Liberal education: Why now? Why for all? (Greater Expectations).

ON A FRIDAY MORNING last May, a group of faculty members invited us to sit in on a special seminar session. Through the beneficence of a National Endowment for the Humanities focus grant, a dozen liberal arts faculty members had been selected to spend a year studying the works of Aristotle. (1) Each month, a distinguished Aristotelian scholar was invited to Prince George's Community College to discuss ancient and contemporary themes related to metaphysics, ethics, politics, science, rhetoric, and poetics. In May, Professor Alasdair MacIntyre, the eminent philosopher from Notre Dame University and author of After Virtue, joined the faculty to discuss Aristotle, virtue ethics, and citizenship.

For three idyllic hours, we were transported to an intellectual world devoid of campus politics, curriculum debates, assessment deliberations, and budget uncertainties. Instead, we experienced the wonders of liberal education. We engaged our intellects to deepen our understanding of the natural world and human society in all of its manifestations. Equally important, we saw demonstrated the inextricable link between knowledge and action as prerequisites for human virtue.

At the end of the session, a faculty member asked Dr. MacIntyre a somewhat naive but genuinely felt question. She asked: "Given the importance and value of virtue ethics, shouldn't we offer a special course on this subject to our students?" "That," said MacIntyre, "is the very worst thing you could do." Seeing the questioner's stunned reaction, Dr. MacIntyre elucidated. He suggested that the best way to teach students and faculty about ethics and virtue is to teach them how to apply critical thinking and ethical judgments to concrete problems in the real world around them. Contemplation without action is not virtue. Students must understand how knowledge and action are linked in every course they take, that virtue and ethics are not the property of philosophy but the responsibility of every citizen. "Teach your students how to think critically and how to transform that thinking into action," he said. "That is the path to virtue."

Thus--without Dr. MacIntyre's complicity, without administrator lectures about the meaning and significance of liberal education, and without being handed a single Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) report--a dozen future faculty leaders were introduced to the vision of liberal education as described by AAC&U's Report of the Greater Expectations National Panel (2002, 24):

...the capacity to develop mental agility, as well as intellectual power; a deep understanding of the world's variety, as well as knowledge of Western culture; ethical action in service of the individual and society, as well as critical judgment.

Community colleges and liberal education

Prince George's Community College seeks nothing less than excelling as a nationally recognized, intellectually vibrant model of liberal education. (2) We see this goal as a mission-driven, vision-directed quest to develop purposeful learners who are empowered, informed, and responsible to themselves and the communities in which they live. We also believe that this vision and mission compels us to integrate the liberal arts with practical education. Thus, while we embrace and respond to the demands of the marketplace in preparing students for specific careers, we also advocate and offer a core curriculum designed to develop a liberal mode of thinking that is indispensable to sound citizenship, lifelong learning, and professional advancement.

This quest for a liberal education is ambitious but consistent with the progress of, and unprecedented opportunities now available to, our nation's community colleges. Unlike other institutions of higher education, the short but rich history of community colleges allows us to embrace a more open and democratic form of higher education.

Historically, America's liberal arts curriculum emphasized broad surveys of knowledge, basic principles, and abstractions rather than programs consciously intended to prepare students for vocations. Divested of their high-sounding platitudes, these programs were intended to train the nation's future leaders. Unfortunately, the elite connotations of liberal education made it suspect in an egalitarian America. The study of the liberal arts became suggestive of luxury, leisure, and more than a hint of noblesse oblige. For the comfortable and wealthy, it was easy to deny the value of a utilitarian education and to scorn association with the practical arts.

A different story later emerged within America's public universities, particularly those rooted in the frontiers of the nineteenth century. These universities sprang from pragmatic needs (agriculture and the mechanical arts) although the humanities were not neglected. This philosophical perspective became a rough template for the development of community colleges in the twentieth century.

