Community Liberation via the First Two Years' Curriculum.

Background: A Concern and Context

There is a new window of opportunity to liberate the minds of communities through community colleges' formal and informal liberal arts curriculum. However, for America's community colleges to capitalize on this tremendous liberating opportunity, community college academic leaders must work through a difficult political and philosophical context.

The word "liberate" is used in the classical sense wherein the desired outcome is focused on life, human life, and the freeing of the mind and spirit of humankind. To liberate people is to free them from solely considering toil so that they may study and consider what it is for them to be more fully human. The liberated, more fully human person may then set out to lead efforts to make the community and the world more humane.

Cohen and Brawer (1987, p. 8) express this in terms of "the collegiate function of the community college" and write of gaining power, the expectations of employers and employees in the culture of the workplace, and the role of this liberation in contributing to social cohesion. The liberal arts curriculum teaches principles of rationality, language, judgment, criticism, inquiry, disciplined creativity, sensitivity to cultures and the environment, and awareness of history. These disciplinary areas are considered useful for purposes as diverse as training for professions, strengthening the mind, broadening outlooks, and developing better citizens [and, thus, communities] (p. 7).

Therefore, the present opportunity is to liberate the minds of communities. This liberation will set one citizen at a time free from a sole consideration of work and economic gain, so that they may study and consider what it is for the community to be more fully human and to act humanely, through the community colleges' formal and informal liberal arts curriculum.

Politically, however, there is a recent call from elected leaders for universal higher education through the first two (13th and 14th) years, apparently to be provided in large part by community colleges. Philosophically, the majority of political voices calling for the universality of the 13th and 14th years have focused on a utilitarian end of this educational opportunity rather than a liberal one: Higher education to increase Americans' earning potential. The infusion of extensive new funding for vocational education via community colleges has, in essence, contributed to fulfilling the prediction of Breneman and Nelson (1980) that community college missions, due to the "tension between mission and finance," would shift. They have shifted: The purpose of many community colleges has aimed toward vocational, utilitarian and away from general, liberating education.

For community colleges hoping to liberate the minds of their communities, the challenge in the face of this opportunity is to provide a curriculum that is faithful to the community college's historical commitment to the liberal arts while heeding the contemporary voices of its economically motivated community. How can both liberation and economic ends be met?

Approach: A Literature Based Approach to the True Community College

In response to this question, this article represents an effort to stimulate community college academic leaders' thinking about a new opportunity to liberate the minds of their communities by striking a new kind of balance between liberation and economic ends for the 13th and 14th years. The author's commentary on the American community college, the liberal arts, and community voices has been generated by a review of primarily "classic" community college literature which also provided a basis for broad implications for liberating practice that are addressed.

The liberal arts have long been associated with both personal and community liberation. Also, the community college has participated in collaborative relationships with its community and has been responsive to community voices. What does this mean for the community college that seeks to address both liberation and economic ends?

The Liberal Arts and Liberation

The liberal arts are traditionally associated with personal liberation, but they also contribute to the liberation of communities. The community college, in the context of its relationships, is positioned to contribute to this liberation.

Personal liberation

Advocates of a modern liberal arts education have always sought to provide a curriculum that brings about students' personal growth. This growth has been labeled by diverse terms; yet, the desired ends are not contested. Thornton (1972, p. 43) noted a trend in community colleges toward "growth of the student in more personal ways. Increase of personal sensitivity, acceptance of responsibility for the political and ecological consequences of one's acts, deepening aesthetic insights, and development of a coherent and explicit system of values." The student should be reflectively aware, other-centered, able to integrate, stable (Brandt, 1989, p. 38), virtuous in habits of thought (Montgomery, 1990, p. 88), and able to autodidactically learn throughout life. Complement these with ten liberal education outcomes of professional study identified by Stark and Lowther (1989): communication competence, critical thinking, contextual competence, aesthetic sensibility, professional identity, professional ethics, adaptive competence, leadership capacity, scholarly concern for improvement, and motivation for continued learning.

This form of personal growth is synonymous with the freeing of the person to be fully human, able to transcend work so as to be able to labor to live life to the fullest rather than living to labor (i.e., personal liberation).

Community liberation

To engage the liberal arts curriculum is not only to become personally liberated, but it is also to become a liberating link in time. Students of the liberal arts connect to the heritage of thought and humanity of their community's past. They then draw upon that heritage to liberate and develop their own thought and humanity within the context of their community's present. Finally, as a liberating link in time, they become part of the further development of liberating thought and humanity for their community's members and its future. The two main elements of the best liberal arts curriculum are always intellect (thought applied to humanity) and community. That is why community colleges must seize the current opportunity to liberate the minds of their communities through a formal and informal curriculum of liberal arts.

