The role of the arts and humanities in civic learning and engagement: The US debate

Abstract

Over the past few years, a series of linked calls to action have urged US institutions of higher education to give greater attention to civic learning and engagement as central outcomes of a liberal education (Heiland and Huber, 2014). The purpose of this forum is to map out how this current spate of calls for civic learning and engagement in the US is being (or can be) answered by the arts and humanities in higher education, and how these disciplines themselves are being (or can be) reenergized as their importance to civic work is acknowledged, understood, and developed. The first of these calls came in January 2012, when the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement, convened by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and the Global Perspectives Institute, released A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy’s Future. The report ‘‘call[ed] on the nation to reclaim higher education’s civic mission,’’ and had been produced with the support of the US Department of Education, which promptly followed up with its own publication, Advancing Civic Learning and Engagement in Democracy: A Roadmap and Call to Action. Both of these documents trace a trajectory from the effective functioning of a democratic society through to the forms of individual civic engagement, learning and action that make that functioning possible. This linking of civic knowledge and learning at the social and institutional level to the knowledge and actions of