Community colleges were born at a time when demographic trends were disrupting "whites only" privileges. Economic growth demanded better-educated employees for business and industry. Potential students naturally responded with demands to be taught marketable skills in preparation for specific careers rather than study the generalized and potentially financially unrewarding liberal arts. The development and rapid growth of community colleges reflected the demographic and economic pressures of those times.

These early goals, however, no longer address a world where the only constant is change. Today, the challenge facing community colleges may be phrased as follows: If the practical arts are the motive force behind community colleges, how do we integrate the spirit of liberal education? As the Aristotelian scholars on our campus have learned, wisdom and virtue grow out of action, not simply from contemplation. Liberal education must be vibrant and speak to the challenge of living while continuing to honor the past. Students must engage the great problems of the present and future. Liberal education is needed now and for all.

Standards of excellence in liberal education

Like all institutions of higher education, community colleges must prepare students to live responsible, productive, and creative lives in a dramatically changing world. We must embrace the diversity of ideas and experiences that characterize the social, natural, and intellectual world. We must insist on substantial content and rigorous methodology, and actively engage with the societal, ethical, and practical implications of learning.

The problematic question is how. How can community colleges--given our historical and community-based calling--espouse the virtue and rigor of liberal education without abdicating our traditional mission? We believe that AAC&U's standards for a learning-centered, liberal education are the benchmarks against which community colleges and faculty should measure their success in achieving this goal.

At the risk of simplifying the powerful description of liberal education offered by AAC&U, we suggest the following criteria for assessing the efficacy of liberal education:

1. Inrellectual Rigor. Are all academic programs and courses (transfer as well as career-focused) intellectually challenging? Do they promote and apply critical thinking in a variety of contexts? Do students learn how to engage in research, reasoning, and creative inquiry?

2. Learning. Are all academic programs and courses learning-centered? Are multiple, active, and collaborative teaching methods employed? Can students demonstrate learning through a variety of applications?

3. Social/Cultural Contexts. Is the college curriculum socially responsible and culturally relevant? Do students develop an understanding of, respect for, and the ability to adapt to the needs and perspectives of other cultures?

4. Practical. Is the curriculum practical? Do students develop the ability to connect theories and principles to practical wisdom and action? Do students know how to use verbal and nonverbal messages to generate meaning in a variety of contexts? Can students analyze and offer solutions to a variety of problems?

5. Purposeful. Are all students personally empowered and informed by learning? Do students assume responsibility for their personal actions in a diverse society?

6. Available. Is liberal education inclusive and available to all regardless of the chosen curriculum, preparation level, and cultural background or perspective?

A yes or no response to these questions is inappropriate because the ideals imbedded in these queries represent evolving goals. At Prince George's Community College, we use these questions as a set of expectations for our administrators, faculty, staff, students, and community. We pursue these goals relentlessly and with enthusiasm even though we know that the bar will be raised as we approach their achievement.

Liberal Education in Action

As a means of demonstrating the practical consequences of seeking liberal education, we offer only three examples of college initiatives that have made "greater expectations" a hallmark of Prince George's Community College.

The Book Bridge Project. Winner of a prestigious Hesburgh Award for Faculty Development in 2002, the Book Bridge Project brings together faculty, staff, students, and local community members through the annual selection of a single book that addresses multicultural issues. The Book Bridge Project was born from a simple idea: By reading and discussing a common text, people of diverse backgrounds can talk about cross-cultural issues and seek common ground and understanding. For five years, this inexpensive but effective program has engaged more than 7,500 faculty, staff, students, and community members. The Book Bridge Project has received local and national acclaim for creating a campus environment in which intellectual engagement across lines of difference is perceived as the norm.

Technology and Learning Project. With support from the National Science Foundation and the United States Department of Education, our faculty has embraced technology as an essential tool in advancing student learning. Dynamic and interactive visualization in the sciences, use of dynamic graphical presentation to study variables in mathematics, multi. media lessons that include original footage taped in Spain by the instructor, and computer and/or video technology integrated in the interpretation of poetry classes are examples of the ways in which faculty use technology. An essential part of many courses are student cyberspace dialogues on course-related topics promoting students' content, communication, and writing skills. The college's Technology Resource Center assists faculty in the effective utilization of technology. This multiyear and multifaceted technology approach has enhanced instruction in all disciplines.

