Practice and Enlightenment of General Education Reform in Japanese National Universities after World War II

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-31
Author(s):  
Cui Yingchun
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
General Education ◽  
World War ◽  
General Education Reform ◽  
National Universities

Academia's Golden Age

1992 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard M. Freeland
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
General Education ◽  
Graduate Education ◽  
World War ◽  
Boston College ◽  
Boston University ◽  
Close Study ◽  
University Of Massachusetts ◽  
National Trends ◽  
The University

This book examines the evolution of American universities during the years following World War II. Emphasizing the importance of change at the campus level, the book combines a general consideration of national trends with a close study of eight diverse universities in Massachusetts. The eight are Harvard, M.I.T., Tufts, Brandeis, Boston University, Boston College, Northeastern and the University of Massachusetts. Broad analytic chapters examine major developments like expansion, the rise of graduate education and research, the professionalization of the faculty, and the decline of general education. These chapters also review criticisms of academia that arose in the late 1960s and the fate of various reform proposals during the 1970s. Additional chapters focus on the eight campuses to illustrate the forces that drove different kinds of institutions--research universities, college-centered universities, urban private universities and public universities--in responding to the circumstances of the postwar years.

A Longitudinal Analysis of Shifting Policy Landscapes in Special and General Education Reform

2003 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine S. Furney ◽  
Susan Brody Hasazi ◽  
Kelly Clark/Keefe ◽  
Johnette Hartnett
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
General Education ◽  
Longitudinal Analysis ◽  
General Education Reform

Some Thoughts on Curriculum and Change

1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leon Botstein
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
General Education ◽  
Core Curriculum ◽  
Body Politic ◽  
Undergraduate Curriculum ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Radical Reform ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Political Purpose

It should go without saying that in the twentieth-century history of American higher education, each significant curricular reform movement has had a distinct political agenda. This is particularly true for initiatives designed to create decisive changes in the shape of the undergraduate curriculum. In those circumstances in which a political movement and an institutional initiative have coincided, a distinct political purpose can be discerned in what the institution required of its students and how the program was articulated. The historical moment was certainly at issue in the case of the reforms of the 1930s. Men such as Robert Hutchins, Stringfellow Barr, and Scott Buchanan saw in the idea of a core curriculum a way to realize their ideal construct of democracy. The Great Books concept and the variants of the core at Chicago had at their root a notion of natural rights and the social contract. Inherent in that framing of the body politic were concepts of freedom and civic responsibility. The objective was clear: one needed to educate young Americans—the elite of the nation—to steer the country away from the extremes of fascism and communism. Radical reform was imperative, since during the Great Depression both of these alternatives appeared politically viable. In the post-World War II era, the Cold War framed most of the discussion about the curriculum. This claim may seem odd, but on closer inspection, beginning with Harvard's general education reform from the early 1950s, the concept of the university, until the late 1980s, was substantially defined by a consciousness of how much the United States constituted an alternative to political unfreedom. The elective-course system in its new Harvard form, combined with distribution requirements and an enormous premium on undergraduate specialization, was a kind of metaphorical mirror of the idealized free marketplace of ideas. We were convinced that we were training young people to cherish the advantages of free choice and liberty in a world in which the grim alternative of totalitarianism was not a mirage but a present danger.

The Ecology of General Education Reform

1997 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 18-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon Arnold ◽  
Janet T. Civian
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
General Education ◽  
General Education Reform
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document