“To Spread Throughout the Land, an Army of Practical Men”

Author(s):  
Charles Dorn

This chapter discusses the emergence of a social ethos of practicality in higher education by the end of the nineteenth century. Throughout the antebellum era, the expansion of scientific and technical knowledge joined with the rise of political populism to lead existing institutions to add practical studies to their curricula. Many advocates of practical studies, however, were not satisfied with simply incorporating courses or appending schools to already-established colleges and universities. They sought to break with tradition by establishing a new kind of higher-education institution, one that would teach students scientific and investigative principles while also requiring the application of those principles outside of the classroom, both on the farm and in the field. This new institutional type would contribute to the common good by being unprecedentedly accessible and affordable to agrarian and laboring youth. The chapter then looks at the establishment of the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan.

Author(s):  
Charles Dorn

Are colleges and universities in a period of unprecedented disruption? Is a bachelor's degree still worth the investment? What, exactly, is higher education good for? This book challenges the rhetoric of America's so-called crisis in higher education by investigating two centuries of college and university history. From the community college to the elite research university—in states from California to Maine—the book engages a fundamental question confronted by higher education institutions ever since the nation's founding: Do colleges and universities contribute to the common good? Tracking changes in the prevailing social ethos between the late eighteenth and early twenty-first centuries, the book illustrates the ways in which civic-mindedness, practicality, commercialism, and affluence influenced higher education's dedication to the public good. Each ethos, long a part of American history and tradition, came to predominate over the others during one of the four chronological periods examined in the book, informing the character of institutional debates and telling the definitive story of its time. The book demonstrates how two hundred years of political, economic, and social change prompted transformation among colleges and universities—including the establishment of entirely new kinds of institutions—and refashioned higher education in the United States over time in essential and often vibrant ways.


Author(s):  
Erda Wati Bakar

The Common European Framework of Reference for Language (CEFR) has become the standard used to describe and evaluate students’ command of a second or foreign language. It is an internationally acknowledged standard language proficiency framework which many countries have adopted such as China, Thailand, Japan and Taiwan. Malaysia Ministry of Education is aware and realise the need for the current English language curriculum to be validated as to reach the international standard as prescribed by the CEFR. The implementation of CEFR has begun at primary and secondary level since 2017 and now higher education institutions are urged to align their English Language Curriculum to CEFR as part of preparation in receiving students who have been taught using CEFR-aligned curriculum at schools by year 2022. This critical reflection article elucidates the meticulous processes that we have embarked on in re-aligning our English Language Curriculum to the standard and requirements of CEFR. The paper concludes with a remark that the alignment of the English curriculum at the university needs full support from the management in ensuring that all the stakeholders are fully prepared, informed and familiar with the framework.


2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 110-127
Author(s):  
Abdoulaye Sounaye

Unexpectedly, one of the marking features of democratization in Niger has been the rise of a variety of Islamic discourses. They focus on the separation between religion and the state and, more precisely, the way it is manifested through the French model of laïcité, which democratization has adopted in Niger. For many Muslim actors, laïcité amounts to a marginalization of Islamic values and a negation of Islam. This article present three voices: the Collaborators, the Moderates, and the Despisers. Each represents a trend that seeks to influence the state’s political and ideological makeup. Although the ulama in general remain critical vis-à-vis the state’s political and institutional transformation, not all of them reject the principle of the separation between religion and state. The Collaborators suggest cooperation between the religious authority and the political one, the Moderates insist on the necessity for governance to accommodate the people’s will and visions, and the Despisers reject the underpinning liberalism that voids religious authority and demand a total re-Islamization. I argue that what is at stake here is less the separation between state and religion than the modality of this separation and its impact on religious authority. The targets, tones, and justifications of the discourses I explore are evidence of the limitations of a democratization project grounded in laïcité. Thus in place of a secular democratization, they propose a conservative democracy based on Islam and its demands for the realization of the common good.


2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-41
Author(s):  
William J. Novak ◽  
Stephen W. Sawyer ◽  
James T. Sparrow

Pierre Bourdieu began his posthumously published lectures “On the State” by highlighting the three dominant traditions that have framed most thinking about the state in Western social science and modern social theory. On the one hand, he highlighted what he termed the “initial definition” of the state as a “neutral site” designed to regulate conflict and “serve the common good.” Bourdieu traced this essentially classical liberal conception of the state back to the pioneering political treatises of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.1 In direct response to this “optimistic functionalism,” Bourdieu noted the rise of a critical and more “pessimistic” alternative—something of a diametric opposite.


