Liberal Education Research Articles

Autism and feminist pedagogy in the university classroom

Autism and feminist pedagogy in the university classroom

Recalcitrance and feminist pedagogy

Recalcitrance and feminist pedagogy

Sacraments, Veils, and the Altar of Democracy: Calvinist Rhetoric in W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil”

Abstract: W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk (1903) often speaks in terminology that resonates distinctively with New English Protestant discourse. Souls does so partly because of a growing indifference among formerly animated Northeastern white abolitionists, which imperiled Black voting rights at the turn of the twentieth century. This article argues that Souls articulates a Black literary identity through metaphors reminiscent of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil,” a text that takes on new meanings in light of the hermeneutics practiced within Souls . Du Bois reminds white Protestants that all America’s souls, regardless of race, remain bound by a sacramental force in New English visions of American democracy, while simultaneously drawing on Calvinist rhetoric to insist on the importance of liberal education to the personal and social transformation of African Americans.

Effects of Liberal Education on Students' Personality, Critical Thinking, and Leadership Skills: A Conceptual Study

The concept of liberal education emerged in the 19th century when scholars in Europe and the United States recognized that the academic departments of modern universities were overly specialized, leading to a fragmented understanding of knowledge. China is home to several esteemed national universities that offer liberal arts programmes, including Peking University (established in 2007), Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou (established in 2009), and Fudan College at Fudan University in Shanghai (opened in 2012). As the popularity of liberal education continues to grow on a global scale, an increasing number of educational institutions are offering specialised liberal education courses. However, students do not perform as well as they could. The objectives of this research project are the critical thinking, personality and leadership factors and their influence on student performance in liberal education courses.

A Case Study on Male University Students" Experience in Liberal Arts Physical Education: Focusing on Yoga and Pilates Practical Classes

A Case Study on Male University Students" Experience in Liberal Arts Physical Education: Focusing on Yoga and Pilates Practical Classes

Counter-Extremism and ‘Critical Thinking’ as a Measure of the Human

Educational approaches to counter-extremism are proliferating globally, claiming to foster ‘critical thinking’ amongst those deemed vulnerable to extremism. These projects ‘make sense’ through two mutually-reinforcing discourses: a psychological discourse that adjudicates the moral value of different ways of thinking through scientific measures; and an ethical discourse of liberal education that idealizes critical thinking as essential to human development – becoming more human and humane. Counter-extremism mobilizes both to over-represent a ‘dominant genre of being’, to take Sylvia Wynter’s phrase, as if it were the only way of being human. Such projects show how expert and everyday understandings of ‘critical thinking’ have been shaped by psychology’s history as a race science and liberal understandings of education that have legitimated hierarchies of being human. I argue that these conditions of possibility that shape critical thinking must be grappled with in any critical pursuit against hierarchies of being human.

Research on the Cognition of Generation Z University Students on Contemporary Feminist Ideologies in the Context of the Digital Society

This study, set against the backdrop of the digital society, focuses on the cognition of Generation Z university students regarding contemporary feminist ideologies. It aims to understand how these students comprehend, accept, and practice feminist concepts amidst the digital wave, and how these concepts influence their social perspectives and behavioral patterns. Through methods such as surveys, in-depth interviews, and online forum analysis, the research systematically collected cognitive data on Generation Z university students understanding of feminist ideologies. The goal is to deepen the understanding of Generation Zs gender concepts and attitudes towards feminism, offering new perspectives and approaches for promoting gender equality and social justice, as well as providing valuable references and insights for future feminist education and research.