The Community College and Liberation

The history of the community college is brief, relative to the whole of American higher education; yet, there is much variety and diversity to be observed from institution to institution. While there is a spectrum of community college institutions and curriculum, there are two commonly held relational purposes for community colleges.

Collaborative relationship

The first relational purpose of the community college is to maintain a collaborative relationship with the community. A collaborative relationship is one that sustains efforts to work for one's own ends while working with similar vigor toward the ends of the others in the relationship. Collaborative relationships among humans are often helpful in educational settings, but there can be certain strains when the philosophies of the collaborators are or are perceived to be antithetical. The challenge is to balance one's own purposes with the voiced purposes of the partners in the relationship. The same is tree of the community college in a collaborative relationship with its community. Community colleges must balance their own stated purposes and values with those voiced by their partner, the community.

Harlacher (1969, p.2) attempted to define a "tree community college." He called it "an institution that has changed from an isolated entity to one seeking full partnership with its community." The "tree community college" is, for its community, a center of culture, a point of intellectual life, a solidarity source, and a fount of local pride. Harlacher clearly emphasized the liberating influences of the liberal arts and seemed to confirm the phrase "emphasis on intellectual growth" found in the January 1964 statement of the Educational Policies Commission.

The collaborative relationship, using Harlacher's definition of a "tree community college," calls upon the community college to give to the community a variety of liberating gifts that must include culture, intellect, community citizenship, and integrity. These are gifts that serve to liberate the mind(s) of the community. The community college's best tool for giving these liberating gifts to the community is its curriculum: one of formal and informal liberal arts.

Responsiveness to needs

The other common and long-held relational purpose is a responsiveness to the community's voiced needs. Hollinshead (1936, p. 111) said of junior colleges that they "should be a community college meeting community needs." Brick (1964, p. 54) spoke of the community college as one "which aims to meet the needs of the people in the locality in which it functions."

Formal and informal curricular plans generally seek to respond to community calls for open access to education for students and services for the community. Access to education through the community college provides academic, vocational, transfer, and terminal curricula for virtually every community member. Community college services for students would not only include social and academic guidance and programs, but the provision of resources such as labs, computers, and athletic facilities. Services for the community could be as utilitarian and focused as research for a local corporation or training for economic ends such as a specific job. The service could also be very liberating. A special formal program of adult literacy would liberate some of the less free people of the community, while an expansion of service such as free access to the college's library or an art gallery would informally serve to liberate many.

To summarize these relational purposes, the "tree community college" looks to give liberating gifts to its community partner while seeking to meet a wide variety of utilitarian and liberation needs. This requires college academic leaders' collaboration with the voices of the community.

Community Voices

When the community speaks to a responsible, responsive collaborator like Harlacher's "tree community college," it speaks with different voices to ask for need-meeting help from its collaborator the community college. Three important voices that the community raises are the voice of business and industry and labor (BIL), the voice of potential students, and the voice of political parties.

Business, industry, labor

In recent decades the voice of BIL has boomed loudly in the figurative ear of its responsive, collaborative partner, the community college. Tax and benevolent support, trustee leadership, the sending of students and hiring of graduates, and the use of community college research (basic and applied) were also messages that asked the community college to provide certain forms of curriculum. Add to BIL's messages the voice of The American Association of Community and Junior Colleges (AACJC). AACJC "urged its member institutions to join in cooperative arrangements with local business and labor unions as a way to promote individual and community development" (Parnell and Yarrington, 1982, p. 7).

Because the voice of BIL has been powerful in the figurative ear of community colleges, this has produced two challenges for the community college. The first is the challenge to meet "now" needs, and the second is to meet "lasting" needs.

   Meet "now" needs. Such BIL and community college partnerships are not
   without weaknesses (Long, 1989, p. 174), but the greatest challenge among
   them for community college curricular leaders can be described in this
   manner. BIL's voice has most often called for a curriculum that is
   vocational, technical, professional in content, Parnell and Yarrington
   (1982) heard the message sent to the community college from BIL as fitting
   "the needs of citizens and society now." Curriculum of this orientation is
   responsive to needs and does contribute to meeting economic needs now. Yet,
   a purely vocational curricular response from the community college could
   not be considered collaborative. What of the "true community college's"
   purpose to liberate its community by providing a curriculum that addresses
   the "lasting"?

