A New Agenda for Higher Education

In A New Agenda for Higher Education, the authors endorse higher educationâ??s utility for enhancing the practical as well as intellectual dimensions of life by developing a third, different conception of educational purpose. Based on The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching seminar that brought together educators from six professional fields with faculty from the liberal arts and sciences, A New Agenda for Higher Education proposes an educational aim of â??practical reason,â?? focusing on the interdependence of liberal education and professional training.

Foreword vii
Lee S. Shulman and Gary D. Fenstermacher

Preface xv

Acknowledgments xxvii

About the Authors xxix

Introduction 1

1. Partners in the Field: Part One 25
Elliot N. Dorff, Arthur S. Elstein, and Barbara S. Stengel

2. Partners in the Field: Part Two 46
Gary Lee Downey, Daisy Hurst Floyd, and William C. Spohn

3. A Narrative of the Seminar 73

4. Practical Reason as an Educational Agenda 93

Conclusion: Taking Formative Action 127

Appendix One: Partner Syllabi 145

Hessel Bouma III, “Human Biology,” Calvin College

Elliot N. Dorff, “Issues in Jewish Ethics,” American Jewish University

Gary Lee Downey and Juan Lucena, “Engineering Cultures,” Virginia Tech and Colorado School of Mines

Daisy Hurst Floyd, “Advanced Legal Ethics: Finding Joy and Satisfaction in Legal Life,” Mercer University School of Law

Allen S. Hammond IV, “Contracts,” Santa Clara University School of Law

Robert McGinn, “Ethical Issues in Engineering,” Stanford University

Timothy Murphy and Michele Oberman, Selected Cases from “Ethics and Law,” University of Illinois College of Medicine

William C. Spohn, “Scripture and the Moral Life,” Santa Clara University

Barbara S. Stengel, “Foundations of Modern Education,” Millersville University

Appendix Two: Seminar Assignments 215

Assignment for Session One, September 2002

Assignment for Session Two, January 2003

Syllabus Narrative Writing Assignment, Summer 2003

Assignment for Session Three, November 2003

Follow-Up Reflection Questions, January 2004

References 229

THE AUTHORS

WILLIAM M. SULLIVAN is codirector of the Carnegie Foundation’s Preparation for the Professions Program. He is the author of Work and Integrity: The Crisis and Promise of Professionalism in America and coauthor of Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law and Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life.

MATTHEW S. ROSIN is author of Obsoleting Culture and was formerly a research scholar at The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He is currently a senior research associate at EdSource, an independent and impartial educational policy research agency that clarifies K–12 policy issues in California.

A NEW AGENDA FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

Historically, higher education has aimed to enhance the possibilities of life for its students. The liberal arts and sciences have sought to do this through cultivating in students a “life of the mind”—the intellectual dimensions of students’ lives such as problem-solving capacities and critical thinking. On the other hand, the professional schools have focused on providing the means whereby students might “make something of themselves” by acquiring competence in specific skills valuable to others.

In A New Agenda for Higher Education, the authors endorse higher education’s utility for enhancing the practical as well as intellectual dimensions of life by developing a third, different conception of educational purpose. Based on The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching seminar that brought together educators from six professional fields with faculty from the liberal arts and sciences, A New Agenda for Higher Education proposes an educational aim of “practical reason,” focusing on the interdependence of liberal education and professional training.

The book includes case studies of instructors from a wide array of disciplines including those who educate their students for practical responsibility. The authors document the process by which they learned to collaborate with one another across fields and, in the end, produced a new discourse of practical reason. The book also offers faculty, administrators, and those interested in the promise of higher education valuable suggestions on how to put these insights to work in their own academic contexts. It promises to stir and support the development of practical wisdom among students of all fields who are preparing for a wide variety of careers and callings.