Based on a review of its historical evolution and the contributions of significant writers in the field, this article addresses perennial questions of purpose, content and pedagogy in education in the arts and humanities and, more broadly, liberal education. Taking cognizance of the educational significance of service-learning and practical knowledge, it calls for a revitalization of arts and humanities education by drawing on elements of feminist theory as expounded by Jane Roland Martin and the emphasis on praxis, service and pedagogy in the writings of Paulo Freire, Ira Shor and others in the tradition of critical pedagogy.
AAC&U. (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.
2.
Adler, M.J. ( 1982) The Paideia Proposal. New York: Macmillan.
3.
Aristotle (1903) in Burnet, J. (ed.) Aristotle on Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
4.
Bereiter, C. ( 2002a) ‘Liberal education in a knowledge society’ , in Smith, B. (ed.) Liberal Education in a Knowledge Society. pp. 11-33, Chicago, IL: Open Court.
5.
Bereiter, C. ( 2002b) ‘Artifacts, canons, and the progress of pedagogy: A response to contributors’, in Smith, B. (ed.) Liberal Education in a Knowledge Society. pp. 223-244, Chicago, IL: Open Court.
6.
Biesta, G. ( 2006) ‘ ‘‘Of all affairs, communication is the most wonderful’’: The communicative turn in Dewey’s democracy and education’, in Hansen, D.T. (ed.) John Dewey and Our Educational Prospect: A Critical Engagement with Dewey’s Democracy and Education. pp. 23-37, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
7.
Bloom, A. ( 1987) The Closing of the American Mind. New York: Simon and Schuster.
8.
Boyer, E.L. ( 1983) High School. New York: Harper and Row.
9.
Boyer, E.L. ( 1987) College. New York: Harper & Row.
10.
Commission Appointed by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. (2006). A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education. Washington, DC: US Department of Education.
11.
Davis, O.W. and with Dodge, J. ( 1998) ‘Liberationist theology through community service-learning at Trinity College of Vermont’, in DeVitis, J.L., Johns, R.W. and Simpson, D.J. (eds) To Serve and Learn: The Spirit of Community in Liberal Education. pp. 92-101, New York: Peter Lang.
12.
DeVitis, J.L., Johns, R.W. and Simpson, D.J. (eds) (1998). To Serve and Learn: The Spirit of Community in Liberal Education. New York: Peter Lang.
13.
Dewey, J. ( 1963) Experience and Education. New York : Collier.
14.
Dewey, J. ( 1966) Democracy and Education. New York: The Free Press.
15.
Eyler, J. and Giles, Jr D.E. ( 1999) Where’s the Learning in Service-Learning?San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass .
16.
Freire, P. ( 1971) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, trans. Myra Bergman Ramos. New York: Herder and Herder.
17.
Gardner, J.N., Jewler, A.J. and Barefoot, B. ( 2007) Your College Experience. Boston, MA : Thomas Wadsworth.
18.
Giroux, H.A. ( 1997) Pedagogy and the Politics of Hope. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
19.
Giroux, H.A. ( 2003) ‘Education incorporated?’, in Darder, A., Baltodano, M. and Torres, R.D. (eds) The Critical Pedagogy Reader pp. 119-25, New York: RoutledgeFalmer.
20.
Green, T.F. ( 1995) ‘Needed: a pedagogy please’, in Orrill, R. (ed.) The Condition of American Liberal Education. pp. 238-43, New York: College Entrance Examinations Board.
21.
Griffin, G. ( 2006) ‘Balancing agendas: Social sciences and humanities in Europe’, Arts and Humanities in Higher Education5(3): 229-41.
22.
Hadot, P. ( 1995) Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Essays from Socrates to Foucault, ed. A. I. Davidson and trans. M. Chase. Oxford: Blackwell.
23.
Harvard University. (1945). General Education in a Free Society . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
24.
Hirst, P.H. ( 1974) Knowledge and the Curriculum. London : Routledge and Kegan Paul.
25.
Hirst, P.H. ( 1993) ‘Education, Knowledge and Practices’, in Barrow, R. and White, P. (eds) Beyond Liberal Education. pp. 184-99, London : Routledge.
26.
Kimball, B.A. ( 1995a) Orators and Philosophers: A History of the Idea of Liberal Education. New York: College Entrance Examinations Board.
27.
Kimball, B.A. ( 1995b) ‘Introduction’, in Orrill, R. (ed.) The Condition of American Liberal Education . pp. xxi-xxiii, New York: College Entrance Examinations Board.
28.
Kimball, B.A. ( 1995c) ‘Toward pragmatic liberal education’, in Orrill, R. (ed.) The Condition of American Liberal Education. pp. 3-122, New York: College Entrance Examinations Board.
29.
Long, F. ( 2008) ‘Troubled theory in the debate between Hirst and Carr’, Journal of Philosophy of Education42(1): 133-47.
30.
Marquez, I. ( 2006) ‘Knowledge of being v. practice of becoming in higher education: Overcoming the dichotomy in the humanities’, Arts and Humanities in Higher Education5(2): 147-61.
31.
Martin, J.R. ( 1992) The Schoolhome. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
32.
Martin, J.R. ( 1994) Changing the Educational Landscape. New York: Routledge.
33.
Miller, J. ( 2002) ‘Higher education at a ‘‘post-modern’’ crossroads: Reflections on one person’s experience’, in Smith, B. (ed.) Liberal Education in a Knowledge Society. pp. 99-110, Chicago, IL: Open Court.
34.
Mulcahy, D.G. ( 2002) Knowledge, Gender, and Schooling: The Feminist Educational Thought of Jane Roland Martin. Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey.
35.
Mulcahy, D.G. ( 2003) ‘Jane Roland Martin and Paul Hirst on liberal education: A reassessment’, Journal of Thought38(1): 19-30.
36.
Mulcahy, D.G. ( 2008) The Educated Person: Toward a New Paradigm for Liberal Education. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
37.
Mulcahy, D.G. and Casella, R. ( 2005) ‘‘Violence and caring in school and society’’ , Educational Studies37(3): 244-55.
38.
Nussbaum, M.C. ( 1997) Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
39.
Newman, J.H. ( 1947) The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated, ed. C. F. Harrold.New York : Longmans, Green and Co.
40.
Parker, J. ( 2008) ‘What have the humanities to offer 21st-century Europe?’, Arts and Humanities in Higher Education7(1): 83-96
41.
Parker, J., Chambers, E. and Gregory, M. ( 2006) ‘Editorial: Liberal education’, Arts and Humanities in Higher Education5(1): 5-6.
42.
Pring, R. ( 1976) Knowledge and Schooling. London: Open Books.
43.
Pring, R. ( 1993) ‘Liberal education and vocational education’ , in Barrow, R. and White, P. (eds) Beyond Liberal Education. pp. 49-78, London : Routledge.
44.
Raelin, J.A. ( 2007) ‘The return of practice to higher education: Resolution of a paradox’, Journal of General Education56(1): 57-77.
45.
Shor, I. ( 1992) Empowering Education. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
46.
Sullivan, W.M. and Rosin, M.S. ( 2008) A New Agenda for Higher Education: Shaping a Life of the Mind for Practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
47.
White, J. and ed (2004) Rethinking the School Curriculum. London: RoutledgeFalmer.
