Democratizing the Great Books.pdf (original) (raw)
Related papers
Educating for Democracy: Preparing Undergraduates for Responsible Political Engagement (review)
The Review of Higher Education, 2009
for more than a century, the Carnegie foundation for the advancement of teaching has been dedicated to promoting the profession of teaching and the improvement of teaching and learning in the nation's colleges and schools. the foundation has demonstrated that the role of educational leaders is to define the impact of education on students intellectually, practically and morally, and to develop new ideas and tools to foster positive change.
Frontiers: The interdisciplinary journal of study abroad, 2005
Martha Nussbaum argues that the purpose of liberal education is to cultivate humanity. In her view, this is the same as educating for world citizenship. But, what does it mean to cultivate humanity? According to Nussbaum one cultivates humanity by developing three capacities. The first is the capacity for critical self-examination and critical thinking about one's own culture and traditions. The second is the capacity to see oneself as a human being who is bound to all humans with ties of concern. The third is the capacity for narrative imagination-the ability to empathize with others and to put oneself in another's place. As one develops these capacities one becomes increasingly suited for world citizenship. One of the strengths of Cultivating Humanity is the way in which Nussbaum ties these capacities together and shows that they function as an organic whole. The capacity for narrative imagination and the capacity for identification with humans are obviously enhanced by studying other cultures, but this also deepens the capacity to examine one's own culture and traditions. As Nussbaum points out, studying other cultures may show one that what had been taken simply as natural is in fact a cultural artifact. In addition, Socratic criticism when applied to other cultures is actually a way of respecting them. Narrative imagination is also vital for seeing oneself as a human among other humans. The person who develops these capacities is becoming a world citizen with narrative understanding for other cultures, identification with humanity and a critical understanding of his or her own culture. If Nussbaum is right, international study, including study abroad, is at the heart of liberal education and not merely an ornament that contributes to the overall quality of a liberal education. A second strength of Cultivating Humanity is the extent to which Nussbaum's vision has historical roots. She shows how arguments regarding the curriculum were already being fully engaged at the time of Socrates. Her explanation and defense of narrative imagination and the importance identifying with humans is rooted, at least in part, in the work of Marcus Aurelius and other Stoics, and her emphasis on self-examination is tied to Socrates' vision of philosophical thinking. Throughout Cultivating Humanity, Nussbaum ties her argument to the works of classical thinkers. The classical grounding of her
Carnegie Foundation For the Advancement of Teaching, 2007
Preparing undergraduates for responsible Political engagement for more than a century, the Carnegie foundation for the advancement of teaching has been dedicated to promoting the profession of teaching and the improvement of teaching and learning in the nation's colleges and schools. the foundation has demonstrated that the role of educational leaders is to define the impact of education on students intellectually, practically and morally, and to develop new ideas and tools to foster positive change.
Introduction to Political Theory: What is Education Good For? (Spring 2023)
Political Theory is the study of the ideas and arguments that allow us to, as Hannah Arendt puts it, "think what we are doing"-that is, to make sense of the foundations, purposes, and possibilities of politics. In this writing-intensive course, students will gain a familiarity and fluency with the main traditions, themes, and debates of Political Theory, focusing on the concepts of justice, freedom, rights, violence, and power (among others). Students will be challenged to reconsider their political commitments in light of reading, discussing, and writing about authors from diverse historical backgrounds and ideological perspectives. In this way, students will themselves participate in the tradition of Political Theory.
Making Citizens: How American Universities Teach Civics (Executive Summary)
Making Citizens: How American Universities Teach Civics is a 523 page report completed by the National Association of Scholars in January 2017. EVERY TEACHER, SCHOLAR, EDUCATOR, ADMINSTRATOR AND PARENT MUST BE MADE AWARE OF THIS DEADLY ATTACK ON AMERICA. “Instead of teaching college students the foundations of law, liberty, and self- government, colleges teach students how to organize protests, occupy buildings, and stage demonstrations.” This “New Civics” redefines civics as progressive political activism with designs to repurpose and transform higher education. The advocates believe that this transformation can be accomplished by systematically changing America from an unjust, oppressive society to one that embodies social justice. New Civics proponents want to build it into every college class regardless of subject. NAS wishes to bring this to the public’s attention. This report provides a history of the New Civics movement when it was endorsed by President Obama and provides case studies of four universities that also identifies the faculty responsible: the University of Colorado, Boulder (CU-Boulder), Colorado State University in Fort Collins (CSU), the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley (UNC), and the University of Wyoming in Laramie (UW). NAS publishes nine national findings which highlight a harbinger to American security, ten recommendations on how to reorient and change Civics education in America, and a Declaration of Principles for Civics education. "Civics education does not seek to prepare “citizens of the world,” but citizens of the United States. American students should know about other nations’ governments, laws, and cultures, and about the roles of international bodies, but these are not the substance of civics education. Civics education should prepare Americans for the tasks of participating effectively in their own government. It is not a curriculum meant to provide the whole of a liberal education." The full report is available at www.nas.org/makingcitizens
Democracy education, 2015
Democratic Education (Routledge, 2015), by Hess and McAvoy, is a book far bigger than its 247 pages. It is a significant work that insightfully contributes to the mainstream body of literature about citizenship education in schools and its relationship to civic life in American society. It is an evidence-rich extension of Hess's earlier work, Controversy in the Classroom: The Democratic Power of Discussion (Routledge, 2009). The questions that weave in and around both of these studies come from a concern regarding the development of engaged, tolerant, and empathetic citizens in an era of increasing social inequality and political polarization. This work draws on an extensive longitudinal study (2005-2009) that included 1,001 students and 35 teachers from 21 midwestern high schools. The authors quite rightly point to the unique nature of this study in the field of social studies in terms of both its size and its use of quantitative and qualitative data. The study that informed The Political Classroom drew on the voices of both teachers and students and, importantly, included efforts to gain insights on students' civic attitudes and behaviors following high school.
A Community of Scholars Educating for Political Engagement
2010
This article was supported in part by Award No. 06LHHCA001, granted by the Corporation for National and Community Service, Learn and Serve America Higher Education through California Campus Compact. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Corporation for National and Community Service, California Campus Compact, or the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.