Liberal Education Research Articles

Rethinking the Criteria for Liberal Education Courses

Sheldon Rothblatt argues that the subject does not define liberal education but rather that anything taught liberally constitutes liberal education. We partially agree with Rothblatt's assertion. In short, while we concur with his claim that not all traditional liberal arts automatically constitute liberal education, we believe that for liberal education to be taught and learned liberally, the curriculum should be centered around the traditional liberal arts. This argument unfolds in three distinct phases, each contributing to a deeper understanding of liberal education. The first phase delves into the elements that define liberal education, drawing on Rothblatt's assertion and the case of Harvard's general education. This analysis presents civic engagement and adaptability as crucial yet often overlooked components of liberal education. In the second phase, we introduce the concepts of ‘fundamentality’ and ‘openness’ as pivotal to liberal teaching within liberal education. ‘Fundamentality’ refers to the ability to question fundamental principles, laws, and assumptions openly. To satisfy these elements, we argue that disciplines from the traditional liberal arts are indispensable in liberal education. The final phase will demonstrate the need for ‘fundamentality’ and ‘openness’ through the example of logical education. We will illustrate issues that arise from using inference rules of classical logic without precisely understanding their meaning and show that overcoming these problems requires openness to questioning. This will show why the liberal education curriculum should be structured around traditional liberal arts disciplines.

Implications for the Organization and Operation of Liberal Arts Curriculum by the Difference in Educational Consumers' Perception of the Identity and Content of Liberal Arts Education

The purpose of this study is to examine whether there are differences in the perception of the importance of liberal arts education by role and content for each educational consumer and to derive implications for how to reflect these differences in the organization and operation of the liberal arts curriculum. To achieve this, basic statistical analyses and one-way ANOVA were conducted on survey data collected from 1,720 students, faculty, graduates, and industry representatives in Busan, Korea. The results confirmed differences in perception among each educational consumer regarding which role of general education is considered more important. In particular, students perceived all roles of general education except for ‘complementing major education’ as less important compared to other consumer groups. Clear differences were also observed in the importance attributed to specific content areas by each group. While Faculty and industry representatives perceived the importance of humanities most highly, students and graduates prioritized employment-related areas such as practical skills, IT utilization skills, and foreign language abilities. Moreover, they perceived the importance of humanities and social sciences, which correspond to the traditional liberal arts and education areas, as less significant. Based on this difference in perception of the educational consumer groups, four implications for practitioners to consider in the process of development and implementation of liberal arts education were proposed.

Realities and Challenges of Religion Courses in Higher Education : Focusing on the Case of Yonsei University

Christianity courses at Christian colleges and universities are often aimed at converting students. However, religious education as a ‘liberal arts education’ should prioritize ‘religious studies education.’ This differs from other types of religious education, such as ‘faith education’ or ‘spirituality/character education.’ When this ideal approach isn't feasible due to practical constraints, an alternative could be ‘spirituality/character education’ within an ‘experiential education’ context. Ultimately, religious education should strive for liberal arts principles, which is the main stream of liberal and general education. Liberal arts based religious education involves fostering religious literacy, which includes: 1) understanding the nature and significance of religion itself, as well as diverse religious traditions; 2) identifying religious elements that underlie secular events. This form of education, which requires open dialogue with other academic disciplines like the humanities and natural sciences, can serve as a type of convergence education. To achieve this goal, institutions dedicated to liberal and general education need to be established, with full administrative independence. They must operate without interference from denominational authorities, university boards, or chaplains' offices. Guarantees for the independence of administration, the status of faculty, and academic freedom are essential. Religious education that embraces an interdisciplinary approach is suitable for senior students with a broader academic background. Thus, the curriculum should be adjusted to allow senior students to take religious studies courses. Additionally, there should be a broader range of courses that explore religions other than Christianity. Furthermore, ongoing research into ‘Christianity and liberal arts studies’ as an emerging discipline is essential.

