by PHILIP G. ALTBACH
A portrait of Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese philosopher / teacher / politician by the Tang dynasty artist Wu Daozi (680–740) IMAGE/Wikipedia
The liberal arts are seeing a modest revival globally. In the struggle between specialisation on the one hand and general or liberal education on the other, specialisation has mostly won. In much of the world, higher education study is organised to prepare people for the workforce and most often for specific professions.
Further, highly specialised curricula predominate in many countries – a student enters a particular faculty and nearly all of the classes are oriented towards a specific discipline, leading to graduation with specialised knowledge in that field.
A few countries, such as the United States, have maintained some commitment to the idea of education for broader knowledge and intellectual competencies – the underlying concept of liberal education.
Yet, quite surprisingly, the idea of liberal education has taken on new salience in the global higher education debate. This has occurred for several reasons.
There is increasing recognition that both the labour force and educated individuals require ‘soft skills’ as well as vocationally relevant content-based knowledge. These include the ability to think critically, communicate effectively and efficiently, synthesise information from various academic and cultural perspectives and analyse complex qualitative and quantitative concepts, among others.
Further, the 21st century economy no longer ensures a fixed career path. University graduates face a diverse, complex and volatile job market.
The specialised curriculum is no longer adequate to prepare people for the new knowledge economy, which requires capacity to innovate, and there is growing consensus that this capacity demands a broader range of knowledge that crosses disciplinary boundaries – perhaps a revival of the idea underlying the European medieval universities.
So far, the modest global resurgence of liberal arts education is largely, but not exclusively, concentrated in the elite sector of higher education, although with considerable variation among institutions.
Liberal education
There is no universally accepted definition of liberal education. Most think of it in terms of an approach to knowledge as well as in more detailed curricular terms.
Liberal education is typically traced to Western traditions, such as Socrates’ belief in the value of ‘the examined life’, and Aristotle’s emphasis on ‘reflective citizenship’. But as discussed here, there are important non-Western roots of liberal education as well.
Contemporary advocates focus on the value of critical thinking and a broad knowledge of key scientific and humanistic fields as requirements to understand the complexities of post-industrial society.
Most broadly, liberal education is contrasted to the more narrowly vocationally-oriented approach to higher education that has come to dominate much thinking in the 21st century.
Advocates argue that education is much more than ‘workforce preparation’ – and that contemporary society demands a broader and more thoughtful approach to post-secondary education.
Non-Western liberal arts traditions
Perhaps the earliest example of an education philosophy akin to contemporary liberal education comes from China, where the Confucian tradition emphasised a general education with a broad approach to knowledge acquisition.
Two key Chinese education traditions – the Confucian Analects dating back 2,500 years, and traditional Chinese higher education that dates back to the Eastern Zhou dynasty (771-221 BCE) – have elements of what might be called liberal education.
The Five Classics, as they were known then, were featured books that covered many ‘fields of knowledge’. At the same time, Confucian higher education prepared students to take the imperial examinations for the civil service – examinations that called on a general education.
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