Constraints and Opportunities

1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Yarmolinsky
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Liberal Education ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Resource Constraints ◽  
Graduate Degrees ◽  
Building Maintenance ◽  
The Face ◽  
External Causes ◽  
Small Liberal Arts Colleges

Liberal education has always proved a challenge to deliver systematically, if only because by its very nature it is difficult to specify. In the United States, institutions that seek to offer liberal education on the threshold of a new century operate under new or, at least, significantly more chafing constraints. This article examines some of these constraints and suggests ways in which they can be relieved or accommodated. The principle constraints discussed here are those of shrinking material resources, expanding and accelerating expectations, and increasing heterogeneity across the student body. In the face of these constraints, academic institutions from small liberal arts colleges to large research universities are no better able than other institutions to adapt themselves to changing circumstances—and perhaps a little bit less so. Resource constraints stem from internal and external causes. The internal causes, I will argue, are the result of an economic anomaly. It is not possible for the direct delivery of liberal education to become significantly more efficient in the same way that other economic processes do, at least in part because liberal education is not something that can be "delivered": thus, there is a productivity lag behind other sectors in the economy. The institution cannot fully compensate for this lag by making improvements in the efficiency of other activities (e.g., computing or building maintenance). The external causes, in the public sector, arise from the insistent demands for other uses of public funds, combined with continued popular resistance to tax levels comparable to those of other industrial democracies. In the private sector, the external cause is the declining capacity (or willingness) of families and individual payers to meet even a partial share of the cost of liberal education. Other constraints result from expanding and accelerating expectations as students and their families demand that they be prepared for specific jobs or get a leg up on specific postgraduate professional training. In a sense this is the other side of the coin of employers' broader demand for higher education. As the proportion of jobs requiring undergraduate and graduate degrees has increased, the vocational aspect of higher education has increased accordingly.

A Historical and Global Perspective on Liberal Arts Education

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kara A. Godwin ◽  
Philip G. Altbach
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
Future Development ◽  
Liberal Education ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Arts Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
General Knowledge ◽  
Liberal Arts Education

Debates about higher education’s purpose have long been polarized between specialized preparation for specific vocations and a broad, general knowledge foundation known as liberal education. Excluding the United States, specialized curricula have been the dominant global norm. Yet, quite surprisingly given this enduring trend, liberal education has new salience in higher education worldwide. This discussion presents liberal education’s non-Western, Western, and u.s. historical roots as a backdrop for discussing its contemporary global resurgence. Analysis from the Global Liberal Education Inventory provides an overview of liberal education’s renewed presence in each of the regions and speculation about its future development.

Newman, Theology and the Crisis of Liberal Education

1999 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-82
Author(s):  
John P. Hittinger ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Liberal Education ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Richard Rorty ◽  
Not Given ◽  
Arts Curriculum

In his classic, The Idea of a University, John Henry Cardinal Newman advanced three arguments for the inclusion of theology in the liberal arts curriculum. These include the very nature of a university in its profession to teach all subjects, the interdisciplinary value of theology, and the danger of academic quackery and usurpation, when a subject matter is not given its due place in the curriculum. The arguments for theology are intimately connected to Newman's high ideal of education, rightly celebrated by educators today. The crisis in contemporary liberal education is reflected in a dispute between Edward O. Wilson and Richard Rorty over the concept of "consilience." Yet there are promising signs of a renewal of liberal education through a deeper appreciation of theology in the course of studies in higher education.

scholarly journals THE CONTRIBUTION OF LIBERAL EDUCATION IN THE SUCCESSFUL PERSON`S TRAINING IN THE UNITED STATES (ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE ENGLISH MAJOR)

2020 ◽  
pp. 195-213
Author(s):  
Olena Kozmenko
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Liberal Education ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
English Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Modern World ◽  
English Major

The article is devoted to the examine of the role of liberal education in general, and the English major in particular in the process of training a successful person in US higher education. Liberal Arts colleges have been training students in the country since colonial times and have always been characterized by high quality education. These colleges were charged with providing a broad-based education that would prepare students for a wide variety of professions. With the beginning of a new era, in the twentieth century, Americans' priorities changed and it was a devaluing of the humanities in favor of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and applied programs designed to prepare graduates for specific jobs and careers. However, understanding the importance of the humanities in the process of formation of decent American citizens and successful individuals encourages colleges and universities to look for ways to improve the effectiveness of liberal arts education, renew the educational process, and increase the competitiveness of the humanities in the U.S. labor market. English major provides unique opportunities for the formation of skills that are vital to a successful life. The efforts of higher education establishments to improve the situation with philological education and attract new students is analyzed in the article. The content of the educational program is considered, the data of scientists on its updating, examples of concrete innovations are given. The important role of English language and literature in preparing students for success after graduation, career prospects is confirmed by numerous American scientists` studies. The article presents the work of educators who prove the importance of liberal education in the formation of intellectual and moral qualities of the individual, tolerant attitude towards other people and cultures, critical thinking skills, productive communication, collaboration as well as active citizenship. Also in the article it is considered the relevance of the English major in modern world and career prospects for specialists in English philology.