Collaborative Research on the Educational Outcomes of Classical Reading Education : Focused on Diagnosing the Educational Performance of four Korean Universities

The new rise of classical reading education is one of the important features of liberal arts education in recent years. This study aims to diagnose the performance of classical reading education through pre- and post-surveys of students taking classical reading courses at four universities in Korea, and analyze the results to determine what specific outcomes classical reading education can achieve. Based on a total of 339 students who took a classical reading course in the second semester of the 2023 academic year at four universities, two in the Seoul metropolitan area and one each in the Chungcheongbuk-do and Daegu/Gyeongbuk regions, the results showed that classical reading education promotes not only reading comprehension but also communication, creativity, and problem-solving efficacy, despite the characteristics and differences in the course operation of each university. In particular, classical reading education was found to foster contextual reading, the three-dimensional reading of texts, and inferential reading. Through discussions and debates with classmates, reflective writing, and reflection, the classical reading experience allows students to grow and mature by developing a precise and in-depth understanding of the text, as well as through the discovery of new content and meanings that they hadn't noticed before. These experiences, coupled with the results of fostering students' creativity and increasing their problem-solving efficacy, support the benefits of classical reading. Classical reading has also been shown to positively change students' personal and contextual interest in academics. This change in students' willingness and attitude toward academics is very important because it is closely linked to the development of an active learning approach. This study confirms that classical reading education has the effect of broadening and deepening thinking, stimulating and satisfying intellectual curiosity and thirst for knowledge, and renewing students' commitment and attitudes toward their lives and their studies. In particular, the fact that these outcomes were not identified at the level of individual universities, but were common to four universities in different regions, serving students at different levels, and operating in different ways, proves this study to be an objective confirmation of the universal outcomes of classical reading education. A more politicized analysis of the specific factors that drive these outcomes and the search for effective teaching methods is a future task.

19세기 전반 경기도 거주 세 소년의 해외 유학생 공동체와 서학 수용

The three first-generation seminarians, Choi Bang-je, Choi Yang-up, and Kim Dae-gun, who were also the first overseas students in Korean Catholic history, all lived in Gyeonggi-do at the time of selection, so they had the advantage that Father Pierre Philibert Maubant(1803~1839) who settled in Seoul in early 1836, was suitable for selecting the seminarians within a short period of six months. Among them, Kim Dae-gun and Choi Yang-up became the first-generation Korean priests, and are considered the pioneers who first learned and utilized Western modern studies. The seminarians were summoned to the priest's hall in Hudong, Seoul, where they formed a community preparing for studying abroad while receiving 5 to 10 months of training at the preparatory seminary. Macau's Korean Seminary, which began in June 1837, corresponds to the early curriculum, and missionaries such as the first principal, Father Callery, Libois, and Desflèches provided three Korean seminarians with a wide range of liberal arts education ranging from Latin, which was the initial curriculum, to various foreign languages, international circumstances, humanities, society, natural sciences and music, and doctrines. The study community of Korean seminarians, including Kim Dae-gun and Choi Yang-up, was somewhat shaken by the Macau riots and changes in the seminary's organization, but it was maintained firmly thanks to the solidarity and cooperation of the two students and the care of missionaries, including Father Maistre. The knowledge of Western studies, a modern Western discipline that Korean seminarians learned in Macau, has been properly utilized since 1842 while writing Latin letters or meeting Chinese, European, and Korean people while promoting various private activities as the seminary was transferred to the Liao-dong region. As a result, the history of Western studies acceptance through overseas students, which is one of the movements of voluntary acceptance Western cultures to Korean society 30 to 40 years before the opening of the port in 1876, began.