The Progressive Education Concept in the Perspective of K.H Ahmad Dahlan and Its Relevance with Islamic Education in the Industrial Revolution Era 4.0

The Progressive Education Concept in the Perspective of K.H Ahmad Dahlan and Its Relevance with Islamic Education in the Industrial Revolution Era 4.0

Teacher Perceptions on Progressive Education in Modern Classrooms

Teacher Perceptions on Progressive Education in Modern Classrooms

Toilet talk: using a students as researchers approach to problematize and co-construct school toilet policy and practice

ABSTRACT School toilets, globally and historically, have been problematic as places of shame and bullying, often providing pupils with inadequate facilities. This participatory student research project sought to develop political agency with youth researchers, equipping them with research skills to develop a project about school toilets, and to help challenge and shape their school’s policy and practice. By applying Sara Ahmed’s concepts of willful subjects (2014) and complaint (2021) to the data, we begin to question who can use school toilets as expected. Often fear, disgust and restrictions encourage, if not force, disabled, menstruating, transgender and gender diverse students, to contravene toilet norms, and be considered willful. We worked with student researchers to problematize issues and explore the potential for more effective policies. We argue it is imperative to use feminist pedagogy to challenge toilet policy and practice, with children and young people, to achieve wider social justice in education.

Challenging violence in South African education: a feminist pedagogical and legal analysis

AbstractThis study investigates the relevance of violence in the context of South African education, a country which has a history of institutionalised violence against the oppressed, including women. Using a feminist pedagogy as a theoretical lens, violence and its implications for the South African educational system are examined. Scholars such as Freire believe that in order to engage the topic of violence in education, it needs to be framed not only from a physical, but also from a structural and symbolic way since violence is deeply rooted in social inequalities and power imbalances. Violence can be perpetuated through education, which can reproduce dominant ideologies and structures which are biased against women. Therefore, Freire advocates a pedagogical approach that challenges violence and empowers students to become critical agents of social change. In the South African educational environment, violence is a prevalent issue, especially for women and girls who face high rates of gender-based violence and sexual harassment in schools. This research also examines the relevant legal frameworks and policies in South Africa that address gender-based violence and education. This research proposes a feminist pedagogy can help create safe and empowering learning environments that promote social justice and equality.

White Middle-Class Parents’ Unconventional Choice for a Public, Ethnically Mixed Progressive School: An Alternative Pathway to Success?

ABSTRACT While middle-class professionals have historically supported progressive education ideals, it has been argued that this group often fails to practice what they preach, focusing instead on securing advantages for their children. Nevertheless, progressive education remains a resilient phenomenon and appears to be gaining traction. This study explores the motivations of 35 white middle-class parents in Ghent, Belgium, who chose a public, ethnically mixed progressive school for their children. The results suggest that such a choice should not be interpreted as a parental attempt to find an alternative to traditional success-driven education but rather as an alternative way to achieve success.

Gastrofeminism

Gastrofeminism traces the centrality of food within diverse feminist narratives of agency and resistance. This manifesto introduces the theoretical, pedagogical, and methodological scope of Gastrofeminism to rethink feminist genealogies, legacies, and new embodiments of a radical future. It calls for a reckoning of both established and emerging feminist engagements with food, consumption, and culinary practices. This introduction underscores conjunctures where feminist methodology and pedagogy intersect in variegated social, cultural, and historical settings to engender dialogues on food, eating, and culinary practices. It emphasizes everyday acts of negotiating feminist boundaries and subverting dominant perceptions of food. Furthermore, it contests the practices whereby food is used to reproduce social norms and hierarchies. Gastrofeminism remaps the boundaries of gendered relations through food practices in sites of conflict as well as everyday resistance to gendered norms of domesticity through technological innovations around cooking, eating, and representation of food. This manifesto assembles feminist scholarship and pedagogies committed to pushing the boundaries of traditional food studies and taking it into new, inclusive directions. Gastrofeminism spans across disciplines and praxis to engage with sensory documentation of food, gendered forms of intimacy, appetites and embodiments, food memories, affects, and nostalgia, new feminist pedagogies, foodways, ecosystems and sustainability, and food access, conflict, and social justice.