Associate of Arts in Teaching. The enlightened leadership of outstanding faculty members at Prince George's Community College helped create a new Associate of Arts in Teaching (A.A.T.) degree and statewide publication of the Maryland Outcomes for Teacher Preparation--the First Sixty Hours. This innovative, collaborative program made Maryland the first state to achieve a fully articulated, statewide teacher education curriculum. Prior to developing the A.A.T. degree and despite the need for well-qualified public school teachers, community college students could not declare education as a major because the field of education was closely guarded as the exclusive domain of four-year institutions. Consequently, many would-be teachers enrolled in community colleges had to choose other majors and, as a result, abandon their hopes of preparing for a career in education. Recognizing the pressing need for liberally educated teachers, we instituted our own department of Education even before the A.A.T. degree was approv ed. We wanted to make sure that students receive appropriate advising and a rigorous liberal education in preparation for entering the most challenging and important of all professions--that of educating the citizens of tomorrow.

The future of liberal learning

If, as AAC&U contends, liberal learning is society's best investment in our shared future, we must continue to espouse its virtues as we act to achieve its goals. We offer three additional challenges facing community colleges and their educational partners in the quest to provide liberal education now and to all.

The Research Challenge. Educational and discipline-specific journals often publish articles about teaching and learning in which university faculty use their own students (and/or students at similar types of institutions) as research subjects. Equally prevalent are articles that presume a four-year curriculum of study by traditional (i.e., young, primarily full-time, baccalaureate degree-seeking) students. The conclusions and recommendations emerging from such studies are often irrelevant and disheartening to community college educators. When traditional university standards are used to assess community colleges' innovations and outcomes, the results are often not applicable. For example, using college graduation rates as an assessment measure does not account for community college students who transfer before graduation, who are seeking job-related skills or personal enrichment, or who must temporarily forgo college careers to support themselves and their families. University-based research is not always rel evant to community college educators because it rarely accounts for the differences and rich diversity in two-year colleges--socioeconomic, racial/ethnic, age, and personal/career goals.

Community college enrollments represent approximately one-half of all undergraduate students in the country. Yet, compared to four-year institutions, we lag behind in relevant and applicable educational research. We face a major challenge--that of seeking university partners to conduct community college-based research. (3) Often, when individual community colleges seek such collaborations with private and state universities, there is little incentive for cooperation. Either through lack of awareness or knowledge, community colleges are rarely selected as sites for educational and discipline-specific research and investigation. A call for such research from national associations and even accrediting agencies could help identify the unique characteristics, challenges, and variables accounting for student success at community colleges.

The Faculty Development Challenge. Developing a learning-centered institution of higher education requires new forms of faculty development. In addition to learning about the virtues and significance of liberal education, we must find better ways to motivate faculty members to pursue its goals. Effective and experienced educators, no matter where they teach, know that faculty scholarship brings vitality to liberal education (Edison, et al. 1991). In Killing the Spirit (1990), Page Smith, the founding provost of the University of California at Santa Cruz, describes how the publish-orperish obsession in universities has compromised student learning and scholarship. He goes on to suggest that community colleges may be the hope of higher education.

[community colleges]...with close ties to their parent communities, free, for the most part, of the snobbish pursuits of the latest academic fads that so warp their university counterparts, and free also of the unremitting pressure to publish or perish, are, I believe, the hope of higher education in America. Unheralded and scorned or patronized by "the big boys," they carry out their mission with spirit and elan.

We know that genuine faculty scholarship at our institution cannot be achieved by adopting or emulating university models. Faculty scholarship must be encouraged, supported, rewarded, and linked to the goal of liberal education. The following checklist presents only a few of the questions that can help assess the degree to which intellectual activity and scholarship are promoted within a community college-for students as well as faculty (Edison, et al., 42).

