Associate Editor's Note

Changing undergraduate general education curriculum is one of the central themes that permeates the writing in the Journal of General Education, just as it is integral to the discourse in the field. Certainly, it is important to share innovative examples of the ways in which faculty are developing new pedagogies and instructional designs on individual college campuses. We begin to connect experiences across disciplinary boundaries and instructional strategies to see our unique examples as part of a tapestry of efforts at improving the quality of the undergraduate experience and the capacity for increasing general education learning outcomes. It is equally useful to include discussion of the contextual issues that surround and impact curricular innovations. Understanding the complexity of reform and the ways in which initiatives are institutionalized advances the potential for change on campuses beyond the individual sites illustrated in published articles. Each of the articles in this issue, therefore, adds to our understandings on two levels. The first is the level of the innovation itself: interdisciplinary clusters, information literacy instruction infused into first-year curricula, and innovative learning outcomes assessment strategies. The other level of understanding comes from insights into the organizational and cultural issues, challenges and strategies that shape the context of curriculum reform.

John MacDougall's "Creating Coherence in General Education Curricula: Lessons from Interdisciplinary Junior/Senior Clusters" offers the example of curricular reform brought about in part because of the influence of an external engineering accrediting agency. Beyond the specifics of the reform itself, MacDougall's essay illustrates the challenges faced by faculty trying to work together to shape a new curriculum and culture around learning, across the structural boundaries of department and discipline. MacDougall speaks to faculty roles, values, and commitment as they affect sustained involvement and forward reform momentum. The reader comes to see differently the long-term effect of catalysts of change--be they internal or external, initiated by faculty or by others.

"Separating Wheat from Chaff: Helping First-Year Students Become Information Savvy," by Trudi E. Jacobson and Beth L. Mark, looks at issues of integration and inter-unit collaboration through specific information literacy instruction experiences for first-year students. We speak often, from a disciplinary perspective, of the development of critical thinking skills. Yet, we do not always look at the skills required for undergraduate research and writing (literacy, critical thinking, and database searching proficiency) as they can be developed through the formal inclusion in the curriculum of information literacy instruction. Although an internally motivated instructional change, taking the cross-disciplinary approach of placing library instruction prominently into the curriculum brings to the forefront issues facing faculty and administrators that are similar to those found in MacDougall's example of curricular change.

The third article, "Primary Trait Analysis: Anchoring Assessment in the Classroom," by Ruth Benander, Janice Denton, Deborah Page, and Charlotte Skinner, looks at assessment of general education using Primary Trait Analysis as designed by faculty for use in their classrooms. The assessment techniques described in the article are useful strategies that put faculty in control of assessment processes. At the same time, Benander et al. show the extent to which institutional and departmental support is required through training, fostering communication, mentoring, and funding in order for the change effort to be sustained.

Three book reviews round out this edition of JGE. J. Douglas Toma's critique directs our attention to a qualitative study of college choice by Patricia M. McDonough. In Choosing Colleges: How Social Class and Schools Structure Opportunity, we come to better understand some of the factors, backgrounds, preparation, and beliefs about postsecondary education that shape the lives of those who might be affected by our attempts at general education curricular innovation. Taking a different look at students and their impact as key players (among others) in the capitalist social system's exploitation of postsecondary education is Wesley Shumar's College for Sale: A Critique of the Commodification of Higher Education, which focuses on the future of higher education [End Page vi...