Sport pedagogy and feminism: what is known and what is missing? Findings from a scoping review

ABSTRACT Background Worldwide, to play sports is proclaimed a right. Yet its sexist practices insist on cultivating a hegemonic gender culture to keep ‘others’ away and deprive them from its potential educational benefits. Sport feminisms have been vocal on the gender oppressions operated in the field and have claimed pedagogy has a role to play in social transformation through a liberating education. Purpose We aimed at analyzing the academic production about sport pedagogy and feminism published in articles globally, to answer when, where how and by whom the studies were developed; what is known and what is missing. Method We conducted a scoping review searching for sport pedagogy and feminism and their related terms combined. Selection was delimited by studies informed by feminist approaches discussing sport pedagogy from recreational to elite level. Findings Our review covered 46 studies from the last three decades when Global North English-speaking countries have dominated the scene, both as investigation settings and authorship. Studies presented two main trends. The most substantial were investigations reporting gender inequalities, especially with women coaches; followed by others exploring pedagogical alternatives for more equitable sport experiences. Together, studies have demonstrated that the ‘patriarchal gender game’ is still on and the ‘deviants’ from the cis-hetero-white-able-bodied-male ideal continue to suffer systematic prejudice and discrimination in sport, inclusive through sexist coaching. But they also showed ‘the tactics of the equity gender game’ is counterattacking with pedagogical strategies to welcome girls, women and gender-diverse people in sport. Discussion Undoubtedly, the dialogues between sport pedagogy and feminisms have contributed greatly to challenge sexism through education, but the game is not over. The invisibility of black women, women with disabilities and queer people in studies evidenced the need for more intersectional approaches. Coach development initiatives should be critically examined and rethought. The predominance of studies and researchers from Global North English-speaking countries denoted that voices and knowledges from Global South are missing. More than empathizing with gender inequalities, we long to see feminist sport pedagogy engaging in the reinvention of the ways we learn, practice, teach and coach sport. More democratic, diverse and audacious research designs grounded in the commitment to guarantee sport as an educational experience for everyone seem promising ways to be explored.

Decentering Food Pedagogies

In this collaborative essay, five gastrofeminists from various disciplines, mainly literature, anthropology, sociology, ethnic studies, and diverse locations of Global South and Global North, share four collaborative experiments built around two axioms: to integrate experiences of students as gendered and racialized subjects in their experiential learning irrespective of disciplinary boundaries, and to integrate critical feminist scholarship that destabilizes ethnocentric notions around consumption, production, and distribution of food. Through the four collaborative experiments: students’ food voice, autobiographies, collective kusina, and food walks, the pedagogues bring embodied lived experience in conversation with critical pedagogy, expanding some of the foundational ideas of feminist pedagogy, especially of not treating theory, research, and experience as independent silos. Each of these collaborative experiments calls for a need to create dialogic space through a collaborative co-learning process and offers a decolonial reading of texts through recognizing the difference and diversity of our classrooms.

미동북부 지역 대학교의 교양 음악교과 운영현황 분석 -예일 대학교, 존스 홉킨스 대학교, 컬럼비아 대학교, 바너드 대학교를 중심으로-

This study aims to analyze the operation status of liberal arts music education courses at universities in the Northeastern United States and draw implications for South Korea. The study investigated the liberal arts curricula and music courses listed on the official websites of Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University and Barnard College. Across all universities, a total of 106 liberal arts courses were offered from the spring of 2023 to the spring of 2024. The research findings are as follows: First, liberal arts music education courses focused more on theoretical lectures rather than practical lessons, regardless of the scale or educational content of music majors. Second, all types of liberal arts music courses were distribution requirements. Columbia University had both core and distribution requirement courses. Additionally, advanced courses were offered based on students’ musical background knowledge. Third, the category names of liberal arts music courses were related to ‘Humanities’ or ‘Humanities & Arts’. Fourth, the courses were classified into music courses (theory 76.93%, performance 24.53%) and convergence courses (theory 5.66%, performance 1.89%). Fifth, the content of the courses, if theoretical, covered various fields of musicology, while practical courses provided actual musical experiences such as composition and stage performance. They included classical music, jazz, popular music, and ethnic music from certain period. Integrated courses included subjects related to popular culture studies, theater, and literature. Based on these findings, the study suggests improving the liberal arts music education infrastructure of domestic universities, expanding core or distribution requirements, designating specific categories related to music or humanities, and developing courses of various topics and difficulties.