   Meet "lasting" needs. The "true community college," as described by
   Harlacher, in a truly collaborative relationship desires to and does offer
   the persons and corporations of BIL the "lasting" benefit of liberation:
   culture, intellect, community citizenship, integrity, etc. Beyond that
   important provision is the "spill over" effect of liberated BIL minds on
   the families they represent and all other segments of the community. BIL in
   a community may never ask for such "lasting" benefits from its community
   college; however, if BIL is a true collaborator it will work not only for
   its own "now" ends, but for the "lasting" benefit to its partners, the
   community and the community college. Only a balanced formal and informal
   curriculum incorporating the liberal arts can provide BIL with liberated
   minds. The community college needs to provide this "lasting" benefit for
   its BIL partner.

Potential students

The collective voice of potential students asks the community college for open access to a college education. The community college movement drew great support in its heyday by purposing to provide open educational doors for local students whose financial and/or academic standing would limit their chances of attending a four-year institution. Consequently, community colleges have widely opened collegiate doors and curriculum to the non-elite of American society.

Like the voice of BIL, potential students (a very large percentage of them being adults) showed interest in curricula that would provide for the "now." Much of their message to the community college can be translated "Give us what it takes to get a job" rather than "Liberate us with general, liberating education and lifelong learning skills." In response, 1980's slogans of the AACJC encouraged the potential students' voice (Long, 1989, p. 161). Even though the "now" of vocational curricula is important to potential traditional age and adult students, "knowledge and skills taught today will be outdated soon" (Shaw, 1989, p. 31).

Illustrating both sides of this is the middle age, female, transfer student who recently talked with the author. She spoke about trying to keep ahead in the job market with her once cutting-edge community college degree in "key punch." Because she had learned how to earn rather than learned how to learn, she had to go back to college to get what she wanted in today's economy. As her experience illustrates, the purpose behind potential students' enrollment in community college, except perhaps for the ever-smaller percentage of those who desired to complete a four-year degree, was and still is most closely aligned with the "now" rather than the "lasting" purpose of community colleges.

Coehn and Brawer (1982, p. 304) suggested an "integration of the liberal arts with career education" that would be very likely where principles stemmed from both the humanities and the sciences. They particularly noted areas of technological study being prime for this kind of integration. This remains a challenge for the community college that would also seek to liberate its students.

Democratic Party and Clinton statements

Recently, the Democratic Party's Platform and the Clinton Administration have stated that higher education is something that "we need to make available for all Americans. Our goal must be nothing less than to make 13th and 14th years of education as universal as the first 12." The "now" of economic gain and contemporary job skills is directly connected to this goal. Indirectly connected to the goal is the community college. The community college served as an illustration of an (if not the) institutional vehicle where the merits of one sought after educational tax cut would be gleaned. The tax cut would "guarantee the first year of tuition at a typical community college, and the second year if individuals earn it by maintaining a B average. No tax cut will do more to raise income than a tax cut to pay for college" (Lederman, 1996, A54).

The Democratic platform (echoed by President Clinton in his 1998 State of the Union Address) includes the various tax breaks and proposals to give $1,000 merit scholarships to the top 5 per cent of students in every high school, and expanding the College Work Study Program. The 33-page document, noting that workers with a college education earn, on average, 73 percent more than those without one, says that college should be made available to all Americans (Excerpts from the 2 parties' platforms, Chronicle, 1996, September 6, A52-55). "Our goal must be nothing less than to make the 13th and 14th years of education as universal as the first 12" (Lederman, 1996, A48). Political voices are calling for higher education to meet "now" needs and not addressing the "lasting" benefits of a liberating education.

Analysis: Broad Implications for Liberating Practice

It is not the intention of the author to imply a complete, specific, liberating curriculum of liberal arts for the community college. Given the diversity of community colleges and their respective communities, that would be less productive than local curricular efforts. However, with this new opportunity to increase access to higher education in the 13th and 14th years (whether or not universality is achieved) should come exciting strategies to liberate communities through the liberal arts. The author's analysis of the literature suggests several broad implications for community liberation practice.

Balance the "Now" and the "Lasting"

The American community college has a history of efforts to help potential students meet their utilitarian, economic "now" purposes, so a utilitarian curriculum should remain an obvious feature of the typical community college. Yet, a "tree community college" a la Harlacher (1969) should also strive to, through collaboration, meet "lasting" needs: liberating the minds of its students and community through the liberal arts. A balanced formal and informal curriculum to address the "now" and the "lasting" needs must include the liberal arts.

