promotionalmaterialsas“liberal”or moted bytheacademybutrarelydescribedin innovations describedaboveareheavilypro- guised frompublicnotice.Theeducational dis- reinvigorated, thetraditionitselfislargely liberal educationarebeingreinventedand in thelongrun,moreeducationallypowerful. ties beyondthecampus,more“hands-on,”and, more engaged have thepotentialtomake what wemight 0L 10 horizons. Taken together, civicandsocialleadership,expanded ment, education:intellectualacuityandjudg- liberal achievethetraditionalbenefitsof students Disguised? and hands-onresearch. involving studentsininquiry Undergraduate Research: sometimes, ethicalreasoning; soning, secondlanguage,and, technology, quantitativerea- emphasis onintensivewriting, explicitly taggedfortheir the-curriculum” incourses tant skillsrecurrently“across- designs forpracticingimpor- Skill-Intensive ContentCourses: literacies; tion—including information sis, researchandcommunica- develop betterskillsinanaly- and workproactivelyto expected ofthemeducationally help studentslearnwhatis programs andseminarsthat First-Year Experiences: sional studiesalike; ences disciplinesandprofes- guiding liberalartsandsci- across theentirecurriculum, goals forlearningarticulated Student LearningOutcomes: Across-the-Curriculum Intellectual Judgment— 1. InquirySkillsand A GuidetoContemporaryReforms Pedagogies ofEngagementandGoalsforStudentLearning: IBERAL E DUCATION , betterconnectedwithcommuni- Even asspecificpracticeswithin call the“liberalartsofpractice” S PRING first-year these college learning 2004 new designsfor collaboratively. nity-based research,oftendone growing emphasisoncommu- Community-Based Research: responsibility; and globallearning,social civic engagement,diversity curricular, intendedtofoster grams, bothcurricularandco- Engagement: Diversity, Global,andCivic ing with“real-world”experience; connect theiracademiclearn- practice thathelpstudents learning, andotherformsof emphasis oninternships,service Field-Based Learning: questions inthelargerworld; of thesecoursestoimportant ences thatconnectthecontent of teachingtheartsandsci- Big Questions: and CivicEngagement 2. SocialResponsibility a wealthofpro- imaginative ways responsibility, andeconomicopportunity—to comes—such asanalyticaljudgment,social the samepublicplaceshighvalueonout- lic doesnotvalueitasnamed,eventhough novative curricula.Studiesshowthatthepub- during influenceonbothestablishedandin- awareness ofliberaleducation,despiteitsen- there isverylittlepublicunderstandingoreven in thelargertraditionsofliberallearning. their ownroleeitherintheseinnovationsor teach spendvirtuallynotimeconsidering education. Graduatestudentspreparingto are engagedincontemporaryformsofliberal pate inthemmayneverevenbetoldthatthey “liberal arts”education.Studentswhopartici- Given thisconspiracyofvoluntarysilence, a new a outcomes. for importantstudentlearning pletion ofthedegree,assessed Assessments: Culminating Projectsand general educationarenas; ing bothinthemajorand students integratetheirlearn- and/or experiencesthathelp Capstones: over time; students’ intellectualprogress documenting andassessing Portfolios andE-Portfolios: connection; that invitecomparisonand General Education: Advanced Interdisciplinary points ofview; etal questionsfrommultiple tant human,scientific,orsoci- that theywillexamineimpor- as a“set”withtheexpectation disciplines thatstudentstake cally linkedcoursesindifferent Learning Communities: (see #1); and professionaleducation connections betweenliberal Liberal/Professional: Studies, including 3. IntegrativeandCulminating capstone courses required forcom- courses new themati- which liberal education leads. Campus leaders trends described above, the report calls for a report that students also don’t know what lib- new synthesis between liberal and practical ed- eral or liberal arts education is and that many ucation throughout the educational experience: faculty are uncertain. “Liberal education,” the report asserts, “must . . . The nation is thus in danger of squandering become consciously, intentionally pragmatic, an extraordinary and unprecedented opportu- while it remains conceptually rigorous; its test nity. With millions of students of all ages and will be in the effectiveness of graduates to use backgrounds both aspiring to higher learning knowledge thoughtfully in the wider world.” and actually enrolling, a new majority of Amer- icans could, in principle, now achieve the kind Sounding the call of capacious and public-spirited liberal educa- In this context of opportunity and opposition, FEATURED TOPIC tion once reserved for a tiny elite. But it is hard the challenges confronting today’s educational to insist on the best when you don’t even know leaders are two. that the best is an option. And without public The first is summoning the vision, the will, support and student demand, these new educa- and the long-term commitment to coalesce in- tional practices are likely to remain both under- novations already flowering around us into developed and vulnerable. more intentional, connected, and cumulatively AAC&U’s 2002 report, Greater Expectations: powerful frameworks for all students’ learning. A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to And the second is the willingness to call College, recommends that every college student these innovations what they are: a twenty-first deserves a liberal education, one redefined to century vision for an inclusive liberal education. embrace and address the way knowledge is ac- The future of liberal education and the fu- tually used in the world, including the world of ture of our core educational missions are one work and civil society. Strongly endorsing the and the same. nn

Annual Meeting

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