The Relevance of Science In The Ibañez´s Educational Counter-Reform (1929-1930): A Look at The Role of Girls in The School Press

This article analyses how schoolgirls appropriated science in the context of Ibáñez’s Educational Counter-Reform (1929-1930), which prioritized teaching science following the Progressive Education model. We study the magazines and newspapers produced by schoolgirls throughout the country, which multiplied thanks to educational reforms that promoted the active participation of students in their formative processes. We conclude that, on the one hand, the schoolgirls became protagonists of the educational policies implemented during this period, and on the other, that the reforms encouraged the involvement of girls in scientific subjects and the development of specific areas of knowledge.

Lev Tolstoy, A Founder of Democratic Education.

In this philosophical-theoretical study of Lev Tolstoy's pedagogical legacy of his Yasnaya Polyana school in the Russian Empire (1859-1862), I raised three major questions: (1) was Lev Tolstoy a democratic educator, and if so, why can one claim that, (2) if so, what kind of a democratic educator was he, and (3) what kind of limitations to his democratic education have I observe and what were the sources of these limitations? My answer to the first question was unequivocally positive. I argue that Tolstoy was the conceptual founder of democratic non-coercive education and the first known practitioner of democratic education for children. In my view, his democratic education was based on educational offerings provided by the teachers. His democratic educational philosophy was based on non-coercion, naturalism, anarchism, liveliness, pragmatism, pedagogical experimentation, student responses, pedagogical self-reflection, and dialogism. At the same time, his democratic education was limited to his uncritical acceptance of conventionalism. Tolstoy's attraction to Progressive Education was facilitated by ignoring his enormous powers, both explicit and implicit, that he manifested exercised in the school and enacted through his "pervasive informality." In my judgment, Tolstoy overemphasized pedagogy over self-education and did not distinguish learning from education. Still, Tolstoy's pioneering work in democratic education, both in theory and practice, remains mostly unacknowledged and unanalyzed while continuing to be highly relevant and potentially influential.

Technology-empowered Blended Learning: A Case Study of Contemporary American Society and Culture Course

Under the background of integration of technology and higher education, this paper probes the question whether technology can advance liberal education, especial the critical thinking capability required by liberal education, in English major. The paper first identifies English major as a part of the humanity and social science disciplines, in which liberal education is essential and indispensable. Since liberal education emphasizes the capability of critical thinking, the paper then asks whether the integration of technology can promote the student’s critical thinking and therefore facilitate liberal education. The paper then applies the eight principles of critical thinking (TERRIFIC Principles) to evaluate the blended teaching of Contemporary American Culture and Society (CACS), a core course of English major at the Faculty of English Language and Culture, GDUFS. After examining the textbook, syllabus, program setting, teaching practice and assessment of CACS, it is found that blended online and offline teaching is better at developing the student’s capability of critical thinking than traditional offline teaching. The paper concludes that technology-empowered learning is conducive to liberal education.

Towards a More Critical Cognizant Learning Model

It could be argued that the current adult education paradigm aligns with a liberal knowledge economy. A more critical perspective is Paulo Freire's banking education concept that removes criticality from a learner's repertoire and facilitates alignment with the prevalent liberal education and its hegemonic objectives. Drawing from Paulo Freire's (1990) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Flores (2017) suggested that banking education teaches the oppressed to accept the oppressor's social framework. In this paper, and through the analysis of news media articles and policy documents, the author examines the phenomenon of terrorism and how a Western worldview constructs and engages in meaning-making for the reader. As a result, the author proposes a more critical cognizant adult learning model. Drawing from Habermasian theory, the need to cultivate humanity, and criticality as practiced by Critical Discourse Analysis, the author proposes a learning model construct of evolving criticality, emancipatory in intent, complex in its components and their relationships, with the intent of giving back agency to citizens.