Raisman (1992) used the term "philosophical-bricklayers" to idyllically describe community college graduates. Raisman's graduate passed through a collaborative, "tree community college" relationship where the "now" and the "lasting" needs were met: Labor and liberation were successfully addressed. In the case of most community college students, there should be the opportunity to acquire utilitarian, economic development skills and certainly the requirement to learn how to think and how to learn for themselves. A person should be able to earn a living having learned skills ("now" purpose), as well as make contributions to the community and lifelong learning ("lasting" purpose), via a mind that was liberated via the liberal arts. Note Mortimer Adler's expression of this concept:

   We need to go to school, not in order to learn how to earn a living, but in
   order to learn how to use the life for which we are going to earn a
   living--to learn how to occupy ourselves humanly, to live our leisure hours
   well and not play them all away. We need to learn how to do well what we
   are called upon to do as moral and political agents, and to do well what we
   must do for the cultivation of our minds. (1952, p. 63).

Community college students who, in many ways, may represent America's non-elite ought to receive from their collaborative partner, the community college, the same liberal arts opportunities that the elite of America have often received. And of what benefit would that be to the community? The overall benefit may be impossible to measure, but the gap between America's elite and non-elite can be narrowed by the liberation of these community college students' minds. They will return to their communities, "spill-over" into the lives and institutions of that segment of American society, and bring a greater degree of liberation to the whole of the community.

Formal Curriculum

The traditional humanities, foreign language, fine arts, natural and physical sciences, and social sciences curricular topics can become a part of every student's community college experience. Yet, many vocational courses contain curricular topics that could also contribute to the liberation of minds. But how can this be accomplished?

Liberating Topics

First, the faculty simply must look for the liberating topics within the scope of their courses. Take, for example, a course that raises the technical question, "How many board-feet of two-by-sixes' will it take to construct this home?" That faculty member can help to liberate a student's mind with the use of a few additional questions. "Why do we need to know `How many board-feet'?" Instructors who seek to only meet a "now" need may expect the answer, "To make proper estimates of cost and to eliminate waste." Liberating instructors may seek to draw out "lasting" answers that challenge the student to think beyond the task of building; perhaps, answers related to environmental preservation. Such questions bring the student into the realm of understanding his actions as a builder and as a human in relation to nature and community.

Higher Levels of Cognition

Second, faculty expectations of the level of student cognitive ability need to be raised into the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy (analysis, synthesis, evaluation). Pedagogical and curricular exercises that do not draw the student "up" the taxonomy cannot make significant contributions to liberation. For example, projects in "Auto Mechanics: Diagnostics" should not stop at teaching and learning how to identify and recite from diagnostics manuals and computer programmed tools. The same projects can be used to teach the student the same processes of logic and problem solving (analysis, synthesis, evaluation) upon which the diagnostic machines were designed.

Diversity

Also, diversity is within the community. People of many backgrounds, experiences, lifestyles, races, and opinions study at the community college and, therefore, represent many "voices" found within and beyond the community. Community colleges that develop formal liberating curriculum must realize the value of each diverse voice. Each culture, as well as each type of student (transfer or terminal, vocational or academic) may be liberated through the liberal arts curriculum, and that curriculum includes the opportunity to examine life from the perspectives of others. Every community college student should formally have this personally and community liberating opportunity as either a stand-alone course or as a curricular element dispersed across the curriculum.

These three points serve only to initiate conversation about how a formal curriculum can be adapted to meet the liberating, "lasting" needs. However, each community college should develop its own definition of what is liberating and "lasting" for its own students and the diverse voices in their community.

Informal Curriculum

A liberal arts curriculum must go beyond the community college's classroom walls if the community is to be liberated. This is because liberal arts are meant to be applied to the person in the context of community. An informal component of the community college's curriculum can serve to accomplish this liberating end.

The Community as an Open Laboratory

Always consider the community as an open laboratory. Construct course requirements or class learning projects that have an element of social service for every vocational course. To knowingly give skills to the community, for the benefit of the community (as well as for the development of the skill) is a truly liberating experience for students. They can begin to see and practice citizenship. Returning to our "Auto Mechanics: Diagnostics" course as an example, have the students conduct a free diagnostics clinic for single mothers in which the students not only conduct a diagnostic, but explain to these mothers how to conduct some preliminary diagnostics before taking their vehicles to the repair shop.

The College as an Open Facility

A very general way for the community college to informally liberate its community is to open the doors of the institution to the community. Opening libraries to non-student community members, joining in literacy efforts with local libraries, and hosting community-oriented discussion and service groups are just a few informal ways to open institutional doors for community liberation. Sponsoring fine arts presentations, providing art galleries and museums, and free lectures are other ways to start the liberation of some minds in the community. Such lists of liberating possibilities can keep growing, as long as the community college is willing to stand behind the purpose of liberating their communities.

