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.

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.

scholarly journals The Worldwide Emergence of Liberal Education

2015 ◽  
pp. 2-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kara A. Godwin
Keyword(s):  
General Education ◽  
Liberal Education ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Critical Questions ◽  
Regional Trends

During the last two decades, liberal education (often called liberal arts or general education) has emerged with surprising prevalence in places where it has rarely existed before.  A new study provides an inaugural profile about where, when, and in what format liberal education is emerging worldwide, identifies regional trends, and raises critical questions.

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.

scholarly journals From the Editor

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Gulsun Atanur Baskan
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Teacher Education ◽  
Classroom Management ◽  
General Education ◽  
Professional Education ◽  
Review Process ◽  
Learning Assessment ◽  
Related Field ◽  
Assessment And Evaluation ◽  
Learning And Teaching

Message from EditorDear Readers,It is the great honor for us to publish sixth volume, third issue of Contemporary Educational Researches Journal.Contemporary Educational Researches Journal welcomes original empirical investigations and comprehensive literature review articles focusing on educational issues. Contemporary Educational Researches Journal is an international peer-refereed journal that promotes the researches in the field of contemporary teaching and learning approaches and theories.The scope of the journal includes, but is not limited to; the following major topics as they relate to: Active Learning, Administration of Education, Adult Education, Affective Learning, Arts Teaching, Asynchronous Learning, Behaviorist Learning, Blended Learning, Chemistry Education, Classroom Assessment, Classroom Management, Classroom Teacher Education, Collaborative Learning, College and Higher Education, College and Higher Education, Constructivist Learning, Content Development, Distance Learning, E-administration, Future Learning Trends and Globalization, Gaming, Simulation and Virtual Worlds, Guiding and Counseling, Healthy Education, High School Teacher Education, History Education, Instructional Design, Language Learning and Teaching, Language Teacher Education, Learner Centered Strategies, Learners Diversity, Inclusiveness and Inequality, Learning and Teaching Research Methods, Learning Assessment and Evaluation, Learning Assessment and Evaluation, Learning Psychology, Lifelong Learning Strategies, Learning Skills, Vocational Education, Measurement and Evaluation in Education, New Learning Environments, Portfolio Assessment, Professional Development and School Administration.Improving the quality of higher education, teacher training, views of university students on internet addiction, teachers’ views on contemporary society and comparing professional education and general education topics have been included into this issue. The topics of the next issue will be different. You can make sure that we will be trying to serve you with our journal with a rich knowledge in which different kinds of topics are discussed in 2016 Volume.A total number of thirteen (13) manuscripts were submitted for this issue and each paper has been subjected to double-blind peer review process by the reviewers specialized in the related field. At the end of the review process, a total number of five (5) high quality research papers were selected and accepted for publication.We present many thanks to all the contributors who helped us to publish this issue.Best regards,Prof. Dr. Gulsun Atanur BaskanEditor – in Chief

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.

Tradition and Change in the Curriculum of a Liberal or General Education

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. G. Mulcahy
Keyword(s):  
General Education ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Liberal Education ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Forthcoming Article ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Arts And Sciences ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 19Th Century

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Please check back later for the full article. The idea of a liberal or general education is one of the most consequential and enduring in the history of education. From its origins in antiquity, the idea and the form of liberal arts and sciences curriculum associated with it grew to become a shaping force in the formation of the universities of the Middle Ages. With the arrival of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century both liberal education and the largely classical content of the curriculum ran into strong opposition. By the late 20th century the traditional idea and varying modifications of its conceptualization and curriculum content on both sides of the Atlantic were frequently reasserted. In response, discontent with liberal education and its curricular expressions took new and increasingly challenging forms. The debate surrounding the idea as applied today in both schools and colleges has a new vibrancy. This is especially evident among those arguing for innovative conceptualizations of the venerable notion of liberal education.

scholarly journals Core elements of exemplary academic integrity policy in Australian higher education

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracey Bretag ◽  
Saadia Mahmud ◽  
Margaret Wallace ◽  
Ruth Walker ◽  
Colin James ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Integrity ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Best Practice Guidelines ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Academic Integrity Policy ◽  
Australian Universities

This paper reports on one important aspect of the preliminary findings from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) project, Academic integrity standards: Aligning policy and practice in Australian universities (Bretag et al., 2010) Our project aims to identify approaches to the complex issues of academic integrity, and then to build on these approaches to develop exemplars for adaptation across the higher education sector. Based on analysis of publicly available online academic integrity policies at each of the 39 Australian universities, we have identified five core elements of exemplary academic integrity policy. These have been grouped under the headings, Access, Approach, Responsibility, Detail and Support, with no element given priority over another. In this paper we compare the five core elements identified in our research with best practice guidelines recommended by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) in the UK. We conclude that an exemplar policy needs to provide an upfront, consistent message, reiterated throughout the entire policy, which indicates a systemic and sustained commitment to the values of academic integrity and the practices that ensure it. Whereas the HEA created two discrete resources, the key aim and challenge of this project will be to develop exemplars that demonstrate a strong alignment between policy and practice.

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