Remaking College: Innovation and the Liberal Arts

7. Interdisciplinary Perspectives and the Liberal Arts

Chapter 7 Interdisciplinary Perspectives and the Liberal Arts Wendy L. Hill Provost and Dean of the Faculty, Lafayette College At a presentation in 2008 at New York University’s Steinhardt Institute for Higher Education Policy, William Durden, president of Dickinson College, suggested that the key to the future of liberal arts colleges “lies in embracing our past by offering a distinctively American higher education for the twenty-first century. Rather than apologizing or justifying those qualities that separate us from other institutions of higher learning, we must celebrate those unique characteristics.” I couldn’t agree more. Liberal arts colleges have every right to celebrate unapologetically the enduring value of their educational model. What they do is not just special but enviably unique, and enhancing these distinctive aspects is pivotal to their future. In this chapter I present some of the hallmarks of our academic mission that are cause not only to extol but also to affirm our leadership in higher education. I’ll begin by briefly reviewing how teaching, learning, and research characterize liberal arts colleges and result in distinctive experiences for both students and faculty. I will then describe how interdisciplinary perspectives in many ways define liberal arts colleges and argue that the essential collaborative spirit required for such approaches is increasingly important to our institutions. I conclude by focusing on faculty and offering some suggestions for fostering interdisciplinarity and collaboration within our colleges. Both are key to optimizing our uniqueness and need to figure prominently in our efforts to provide an exceptional and distinctive education for the twenty-first century. Teaching and Learning Liberal arts colleges are not just smaller versions of research universities. Many things separate us from other types of institutions in higher education and justify the designation “distinctive.”1 One characteristic is how we teach. The pedagogies 86 Knowledge, Learning, and New Technologies we employ are invariably student-centered. We are more likely to use “high impact ” approaches and believe strongly that teaching is not a sideline for faculty.2 Pedagogies of engagement are not exclusive to liberal arts colleges, but recent work has demonstrated that students are much more likely to experience these approaches at liberal arts colleges than at other types of institutions.3 VanderStoep and colleagues defined six measures of good teaching that correlate with increased cognitive and motivational outcomes and found that these approaches are more common at liberal arts colleges.4 Furthermore, liberal arts institutions practice pedagogies that require higher levels of academic rigor.5 Liberal arts colleges graduate curious, adaptable, and broadly educated students who become thoughtful leaders and engaged citizens. The broad student learning outcomes to which we aspire foster the holistic development of students . Foremost among these are to enhance critical thinking and problem solving , communicate clearly, be open to different people and ideas, and cultivate social responsibility.6 Not surprisingly, given the information revolution, the specific areas about which we teach have changed over the years in response to the fluid definition of what it means to be a broadly educated citizen. We have migrated from a small number of content areas to a vastly greater array of subjects, an intellectual panorama . The Center for Education Statistics codes more than ninety specific academic majors in the arts and sciences, a far cry from the seven artes liberales. Of course, just learning about a discipline considered one of the liberal arts does not guarantee that it will be taught in a manner consistent with our mission. A “liberal arts state of mind” needs to be inculcated. A course, even one devoted to one of the original Quadrivium or Trivium, that only requires memorization of facts, falls short. A bona fide liberal arts course requires the fostering of exploration and curiosity. It is more a way of learning, a habit of mind, than pieces of information.7 Research Our institutions believe the teacher-scholar model is fundamental to the intellectual vibrancy of our campuses. Our faculty members also contribute to the advancement of scholarship and artistic endeavors of the larger community. Research and teaching can seem to conflict, so is it really possible to maintain parallel emphases on both? The research by Astin and Chang (1995) demonstrates that our dual commitment to strong teaching and productive scholarship is another point of distinction. In their study, Astin and Chang measured the research ori- Interdisciplinary Perspectives and the Liberal Arts 87 entation and the student development orientation of...