Author(s):  
Michał Strzelecki

The contemporary state crisis is a derivative of complex economic and social processes. His indicators include not only the visible increase in the intensity of political conflicts (both on a micro and macro scale), the revival and development of separatist tendencies, and the weakening of the role of the state as the basic instrument of organizing collective life. It is also increasing fragmentation of the political scene, the development of particularisms, weakening and progressive dysfunctionality of existing political institutions, increasing economic rivalry and the collapse of the generally accepted axiological system, which is accompanied by increasingly clear questioning of the idea of the common good and progressing pragmatism and egoism. An important element is therefore the disappearance of civic awareness and activity. The intensification of these disturbing tendencies is certainly not supported by the modern education system, whose hallmarks are commercialization and economization, withdrawal of the state and professionalization.


Author(s):  
A. Artyukhov

The article is devoted to the description and analysis of factors that potentially and actually affect the socio-economic development of the state on the example of the higher education institution. It is established that at the system level the level of ensuring the quality of educational activities and the quality of higher education has a decisive influence on the formation of a positive image of a higher education institution. The results of a survey of students on the criteria for choosing a university to study are presented. Statistics on public funding of education in general and higher education in particular are presented and analyzed. It is established that, despite the formally high percentage of education funding from the level of GDP in absolute terms, the actual funding is low and needs to be strengthened by attracting external funding from customers. Attention is also paid to the state of development of educational services for foreign students. In a competitive environment at the national and international level, the decisive influence on the involvement of foreign students in the university is influenced by the structure of the training program, teacher qualifications, organization of the educational process in the classroom and so on. The article on the example of a higher education institution presents the main stages of formation and development of the internal system of quality assurance of education as an object of influence on the socio-economic development of the state. The development and/or improvement of internal quality assurance systems in universities is becoming a powerful basis for increasing university funding from external (personally involved) sources, reducing the outflow of applicants abroad and the successful provision of educational services to foreign students. At this stage, given the limited opportunities for funding of educational activities by the state (compared to EU countries), the successful implementation of the university development strategy is possible provided that systematic work is done to improve the quality of educational services for domestic and foreign citizens. As part of further research, it is planned to analyze the mutual impact of the education quality assurance system on the effectiveness of scientific activities, the provision of additional paid educational services, training for external customers and other sources.


Author(s):  
Jorge Núñez Grijalva

In all areas of the legal world there are higher aspirations, which represent legal values to be protected, like the justice, the common good and legal security stand out. The present work was proposed to analyze if the Ecuadorian Legislator, in its process of construction and promulgation of the criminal law regulating against the unfair competition, incorporated these three values into it. Regrettably, the results show an apparent absence of the three legal values in criminal law, leaving legal operators at a disadvantage in view of the need to control this type of crime and society, awaiting compliance. Through an exercise of legal hermeneutics, the study starts from a real problem in the Ecuadorian legal system of the criminal law against of the unfair competition, which demands to be discussed in the search for the State to take the necessary measures to solve this problem.


2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 110-127
Author(s):  
Abdoulaye Sounaye

Unexpectedly, one of the marking features of democratization in Niger has been the rise of a variety of Islamic discourses. They focus on the separation between religion and the state and, more precisely, the way it is manifested through the French model of laïcité, which democratization has adopted in Niger. For many Muslim actors, laïcité amounts to a marginalization of Islamic values and a negation of Islam. This article present three voices: the Collaborators, the Moderates, and the Despisers. Each represents a trend that seeks to influence the state’s political and ideological makeup. Although the ulama in general remain critical vis-à-vis the state’s political and institutional transformation, not all of them reject the principle of the separation between religion and state. The Collaborators suggest cooperation between the religious authority and the political one, the Moderates insist on the necessity for governance to accommodate the people’s will and visions, and the Despisers reject the underpinning liberalism that voids religious authority and demand a total re-Islamization. I argue that what is at stake here is less the separation between state and religion than the modality of this separation and its impact on religious authority. The targets, tones, and justifications of the discourses I explore are evidence of the limitations of a democratization project grounded in laïcité. Thus in place of a secular democratization, they propose a conservative democracy based on Islam and its demands for the realization of the common good.


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