Within higher education in the United States and Canada, calls to promote global awareness and global literacy among undergraduate students have become increasingly urgent. Yet, there are multiple challenges in achieving these outcomes. One challenge lies in making this "literacy" authentic and relevant for diverse students aspiring to be…

Experiential education, which takes students into the community, helps students both to bridge classroom study and life in the world and to transform inert knowledge into knowledge-in-use. It rests on theories of experiential learning, a process whereby the learner interacts with the world and integrates new learning into old constructs.…

The present period is characterized by an unprecedented degree of global integration at the economic, political, and cultural levels. Economically, this has created a situation in which only creative problem solvers and innovators will be able to compete globally. On the other hand, liberal education remains more important than ever at these…

Many faculty members generally assume that their students understand the purposes of college learning and that they are aware of the assumptions about liberal education embedded in the program configurations designed to advance it. In fact, it may very well be that, as Jerry Graff (2003) has suggested, our students are "clueless" about how to…

Asserts that the moral imperative for higher education is to prepare citizen-leaders for society. Suggests that this imperative must respond to the challenges of relevance and economics that confront higher education today. (EV)

Suggests that the expansion of knowledge and its relevance to experience and society once belonged to civic professionals. Specialization in the academy replaced them with the power and the limitations of inward-looking disciplines. It is concluded that, drawing on both these traditions, educational innovation is called for now. (EV)

In an interview, two college students discuss aspects of the college experience, including the transition from high school to college, the most helpful general education and other courses, choice of major, classroom communication, curriculum relevance, effective teaching methods, and particularly important experiences and skills learned. (MSE)

Feminist theory is reexamined in the context of recent theory concerning pragmatic liberal education, and many similar principles are found. Topics discussed include feminist theory and the structure of college administration; the future of reform; and collaborative leadership for change. It is argued that both hierarchy and homogeneity must be…

This third article in a series for an American Association of American Colleges and Universities project, "The State of Liberal Education," analyzes findings in five areas of inquiry conceptual foundations, curricular expressions, the phenomena and assessment of liberal learning, institutional mission, and the status and relevance of liberal…

A study surveyed college freshmen, seniors, faculty, administrators, and trustees concerning the conceptual foundations of liberal education, the phenomena and assessment of liberal learning, curricular approaches to liberal education, the role of liberal education and institutional mission, and the status and relevance of liberal education.…

A national survey of higher education stakeholders, including college-bound students, parents, executives, human resource managers, and recent graduates, found agreement that problem solving, critical thinking, and writing/oral skills can be defined as career skills and are the most important goals of higher education. However, many don't…

A course in the history of education introduced into a doctoral program for future administrators and planners at the University of Kentucky illustrates the potential contribution of liberal arts disciplines to graduate preparation for the professions. (Editor/LBH)

In an effort to relate higher education more effectively to the modern world and to instill in it a greater degree of social responsibility, alternative models for liberal education are suggested that use new knowledge and disciplines and address social and environmental opportunities, along with economic, political and international issues, and…

The concept of relevance in the humanities is addressed by this author, who says the key is to give primacy to teaching, grounded in respect for the variety of human experience. The humanities are discussed in several social and political contexts. (Editor/LBH)

Some of the justifications put forward for liberal education are reviewed and the strengths they command today are explored. The rationales include the economic argument, the social argument, the argument for self-understanding, and the argument for intrinsic value. (LBH)