철학상담으로서 실천가능한 철학교육 모든 가치의 전도

The true value of philosophy is that philosophy should not only pursue theoretical truth but should also play a role in participating in and helping with the pain of life. Therefore, the practical possibilities of philosophy can be found in philosophical counseling. In his early The Birth of Tragedy(1876), Nietzsche recovered ‘Heiterkeit’through Greek tragedy that touches the essence of life, and in Thus Spoke Zarathustra(1883-5), he explored the truth or gained freedom. It shows how to reach Übermensch,’an existential human being who creates new values, through the three stages of mental change that a person must go through. For Nietzsche, the ‘Übermensch’ is a person who finds and achieves meaning in a meaningless life, is an educator who is an example of humanity's self-overcoming and is a new human image that shows the practicability of liberal education. In the Western philosophy world, since the 1980s, a new movement has emerged under the names of Philosophische Praxis and Philosophical Counseling by Gerd B. Achenbach, Germany, to overcome the practical difficulties of philosophy. Nietzsche’s ‘conversion of all values’can show the practical possibility of philosophical education leading to philosophical counseling. The ideal and goal of Nietzsche's philosophy was true education to achieve self-liberation as a human being who educates himself. Now, we would like to look at the core values of Nietzsche's education, which overcomes God and realizes the value as a liberator, in relation to philosophical counseling that helps each human being understand and act in life.

Early childhood inquiry and e-learning: recontextualizing a progressive pedagogy in online school

ABSTRACT This is a study of progressive education in the context of virtual preschool. The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged teachers globally to adapt to new e-learning environments while finding creative solutions to support child engagement and learning. In this case study, we examined a preschool program in a progressive and multilingual Hong Kong preschool as teachers struggled to adapt the school’s inquiry-based pedagogy to online and at-home learning. Findings suggest that, while teachers had some successes in maintaining the school’s progressive philosophy, teachers and children struggled with unmet needs for social learning.

In pursuit of knowledge: Liberal education as a public ideal of higher education

Higher education has often been accused of its anti-social character, represented by the metaphor of the ‘ivory tower’. However, the idea of the pursuit of knowledge per se, which is associated with the ivory tower, has not been widely recognized as a public ideal of higher education. In this study, by drawing on the 20th-century British educational philosopher Paul H. Hirst’s theory of liberal education, I revisit and re-evaluate the Newmanian idea of pursuit of knowledge as an end itself as a public ideal for higher education. I argue that the public criteria provided by discipline-rooted knowledge are among the criteria that are most able to define and legitimise higher education. These public criteria are compatible with the distinctive nature of higher education, which is essentially aimed at adult citizens and linked to research as the creation of knowledge, and can even serve to legitimise the cognitive structure of the society.

NÂNG CAO CHẤT LƯỢNG ĐÀO TẠO CHO SINH VIÊN LÀO TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHỆ THÔNG TIN VÀ TRUYỀN THÔNG, ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN TRONG BỐI CẢNH HIỆN NAY

In the context of the current “flat world”, developing countries like Laos, Cambodia, etc., need high-quality human resources in science and technology for their national economies. It is inevitable to send students to countries with more developed science and technology. Vietnam is a top priority for Lao students because of many advantages compared to other countries such as affordability, reasonable cost of living and studying, progressive education quality, and close cultural environment. Thai Nguyen University of Information and Communication Technology (ICTU) is a highly attractive destination and the top choice of Lao students, especially in engineering and technology majors. In this study, the authors propose and provide some solutions to further enhance the quality of education and training for Lao students, ensuring to always be a reliable, reputable address and increasingly attracting more international students in general and Lao students in particular. This contributes to cultivating the lasting friendship between the two countries.

"Perhaps I'm Not a Global Citizen but a Global Listener Now": The Ethics of Study Abroad in Buddhist Spaces

The study of global Buddhism through a study abroad encounter presents invaluable opportunities for teachers and students at liberal arts institutions to contemplate the conundrum of global citizenship, a standard aim of liberal education in North America. When studying abroad, students become viscerally aware of their own positionality, which is reflected back to them constantly as they move through the social and cultural landscapes of Buddhist Asia. This reflection leaves them eager to raise, to the level of critical thinking, what is quite literally an embodied experience of difference and privilege. The essay connects the field of Buddhist studies to a larger conversation in the field of global education, arguing that Buddhist studies travel courses must interrogate concepts of global citizenship, address the legacies of colonialism, and teach the principles of ethical travel, in addition to introducing students to the living traditions of global Buddhism.