The Value of a Liberated Mind

Overall, the community college must regularly convey the value of a liberated mind to its students and its community. It must be communicated in newspapers, via radio and television, and in public addresses that at the turn of this century a liberated mind is as or more valuable to the non-elite of America than it ever was before. The community college must renew its commitment to the community: to be a responsible, responsive collaborative partner with the community so that it can give the liberating gifts of culture, intellect, community citizenship, and integrity. This is pan of the liberating community college's informal curriculum.

Conclusion

Should access to the 13th and 14th years be expanded or even universally available through America's community colleges, the opportunity for community colleges to liberate the mind(s) of their communities comes with a difficult political and philosophical challenge. However, for America's community colleges to capitalize on this tremendous liberating opportunity, community college academic leaders must work through a difficult political and philosophical context.

Politically, there is a recent call from elected leaders for universal higher education through the 13th and 14th years, apparently to be provided in large part by community colleges. Philosophically, the majority of political voices calling for the universality of the 13th and 14th years have focused on a utilitarian end of this educational opportunity rather than a liberal one: higher education to increase Americans' earning potential. The infusion of extensive new funding for vocational education via community colleges has, in essence, fulfilled the prediction that community college missions, due to the "tension between mission and finance," would shift. They have shifted: The purpose of many community colleges is now aimed toward vocational, utilitarian ends and away from general, liberating education.

For community colleges hoping to liberate the minds of their communities, the challenge in the face of this opportunity is to provide a curriculum that is faithful to the community college's historical commitment to the liberal arts while heeding the contemporary voices of its economically motivated community: BIL, prospective students, and political parties and leaders.

But how can both liberation and economic ends be met? First, administrators and faculty must have a vision for liberating their community. Then, they must balance their purpose to meet "now" and "lasting" needs: being able to meet both economic and liberation educational ends. Finally, to be successful in meeting this purpose, they will have to adapt their formal and informal curricula provided to students and the community so that it is liberating. The community college can and must strategize to liberate its community via the 13th and 14th years.

References

Adler, M. J. (1952). Adult education: The task of a lifetime. The Journal of Higher Education, 23(2), 59-67, 115.

Brandt, R. S. (1989). On liberal education for tomorrow's world: A conversation with Douglas Heath. Education Leadership, 47(S), 37-40.

Breneman, D. W. and Nelson, S. C. (1980). "The Community college mission and patterns of funding. New Directions for Community College, 32, pp. 73-81. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers.

Brick, M. (1964). "Foundation and development of the American Association of Junior Colleges" from Forum and Focus for the Junior College Movement. New York: Teachers College Press.

Cohen, A. M. and Brawer, F. B. (1982). The American community college. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Cohen, A. M. and Brawer, F. B. (1987). The collegiate function of community colleges: Fostering higher learning through curriculum and student transfer. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Educational Policies Commission (1964). University opportunity for education beyond the high school. Washington, DC: National Education Association.

Excerpts from the 2 parties' platforms. (1996, September 6). The Chronicle of Higher Education, A52-55.

Harlacher, E. L. (1969). The community dimension of the community college. Inglewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Hollinshead, B. S. (1936). "The Community College Program." Junior College Journal.

Lederman, D. (1996, September 6). Democrats Vow to make education a key in their drive to keep the White House. The Chronicle of Higher Education, A47-48.

Long, J. P. (1989). The college/private sector connection: Boom or bust? In T. O'Banion (Ed.), Innovation in the community college (pp. 158-176). New York: MacMillen Press.

Montgomery, M. (1990). Liberal arts and community, the feeding of the larger body. Batton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.

Parnell, D. and Yarrington, R. (1982). Proven partners: Business, labor, and community colleges. Washington, DC: American Association of Community Junior Colleges.

Raisman, N. A. (1992). Creating philosopher-bricklayers: Redefining general education and the liberal arts. AAACJC Journal, 62(Dec/Jan), 16-20.

Shaw, R. J. (1989). Curriculum change in the community college: Pendulum swing or spiral soar? In T. O'Banion (Ed.), Innovation in the Community College. (pp. 23-45). New York: MacMillen Press.

Stark, J. S. and Lowther, M. A. (1989) "Exploring Common Ground in Liberal and Professional Education" in R. A. Armour and B. S. Fuhrmann (eds.), Integrating Liberal Learning and Professional Education. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, no. 40. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, Inc., Publishers. pp. 7-20.

Thornton, Jr. J. W. (1972). The community college. 3rd ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Ken Borland is assistant professor of higher education. He was awarded the Doctor of Education Degree by the Pennsylvania State University where he studied higher and adult education. His teaching-research agenda includes higher education history, philosophy, teaching, curriculum, and students.