Liberal Education Research Articles

“I met my best friends yesterday”: Groups as a democratic practice in Brazilian schools

In this paper, we analyse experiences of democratic practices in two research interventions within school contexts in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Both projects took place in public (Government-owned and managed) schools and were inspired by participatory and critical approaches, particularly Paulo Freire’s popular education and bell hooks’ feminist pedagogies. We analyse two case studies in which group interventions raise issues about democracy within schools and broader society, stressing the differences between the two contexts. The first case study discusses an educational programme for teachers and school staff on gender and sexual diversity, funded by a pro-diversity centre-left Federal government from 2007 to 2014. We analyse the group as a space to build multiple perspectives and democratic practices on gender and sexuality. Second, we analyse material from a project that conducted workshops with pupils (7 to 11 years old) to discuss interpersonal relations and the bonds they had with their schools during lockdowns (2021). Researchers developed participatory methods for remote learning and conducted online fieldwork with students—who had their parents’ and carers’ silent presence at home—analysing the construction of bonds with school, classmates and their autonomy. This project was conducted during a much more hostile moment than the previous one, during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and in an ultraconservative political context in Brazil. While even during a social-democratic administration, we found limits in discussing gender and sexuality in schools (case study 1), the later authoritarian government and context severely worsened the situation (case study 2). Nevertheless, we were able to use critical approaches to promote and discuss democratic practices, especially considering gender, sexuality, race, and class inequalities. Through our practices as school psychologists and researchers, we make collective stands against authoritarianism.

A New Higher Education Model in Nation-Building: The Republic of Vietnam’s Liberal Arts Education and Its Performances during the Vietnam War (1965–1975)

ABSTRACT This study examines liberal arts education model influences in Vietnam’s higher education throughout the Vietnam War (1965–1975). Liberal arts education advanced due to the necessity to match market norms and unite qualified people to oppose communism, as well as US specialists. This research article uses source materials from the former Republic of Vietnam and previous studies to identify two major elements of national liberal arts education. First, South Vietnamese educators stressed academic independence, which allowed students to critically think about varied views and widen their worldview. Second, community colleges combined liberal arts and pre-professional courses to stress educational practicality and social duty. South Vietnamese students were civically responsible and dedicated to research and innovation. However, the Vietnamese Civil War, declining financial backing and international recognition, and internal discord concerning this paradigm hampered the collective attempt to embody the Republic of Vietnam’s liberal arts education during the war.

대학 교양교육에서의 AI에 대한 국내 연구 동향 분석 : 국내 학술지를 중심으로

This study was conducted to analyze domestic research trends on the use of AI(Artificial Intelligence) in university liberal arts education. Over the past four years(2021-2024), a total of 56 papers published in Korea major journals were analyzed, focusing on annual publication trends. The analysis considered research types, data collection methods, related courses, and research topics. Quantitative research was the most frequent among research types, while questionnaires(surveys) were the most popular data collection method. In addition, the subjects utilizing AI were classified into 6, and among them, AI and coding, writing, and English were analyzed to be most frequently utilized. This study is expected to contribute to increasing the possibility of practical application in the field of education by providing basic data for activating academic research on AI utilization and effective utilization in liberal arts education. Based on this, the direction of follow-up research will be suggested to seek ways to utilize AI technology more effectively in liberal arts education.

대학생의 소비자주의 정체성 발현 양태와 교양교육이 나가야 할 방향

The purpose of this study is to critically examine the expression of consumerism identity of college students and to seek the direction of liberal arts education in response. Consumerism identity is self-consciousness that is formed through consumption and placing oneself in the position of consumers and evaluating all issues with consumption logic. This study analyzes the meaning and problem of consumerism identity by dividing it into qualification suitability, justice of equivalent exchange, victimhood. As a result of the study, the persistent inquiry into qualification suitability downgrades legitimate exercise of rights to a qualification issue and tolerates a distorted structure hidden in the qualification acquisition process. The justice of equivalence exchange reinforces academicism with meritocracy. As the justice of equivalence exchange collapses, the distinction between the perpetrator and the victim is distorted. From this, liberal arts education should create a strong self that will give pride to one's values. Furthermore, it is necessary to leads to equal relations with others and open communication, and establishes the values, behavioral principles, and systems of 'the social' for alternative society.