Book review: The liberating arts: Why we need liberal arts education

Book review: The liberating arts: Why we need liberal arts education

Feminist Pedagogy and Student Collaboration in Open Educational Practices in the Art History Classroom

Feminist Pedagogy and Student Collaboration in Open Educational Practices in the Art History Classroom

Encore ça change ...

‘Finding Consensus on Well-Being in Education’ is an ambitious and inspiring work in favor of establishing flourishing as the aim of education in classrooms and schools worldwide. The authors offer theories of action to explain how education for flourishing would be virtuously self-sustaining in its ideal state, how we could transition from current educational policies and practices to those that foster flourishing, and why schools currently impede student, teacher, and social flourishing. This commentary critically examines each theory of action, raising questions about the reasons that schools currently fail to promote flourishing and why and how they might do in the future. I argue that David Cohen’s classic essay ‘Plus Ça Change . . .’ provides important insight into why education for flourishing may take as long to develop and take to scale in the twenty-first century as Deweyan progressive education took (and is continuing to take) in the twentieth century. The kind of education that the authors of ‘Finding Consensus’ are calling for is hard and ambitious work that may take a very long time to get right – even as it is also well worth trying to do so.

On Liberal Education: Plato's Erotic Intellect and Newman's Two Ideas of a Mind

On Liberal Education: Plato's Erotic Intellect and Newman's Two Ideas of a Mind

Converts, Bible Women, and Girl Graduates: Emerging Visions of Indian Christian Womanhood in Krupabai Satthianadhan’s Saguna (1889–1890)

ABSTRACT: Krupabai Satthianadhan’s Saguna (1889–1890) is an autobiographical novel by one of the first Indian women to attend medical school in Madras. Saguna is a New Woman narrative of spiritual and social development for both its protagonist and the emerging Indian Christian community. Written in English, it was serialized in the Madras Christian College Magazine , a periodical reaching British, Anglo-Indian, and Western-educated Indian readerships regionally, nationally, and in Christian missionary networks throughout the Empire. Satthianadhan investigates the origins of Indian Christian womanhood in Indian Christian conversion narratives and professional work, especially the mission-sponsored Bible Woman. Critiquing the ways in which female converts and Bible Women retain limited personal agency or occupy lowly positions in the community, Satthianadhan presents her protagonist as a New Woman who draws on the Bible Woman’s example of bold preaching and her own liberal education to ground her beliefs about society and religion in independent, rational thought. Satthianadhan promotes Indian women’s education reform as a movement to be embraced by the Indian Christian community and as a means through which its women can join theological conversations and champion social reform efforts in the larger, male-dominated, Indian public sphere.

Converts, Bible Women, and Girl Graduates: Emerging Visions of Indian Christian Womanhood in Krupabai Satthianadhan’s Saguna (1889–1890)

ABSTRACT: Krupabai Satthianadhan’s Saguna (1889–1890) is an autobiographical novel by one of the first Indian women to attend medical school in Madras. Saguna is a New Woman narrative of spiritual and social development for both its protagonist and the emerging Indian Christian community. Written in English, it was serialized in the Madras Christian College Magazine , a periodical reaching British, Anglo-Indian, and Western-educated Indian readerships regionally, nationally, and in Christian missionary networks throughout the Empire. Satthianadhan investigates the origins of Indian Christian womanhood in Indian Christian conversion narratives and professional work, especially the mission-sponsored Bible Woman. Critiquing the ways in which female converts and Bible Women retain limited personal agency or occupy lowly positions in the community, Satthianadhan presents her protagonist as a New Woman who draws on the Bible Woman’s example of bold preaching and her own liberal education to ground her beliefs about society and religion in independent, rational thought. Satthianadhan promotes Indian women’s education reform as a movement to be embraced by the Indian Christian community and as a means through which its women can join theological conversations and champion social reform efforts in the larger, male-dominated, Indian public sphere.

