An Australian scholar in the Arts and Humanities responds to recent US models emphasizing civic-engaged learning as a way to renew the humanities in undergraduate education. Policy contexts and curriculum initiatives of kindred trends in recent Australian undergraduate education in the humanities are contrasted in this essay. The Australian experience reiterates the worth of a turn towards engaging undergraduates in active learning contexts which take them out of classrooms and libraries.
BattistoniRMLongoNV (2005) Connecting Workforce Development and Civic Engagement: Higher Education as Public Good and Private Gain, MA: Massachusetts Community Compact and the Public Policy Institute (PPI) of North Shore Community College.
4.
BenderT (1997) Politics, intellect and the American University. In: BenderTSchorskeC (eds) American Academic Culture in Transformation: Fifty Years, Four Disciplines, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
5.
BoudDKeoghRWalkerD (1985) Reflection. Turning Learning into Experience, New York, NY: Kogan Page.
6.
Cooper DD (1993/2014) Believing in difference: The ethics of civic literacy. Educational Forum 57(2): 168–177, reprinted in Learning in the Plural: Essays on the Humanities and Public Life. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, pp.1–16.
7.
Cooper DD (2002/2014) Bus rides and forks in the road: The making of a public scholar. Higher Education Exchange 24–36, reprinted in Learning in the Plural 83–97.
8.
Cress C, Burack C, Giles D, Jr (eds) (2010) A Promising Connection: Increasing College Access through Civic Engagement. Boston, MA: [US] Campus Compact.
9.
DeyELBernhardtCAntonarosM (2009) Civic Responsibility: What is the Campus Climate for Learning?, Washington, DC: Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and the University of Michigan’s Center for Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education.
10.
EllisonJEatmanTK (2008) Scholarship in Public: Knowledge Creation and Tenure Policy in the Engaged University: A Resource on Promotion and Tenure in the Arts, Humanities and Design, Syracuse, NY: ‘ “Imagining America”: Artists and Scholars in Public Life’ Tenure Team Initiative on Public ScholarshipAvailable at http://artsofcitizenship.umich.edu/documents/TTI_FINAL.pdf (accessed 20 November 2014).
KiesaAOrlowskiAPLevineL (2007) Millenials Talk Politics: A Study of College Student Political Engagement, Boston: Charles F. Kettering Foundation and Tufts University Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE)Available at www.civicyouth.org/college-students-talk-politics (accessed 20 November 2014).
13.
KimballB (1988) The education for those who are free. History of Education Quarterly28(2): 243–256.
14.
KimballB (1983) Founders of “Liberal Education”: The case for Roman Orators against Socratic Philosophers. Teachers College Record84: 226–248.
15.
KimballB (1986) Orators and Philosophers: A History of the Idea of Liberal Education, New York, NY: Teachers College Press, Columbia University.
16.
LaschC (1995) The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy, New York, NY: W.W. Norton.
17.
MinnichEK (1995) Liberal Learning and the Arts of Connection for the New Academy, Washington, DC: American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U).
18.
MusilCMcT (2012) A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy’s Future, Washington, DC: [US] Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) National Taskforce on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement, 2010–12Available at http://www.aacu.org/sites/default/files/files/crucible/Crucible_508F.pdf (accessed 20 November 2014).
19.
NussbaumMC (2010) Not for Profit: Why Democracy needs the Humanities, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
20.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (2014a) Education at a Glance 2014. Available at http://www.oecd.org/edu/eag.htm (accessed 20 November 2014).
PutnamRD (2000) Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
23.
PutnamRD (2007) E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and community in the twenty-first century. Scandinavian Political Studies30(2): 137–174.
24.
RothblattS (1993) The limbs of Osiris: Liberal education in the English-speaking World. In: RothblattSWittrockB (eds) The European and American University since 1800: Historical and Sociological Essays, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ch. 1, pp. 19–73.
25.
SmallH (2013) The Value of the Humanities, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
26.
TannenD (1998) The Argument Culture: Moving from Debate to Dialogue, New York, NY: Random House.
27.
US Department of Education (2006) Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of US Higher Education: A Report of the Commission appointed by Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, Washington, DC: US Department of Education Contract ED-06-C0-0013Available at http://www2.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/hiedfuture/reports.html (accessed 20 November 2014).