예술전공 대학생의 마음챙김 기반 요가 수업 사례 연구

The purpose of this study was to explore the levels and experiences of mindfulness among students who participated in a mindfulness-based yoga liberal arts class at an S university in K city. The results showed significant changes in mindfulness levels, and qualitative analysis explored positive experiences in cognitive, emotional, physical, and relational domains. These findings are used to discuss the adoption of mindfulness in liberal arts education to improve mental and physical health.

대학 교양 교육에서 상상력 교육의 실천적 사례 연구: <한성이마기난스>를 중심으로

The purpose of this study is to examine how imagination education can be systematized and implemented in university liberal arts education through case studies. Accordingly, this study studied the case of developing the imagination liberal arts course <H Imaginans> attempted at H University. The specific research questions are as follows. First, what content can an imagination liberal arts course be developed with? Second, what educational effects does an imagination liberal arts course have on students? This study was conducted from July 2023 to August 2024 in the order of research planning, <H Imaginans> course development, class application, and data analysis. The data were collected based on the descriptive responses of class satisfaction survey of 844 students in 29 classes who took the H University liberal arts course <H Imaginans> in the first semester of 2024. The educational implications were presented on the performance and improvement points of the development case of imagination liberal arts course derived from the analysis results.

The Problem of Civic and Liberal Education: Legislative and Civil-Society Remedies for Our Era

This paper addresses the current state of civic education legislation in higher education. While state-level legislation that aims to improve civics in colleges and universities in the United States is laudable, such laws run the risk of meeting students too late and so must be coupled with renewed legislative focus on civic education at the elementary and secondary level. Civic education aims to make good citizens, to cultivate students’ love of their country, and this may be difficult to effect by the time students reach college. Laws mandating and forbidding certain content from being taught in history and civics classes is also considered. Further, I aim to show the deleterious effect an impoverished civic education has on liberal education, drawing, principally, on lessons from Socrates’s understanding of education as we find it in the writing of Plato.

The Significance of Intergenerational Collaboration as Young People Engage in Youth Activism in Educational Spaces

Youth Liberation Army (YLA) is a youth-led grassroots organization advocating for school abolition and addressing issues most concerning young people in schools and communities. YLA utilizes adult ally trainings to invite educators to work toward liberatory education. The transformative organizing practices of YLA are examined through a youth activism framework to discuss how young people and adult allies may collaborate to disrupt systemic injustices in schools and communities. Findings from a critical qualitative Project in Humanization are shared to examine the power and purpose of an adult ally training facilitated by YLA in a conventional teacher education program (TEP). Through critical listening and dialogic spiraling, reflections and implications on intergenerational collaboration are provided by a researcher-teacher educator and a participant-youth organizer. The dynamics between YLA, teacher candidates, and a teacher educator highlight the significance and possibilities of intergenerational collaboration when youth organizers are welcomed into TEPs as co-educators.

EQUAL AI: A Framework for Enhancing Equity, Quality, Understanding and Accessibility in Liberal Arts through AI for Multilingual Learners

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into liberal arts education offers a transformative opportunity to address the diverse needs of multilingual and multicultural learners. Consequently, this study introduces the EQUAL AI framework (Enhancing Equity, Quality, Understanding, and Accessibility in Liberal Arts through AI), a structured approach to utilizing AI to foster inclusion and innovation in liberal arts pedagogy. The framework identifies five key domains: linguistic support, cultural representation, creative expression, critical thinking, and collaborative learning. Additionally, the study underscores the necessity of systemic support, particularly through professional development programs that equip educators with technical proficiency, ethical awareness, and the ability to critically assess AI tools. By tackling challenges such as algorithmic bias, data privacy, and the digital divide, the study advocates for culturally responsive policies and inclusive practices. The EQUAL AI framework envisions liberal arts education as a space for equitable participation and cultural understanding, positioning AI as a tool to enhance rather than replace humanistic pedagogy, ensuring its relevance in a technology-driven, interconnected world.