* Is intellectual development a stated institutional goal or included in the institutions mission or vision statement?

* Do reward systems recognize scholarly endeavors by students and faculty?

* Does the college financially support individual faculty and student scholarship?

* Do the president and academic administrators promote intellectual development and scholarship by serving as positive role models?

* Are innovative teaching methods encouraged and the results of experimental methodologies shared among faculty members?

* Are collaborative efforts among faculty from different disciplines encouraged and supported?

* Does the college support a centralized center or office responsible for developing and coordinating a wide variety of faculty and staff development programs?

Positive answers to these institutional questions, however, are not enough to ensure genuine scholarship. We also believe that every faculty member has a professional duty to assume personal responsibility for scholarship--whether or not a community college can fully support such efforts. (4) Professionalism and a continuing commitment to scholarship represent the justification for the huge financial discrepancies between supporting a full-time and an adjunct faculty member. Failure to embrace professional development and scholarship as a personal obligation undermines the rationale for full-time faculty status.

When Ernest L. Boyer and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching elevated the scholarship of teaching to equal status with the scholarships of discovery, integration, and application, they also placed the responsibility for scholarship in the hands of individual faculty members. We offer another checklist as a means of assessing how well faculty members understand the importance of, and assume responsibility for, their own scholarship and intellectual growth (Edison, et al. 44).

To what extent do the majority of faculty members engage in the following scholarly activities?

* Read at least one professional journal on a regular basis.

* Can identify and describe three significant movements or findings in education and/or their discipline that influence their teaching.

* Can identify and describe current textbooks and scholarship covered in junior/senior and graduate level courses in their discipline.

* Frequently revise/update their courses (objectives, content, assignments, assessment measures, pedagogy) based on educational research and/or the scholarship of their discipline.

* Apply for scholarly opportunities (summer seminars, scholarship, grants, awards, special conferences, released-time projects) as a means of furthering their intellectual and scholarly growth.

* Publish (e.g., textbooks, short stories, poetry, journal articles, essays)

* Attend at least one major professional conference every year even at their own expense.

Community college faculty members who fulfill the role of scholar and learning-centered educator should be able to check most of the items on this list. Faculty members and administrators must be equally committed to scholarship and willing to work together to create the intellectual climate essential to liberal education on the community college campus.

The Collaboration Challenge. The majority of recent high school graduates admitted to community colleges need some form of remedial education. To their credit, community colleges have developed multifaceted developmental education programs that have become models of innovation. The need for such programs could be diminished if more high school graduates were better prepared for college and a liberal education. To that end, while recognizing the difficulties in achieving their goals, we applaud two action steps recommended in the AAC&U Report of the Greater Expectations National Panel (46):

* Higher education should engage in organizing regular and ongoing conversations between high school teachers and college faculty about student learning, teaching practices, and learning outcomes.

* Faculty from all levels of education should work with educational agencies to create mechanisms that examine and coordinate courses at the interface of high school and college (advanced placement courses, remedial college courses).

To these action steps, we would add one more:

* Higher education faculty and administrators should engage in organizing regular and ongoing conversations between community college and four-year college/university faculty about student learning, teaching practices, and learning outcomes as well as fully articulated transfer agreements.

Again, whether from lack of awareness or knowledge, four-year colleges and universities often cling to unfounded assumptions and stereotypes about the nature of community colleges and their faculty and students. As a result, transfer issues remain one of the greatest challenges facing community colleges even when national research continues to validate the academic success of community college transfer students at baccalaureate institutions. Sadly, erroneous assumptions about the training and professional development of community college faculty may preclude meaningful and productive interaction with faculty members at four-year institutions.

The existence of difficulties in transferring from community colleges causes higher education as a whole to suffer while individual students face unnecessary barriers to further education. By working collaboratively, however, we can meet such challenges and nurture a new incarnation of liberal education that erases the artificial distinctions between studies deemed liberal (unrelated to job training) and those called practical.