Combating Student Alienation Through Assignment Design

In recent years, increased attention has been paid to mental health struggles among students, and a range of interventions have been proposed to improve student retention and learning through “trauma-engaged pedagogy” and “cultures of caring.” Drawing on the insights of affect theory, we argue that such a focus, although possibly helpful, ignores the role of alienation as a factor in student struggles. We further argue that assignment design is an overlooked and crucial site of student alienation, arguing that culturally relevant or politically inspiring readings and curricula will do little to ensure student engagement if assignments are arbitrary, artificial, and appear as simulacra of academic writing rather than as real sites of intellectual engagement. Drawing on our many years of experience as composition teachers at a community college as well as the work of colleagues and scholars and traditions of progressive pedagogy, we then suggest some criteria for assignments that foster engagement, offer lists of examples of such assignments, and outline a few of them in detail.

2023학년도 대학 교양 음악 교과의 운영 실태 분석

This study aims to assess music liberal arts education in South Korea and suggest future directions. To achieve this, 40 of 4-year universities across the country were selected, and the curriculum, class objectives, and course plans for the year 2023 were collected and analyzed. As a result of the analysis, in terms of operation, the music department accounted for 61.78%, while the college of Liberal Arts accounted for 23.11%. As for the types of subjects, there were general education courses (41.33%) and distribution requirement courses (47.56%), and names of areas related to art or humanities were used. Content and method of lectures were categorized as follows: music theory lectures (68.21%), music applied lessons (31.79%), music convergence theory lectures (30.39%), and music convergence applied lessons (9.62%). While music lectures emphasized history, singing, and instruments, convergence lectures emphasized humanities. The proposal suggests securing professional lecturers to enhance liberal arts music education autonomy and developing diverse, high-quality music and convergence subjects.

CONCEPTUAL IDEAS AND GUIDELINES OF NORTH AMERICAN MODEL OF ADULT EDUCATION

The article deals with conceptual ideas and guidelines of North American model of adult education. It is substantiated that North American model of adult education is based on the philosophical principles of liberalism, progressivism, behaviorism, humanism, radicalism, and constructivism. Liberalism has ancient roots and is based on the position that since the person is the real source of progress in society, it is necessary to ensure his/her rights and freedoms, providing equal access to education regardless of social status and well-being. The basic principle of liberal education is singled out, which is to develop a personality that meets the purpose of liberal education in ancient times – provision of education for citizens who can become active participants of a democratic society. It is proven that non-formal adult education should be continuous, focus on the development of intellectual abilities, be accessible to all layers of the population, and its content must meet their needs. It is found out that the historical roots of the philosophy of progressivism are associated with progressive political movement in society and education. Its basis is the concept of interaction between education and society, empirical theory of democratization of education. It is determined that behavioral philosophy, founded by John Watson, appeared in the USA in the early 20th century. Based on the theory of Pavlov's conditioned reflexes, its supporters (J. Watson, B. Sninner and E. Thorndike) considered personality as a set of behavioral responses to stimuli of the environment. It is identified that the purpose of adult education is the modification of a person’s behavior. It is proven that unlike behaviorists, representatives of humanistic philosophy (J. Brown, A. Maslow, M. Knowles, K. Rogers, etc.) considered a man to be independent, active, open to change and self-actualization. It is stressed that the founders of the radical trend, based on theories of anarchism, marxism, and socialism, considered education in general and adult education, in particular, as an important mechanism to achieve radical changes in society. Meanwhile, the social role of non-formal adult education was updated, because it required critical thinking and personal participation in these changes.

Illusio and the field of education: examining progressive teachers’ adaptation during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT This study explores how early childhood teachers in a progressive private school in the Midwest adapted to changes resulting from the closing of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Employing Bourdieu’s notions of habitus, field, and illusio, we examine how educators in the school approached the move to distance learning during the early months of the pandemic, a time of crisis that led to dramatic and chaotic change. The findings from this study show how differences within a disposition toward progressive teaching greatly impact how teachers were able to adapt practice to eLearning. These findings raise questions about whether there are elements of habitus that better align with the field of progressive education.