‘When it moves, it morphs?’ Glonacalising US liberal arts education at a transnational university in China

ABSTRACT China has become a major host of transnational higher education. However, little research has examined how US-style liberal arts education (LAE) is packaged and practised in transnational universities in China. Guided by Phillips and Ochs’ education borrowing model and Marginson and Rhoades’ glonacal agency heuristic, this study examines how a US LAE model has been borrowed and ‘glonacalised’ in a transnational university (SFU) in China. Based on interviews with SFU’s students and staff, analysis of University Bulletin and other university published documents, the research identifies (mis)alignments between LAE-related discourse and practice at SFU in different borrowing stages. Findings show SFU has retained some explicit US LAE features (course structure, student-centred pedagogy and student agency), while more implicit principles were modified. The synergy among key glonacal actors/factors, namely neoliberal globalisation, neoliberal governance and students’ instrumental views of education, proved powerful in retaining and modifying the model.

British ideas for new colonial universities at the end of empire

ABSTRACT This article shows that longstanding connections established through inclusion in the British Empire were maintained in significant ways after individual countries became independent, but remained within the Commonwealth. Although Britain declined as an international power, and largely lost its empire, it reveals ongoing British soft-power in academic cultures. The article provides a new scholarly analysis, moving away from presumptions about the anglicised university ideal in the Global South. How did British ideas transfer themselves to former colonial universities? Who was involved in the process? To answer to these questions, this research focuses on the transnational activities of the Inter-University Council, the University of London and African and Caribbean universities during the late and post-colonial eras. Liberal, elite and residential education, a balance of teaching and research schemes were combined; institutional autonomy was a further added important elements in the classic British university cultures. However, the notion of Britain’s institutional autonomy differed in colonial universities, but functioned well for protecting their academic freedom. The circulation of British ideas for universities was a means of anglicising overseas universities at the end of empire. Britain succeeded in keeping alive the bonds of the Commonwealth universities across the wider world.

Relaciones de la pedagógica y la pedagogía de la liberación latinoamericana. Estudio epistemológico basado en Dussel y Freire

In the last decades, new epistemological discussions have been developed to support Latin American pedagogies that distance themselves from the hegemonic discourses of modernity and their colonial accent. In this context, this essay aims to contribute to the understanding of some of the relationships between Enrique Dussel’s pedagogy and Paulo Freire’s pedagogy of liberation. In the first section that contributes to this objective, the three chapters of Dussel’s book La pedagógica latinoamericana and the first two chapters of Freire’s book Pedagogy of the Opressed are presented. From Dussel’s book, the concepts father-State, mother-popular culture, and son-child-people are highlighted as symbols that explain the cultural relations of domination. From Freire’s book, the concepts of oppressors, oppressed, banking education, and liberating education are highlighted. In the second section of the development, a distinction is made on the levels of analysis of each philosopher and some coincidences on the banking dimension, totality, exteriority, otherness, and the hope of a liberated world. To conclude the paper, it is considered that there is a correlation between both philosophers that favor the dialectic of the collective human and the cultural human in Latin American pedagogies.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE CLASSROOM: THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION

In the wake of the digital revolution, the integration of emerging technologies in education has emerged as a powerful catalyst for promoting inclusion and breaking down barriers in education. This study investigates the transformative impact of technology on inclusive education, exploring how innovations such as artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, and assistive technologies are redefining learning possibilities for all students. We adopt a qualitative methodology, based on a systematic literature review, to critically analyze the current state of technology integration in inclusive education. Our findings reveal that, when implemented effectively, these technologies have the potential to personalize learning on an unprecedented scale, adapt to individual student needs, and overcome physical, cognitive, and geographic barriers. We identify significant challenges, including the need for ongoing training of educators, issues of equity in access to technology, and concerns about privacy and data security. The study also highlights the importance of a holistic approach that considers not only the technical, but also the pedagogical, ethical, and social aspects of technology implementation. We conclude that while technology offers transformative opportunities for inclusive education, its success depends on careful and contextualized integration, supported by progressive education policies and an ongoing commitment to equity and inclusion.

Eksplorasi Wawasan Pedagogis KH. Abdul Wahid Hasyim: Tinjauan Sistematis Terhadap Literatur Pendidikan

KH Abdul Wahid Hasyim is a prominent figure in Islamic education in Indonesia. This research explores his views on education, teaching methods, and their application in modern contexts. The aim is to understand his contributions deeply, evaluate the relevance of his concepts in current educational practices, and provide a foundation for innovation in progressive education systems. The research employs the Systematic Literature Review method to systematically explore Hasyim's pedagogical insights. Researchers gather, evaluate, and synthesize information from journals published between 2019-2024. Hasyim's educational perspective reflects the belief that education plays a strategic role in guiding individuals towards maturity, enhancing human dignity, and improving social conditions. The goal is to create individuals who are religious, knowledgeable, and intellectually sound, relevant in the modern educational context by integrating religious values with contemporary needs. Teaching methods like Wetonan, Sorongan, Hafalan, and Tutorial illustrate an adaptation between tradition and modernity, creating a holistic educational environment. According to Hasyim, teachers are agents of change, and students are active, creative, and independent learners. Hasyim's contributions in advocating inclusivity, liberalizing thought, reforming curricula, and establishing the Islamic University of Indonesia reflect his efforts to transform Islamic education to be more inclusive, progressive, and relevant to the times. Future research will focus on implementing Hasyim's teaching methods in modern education, evaluating the roles of teachers and students, and assessing his contributions to contemporary education, while promoting discussion forums to share thoughts on the implications of Hasyim's educational views in current educational practices.

Feminist Pedagogy and Peer Relations in Women’s Studies Classrooms: Reflections on Caste Inequalities in Indian Higher Education

This article attempts to explore the nature of peer relations across caste locations in higher education in the Indian context and the possibilities of pedagogical intervention in caste inequalities in the classroom. Much of the discussion around caste in Indian higher education has been limited to questions of access of marginalised caste groups alone, without taking account of the terms of this “inclusion” and the conditions of survival in higher education. With the shifts in the caste composition of students in recent decades, some reflections on the struggles of marginalised students have come forth, highlighting the extent to which the higher education system is ill-equipped to deal with a diverse student body. Based on a qualitative study of five degree programmes in women’s studies, the article discusses peer relations in the context of efforts of women’s studies teachers to intervene in the dynamics among students given the varying degrees of diversity in the classroom. Highlighting bitter divisions as well as attempts at solidarity among students across caste locations, it argues that addressing peer inequalities in the classroom must be part of feminist pedagogical work. Furthermore, these strategies must go beyond “enabling” marginalised students and equally directed towards questioning the privilege of dominant students, otherwise the classroom will not be enabling for the best of marginalised students.