The Digital Lectern

2013 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Tom McBride ◽  
Ron Nief
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts Colleges ◽  
Interdisciplinary Education ◽  
Lecture Format ◽  
Small Liberal Arts Colleges

This chapter projects how higher education will be systematically transformed once the practice of capturing lectures is widespread and common: in particular how the practice will affect the lecture format itself, bring about a reversal of homework and class work, influence the dialectic of interdisciplinary education, transform the communications ontology of the lecture, and affect small liberal arts colleges, for whom in-person pedagogy has been a hallmark—and to which captured lectures would appear to be alien.

scholarly journals The Shaping of Higher Education: The Formative Years in the United States, 1890 to 1940

1999 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Goldin ◽  
Lawrence F Katz
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts Colleges ◽  
The United States ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
The Public ◽  
Knowledge Industry ◽  
Education Today ◽  
Small Liberal Arts Colleges

The authors trace the origins of the key features of U.S. higher education today--the coexistence of small liberal arts colleges and large research universities; the substantial share of enrollment in the public sector; and varying levels of support provided by the states. These features began to materialize soon after 1890 when the ‘knowledge industry’ was subjected to ‘technological shocks’ that increased the value of research to industry and government and led to the proliferation of academic disciplines. The consequence was an increase in the scale and scope of institutions of higher education and a relative expansion of public-sector institutions.

scholarly journals Toward a 2.0 Compact for the Liberal Arts

Daedalus ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 148 (4) ◽  
pp. 217-234
Author(s):  
Earl Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Education ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
American Association ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Face ◽  
Changing World

New demands on learning coupled with new concerns about a changing world have resulted in a new focus on what constitutes a durable learning experience in a liberal arts setting. While the noise of a crisis in the liberal arts can be distracting at times, what we learn is that different types of schools continue to answer the question of why the liberal arts remain an effective educational option. This essay argues that they are only beginning to address what is durable and adaptable about the liberal arts in the face of automation. While many have endorsed the LEAP (Liberal Education and America's Promise) framework developed by the American Association of Colleges & Universities, which called for the liberal arts to be in the nation's service, the original framework did not fully anticipate the rate, scale, and far-reaching impact of automation. What is needed is a liberal arts 2.0, one that prepares learners to become robot-proof in a world in which many will find themselves with robotic helpers.

The reflective practitioner: the role of a public liberal-arts university in saving liberal education

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Troy D. Paino
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Liberal Education ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Reflective Practitioner ◽  
State Support ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Liberal Arts University ◽  
Freedom Of Thought

Purpose – This paper seeks to discuss the role of a public liberal-arts university in education. Design/methodology/approach – The author first defines the principles and definitions of liberal education, then analyses these ideas in relation to public liberal-arts universities. Findings – Liberal education holds enduring value in a world where state support for higher education is steadily decreasing and the author concludes that society needs public liberal-arts universities in order to maintain freedom of thought and democracies. Originality/value – This piece presents a view of public liberal-arts universities in the wider context of liberal education, recession and worldwide threats to democracy and personal freedoms.

The Counter Narrative: Critical Analysis of Liberal Education in Global Context

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kara A. Godwin
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
General Education ◽  
Liberal Education ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Public Funding ◽  
Current Trend ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Economic Framework ◽  
Policies And Programs

AbstractScholars who study higher education describe globalization as an inevitable force in postsecondary systems and institutions worldwide. Resulting trends include massification, privatization, reduced public funding, competition, and unprecedented student and faculty mobility. In the last two decades, another small but important trend has developed: the emergence of liberal education (often called “liberal arts and science” or “general education”) in cultures where it has rarely existed before. Discourse about this phenomenon is overwhelmingly positive. Using critical theory to analyze this evolving global trend, however, provides a much-needed alternative perspective for policy and practice. In this article, I define liberal education and provide an overview of the current trend based on a 2013 empirical study. In reaction to a dominant economic framework that rationalizes the development of liberal education programs, I present several counter narratives related to history, students and faculty, learning and teaching, access and elitism, and cultural hegemony. This article emphasizes the importance of critically analyzing new international higher education developments to increase the propensity for creating socially just policies and programs. Finally, I illustrate the implications for the global emergence of liberal education by suggesting that liberal education as a higher education philosophy could both reinforce and resist neoliberal practices.

Before March Madness

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt Edward Kemper
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
College Athletics ◽  
Medium Size ◽  
College Sports ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
College Basketball ◽  
Small Liberal Arts Colleges

Before March Madness examines the power dynamics of mid-century college sports when their meaning in higher education was still uncertain, when their future in American culture was still undetermined, and when the ascendance, indeed the very survival, of the NCAA was not yet assured. The book identifies the institutional struggles of college athletics from the late 1930s to the late 1950s and the multiple stakeholders and varied interests contained therein, showing a complex, and often conflicting, view of both college sports and higher education. The NCAA’s insistence on defining college athletics solely within the big-time commercialized model opened itself to severe criticism from within the organization in the form of small liberal arts colleges, medium-size regional and state universities, and historically black colleges, as well as outside it with the creation of the NAIA. The organization, however, successfully used college basketball to both placate internal critics and stave off its external competitor. In doing so, the NCAA managed to create in the public’s mind a singular vision of college sports, often represented by college football, representing only the big-time commercialized model by creating a peace that was purchased through college basketball. The success of NCAA elites to co-opt, divide, and placate its insurgent critics mirrored the larger response of mid-twentieth-century political and economic elites in the face of unprecedented challenges resulting from the civil rights movement, second-wave feminism, and opposition to the war in Vietnam.

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