Eudemonia is our mission

The phrase "Eudemonia Is Our Mission" was coined by one of the faculty scholars and embraced by the faculty participants attending the Aristotle seminar. Aristotle maintained that eudemonia is the goal of life. Often mistranslated as "happiness," eudemonia has a much richer meaning. Much like Thomas Jefferson's declaration that we have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, eudemonia signifies something above and beyond enjoyment, contentment, and pleasure. Eudemonia only occurs when we use all of our powers to their fullest extent in order to flourish as human beings, to fulfill our individual potential, and to live virtuously.

If "Eudemonia Is Our Mission" at Prince George's Community College, we also claim that "Eudemonia Is the Goal of Liberal Education." Seeking eudemonia prepares empowered, informed, and responsible students whose mastery of intellectual and practical skills enables them to participate fully as virtuous citizens in a democracy. Iris our sincere belief that we in community colleges are, as Aristotle advocated, engaged in the process of seeking eudemonia now for all who enter and learn within our open doors.

NOTES

(1.) A focus grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities supports a year-long faculty seminar entitled Aristotle and a World of Wonder. Mid-career faculty members from a variety of disciplines (physics, biology, psychology, sociology, political science, philosophy, language studies, education, communication studies, and English) were selected to participate in interdisciplinary study and practice. For more information, contact the Humanities Resource Center at Prince George's Community College (301/322-0599).

(2.) Prince George's Community College's vision statement challenges us to "excel as a nationally recognized, intellectually vibrant institution that is accessible, community-centered, technologically advanced, and responsive to the educational needs of a richly diverse population and workforce."

(3.) Prince George's Community College is fortunate to have an institutional research office that engages in sophisticated empirical research. For example, our studies on the variables that predict community college student success have won national awards for advancing knowledge about the nature and expectations of community college students.

(4.) Prince George's Community College takes enormous pride in the scholarship and professional development of its faculty. Our nationally recognized authors (of textbooks and scholarly works), our professional association officers (in state, regional, and national organizations), and our award-winning faculty members have set a model for their colleagues to emulate.

WORKS CITED

Association of American Colleges and Universities. 2002. Greater expectations: A new vision for learning as a nation goes to college. National Panel Report. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Edison, Evelyn, James R. Perkings, and Isa N. Engleberg. 1991. Scholarship in the community college: Checklists for administrators and faculty. Community College Humanities Review, 12: 40-45.

Smith, Page. 1990. Killing the spirit. New York: Viking, 19-20.

RELATED ARTICLE: Launched by the Association of American Colleges and Universities in 2000, Greater Expectations is a multipart initiative designed to encourage innovations that support success in learning, disseminate best practices from secondary and higher education, and help campuses sustain learning-centered education. The initiative expands AAC&U's long-standing commitment to educational excellence and meaningful inclusion and addresses the strong national need to raise levels of college achievement and graduation rates.

At the center of this initiative is a national panel of leaders in education, government, business, and community action that has issued a national report, Greater Expectations: A New Vsion for Learning as a Nation Goes to College, articulating the aims, purposes, and practices of a twenty-first century liberal education. This report and its recommendations provide the conceptual framework for the Greater Expectations initiative and can be found at www.greaterexpectations.org. The initiative also comprises the following other projects: a Consortium on Quality Education including sixteen leadership institutions; a Forum on 21st Century Liberal Arts Education Practice working on such issues as inquiry-based learning, global awareness, civic engagement, and integrative learning; an Institute on Campus Leadership for Sustainable Innovation; a Project on Accreditation and Assessment, and a project on Greater Expectations for Student Transfer.

RONALD A. WILLIAMS is president, VERA ZDRAVKOVICH is vice president for instruction, and ISA ENGLEBERG is professor of speech and theater, all at Prince George's Community College in Maryland