Exploring Institutionalized Oppression in The Book of Not (2006)

ABSTRACT Tsitsi Dangarembga’s exploration of education takes on distinct forms in her literary works. The Book of Not (2006) focuses on traditional education encompassing classes, assessments and discipline. This article presents an analysis of Dangarembga’s second literary work, interrogating the tension between the promises of educational liberation and the entrapment of black female students within the confines of Young Ladies’ College of the Sacred Heart, an educational institution that replicates colonial practices. The concept of education is read within the framework of Paulo Freire’s critique of the banking model, where practices of colonial education are shown to manifest neuroses in colonial subjects, exposing the hypocrisies and ironies within the colonial education model. Through this lens, we observe the profound alienation Tambudzai (Tambu) experiences with liberatory education. To succeed within the system, Tambu is pressured to abandon her cultural identity under the misguided belief that doing so will lead to acceptance. This forced renunciation causes psychological breakdowns, highlighting how the school exhibits institutional traits akin to asylums. Instead of fostering independence and collective thought, the school’s true aim is to enforce dependence by compelling students to discard themselves.

Illuminating Knowledge: The London Mechanics’ Institution and the Diorama

The London Mechanics’ Institution, founded in 1823, sought to foster scientific knowledge among operatives. This article demonstrates how it was part of a new educational and technological landscape whereby there were increasing attempts to ‘illustrate’ knowledge in order to make it accessible and memorable. New scientific and optical devices were used to produce, disseminate, and democratize knowledge. The operatives attending lectures and classes had to be engaged and their attention fostered. It was believed that the march of knowledge did not succeed if it was dryasdust, and there were many forms of illustrated lectures, from diagrams and transparencies to magic lantern shows to live experiments. This article links the London Mechanics’ Institution to the advent of other metropolitan institutions like the Diorama and reflects on broader ideas of progressive education and the nature of learning engagement.

Thirty-five years of feminism and family law in the legal academy

ABSTRACT This chapter is in two parts, each of which reflects upon the developments and current state of family law scholarship and feminist teaching in universities in England and Wales. Piper focuses on the enormous body of research and writing that Felicity Kaganas achieved in over 35 years of research in family law. It outlines the publications that she and Kaganas wrote together and highlights Kaganas’ other significant work. It reflects upon the impact of this work for students, academic colleagues and policy-makers and concludes that many of the same issues Kaganas addressed over the years remain current. Auchmuty, on the other hand, reflects upon 35 years of feminism in the classroom. Both Auchmuty and Kaganas started teaching in English law schools in the 1980s when the job was very different. Since that time, law teaching has become an increasingly feminised profession, with feminist teachers occupying some of the highest positions, and feminist legal research has flourished. In spite of these two profound shifts, the law degree has remained virtually unchanged, especially in respect of the ‘core curriculum’. These reflections consider why this is so, focusing on mechanisms of patriarchal containment and backlash, and considers what can be done about it.

Future Direction of Engineering Education in the Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Era

This study investigates the future direction of biomedical engineering education in higher education. It examines the perceptions of learning activities, modes, and styles among a group of biomedical engineering students at an Australian university. The survey findings reveal that both traditional and progressive pedagogies are preferred by the respondents. This paper concludes that traditional face-to-face lecturing maintains its value in biomedical engineering education.

Toward a liberatory counseling and psychotherapy theories pedagogy and curriculum.

Psychotherapy theories have long been criticized for their White western cultural assumptions (Katz, 1985; Sue et al., 2024). With the growing call to decolonize psychology (e.g., Singh, 2020), we re-envisioned a psychotherapy theories curriculum from a liberation psychology framework (Martín-Baró, 1994). This framework contextualizes and historicizes people's lived experiences and highlights the ways in which oppressed communities have survived and resisted. A liberatory pedagogy for teaching psychotherapy theories involves critical consciousness (concientización; Freire, 1970), which allows students and instructors to bring a critical lens as they learn and discuss theories of counseling and psychotherapy; reflexivity, to locate themselves within the colonial, White supremacist and capitalist structures in which the classroom is situated; and somatic and affective engagement to decenter colonial rationality. The bookend approach (Wright et al., 2022) can be used to interrogate psychotherapy theories (a) as an overarching strategy for the entire course and (b) as a teaching strategy within each week's lesson on a specific theory. It is our hope that students will be equipped to re-envision psychotherapy and healing as located in our collective liberation from oppressive structures. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).