Interdisciplinary General Education: Questioning Outside the Lines (review)

Marcia Bundy Seabury (Ed.) (1999). Interdisciplinary General Education: Outside the Lines. New York: College Entrance Examination Board. 366 pp. $22.95 paperback.

After a decade teaching a variety of interdisciplinary general education courses, 31 faculty and administrators affiliated with the All University Curriculum (AUC) at the University of Hartford (Connecticut) have assembled accounts of their learning, hopes, and fears in a volume of essays entitled, Interdisciplinary General Education: Outside the Lines. The Hartford experience is worth noting for both its depth and breadth. Since the AUC model was introduced in 1987, the University has offered 60-65 sections of 29 different interdisciplinary general education courses each semester.

The All University Curriculum (AUC) resulted from a convergence of internal and external influences, including three years of funding from the Andrew D. Mellon Foundation and changes in the accreditation guidelines for general education in Connecticut. After much conversation at all levels of the institution, Hartford adopted a 12-credit liberal education curriculum, supplemented by further general education requirements specific to particular schools and colleges, for all undergraduate students. The core chapters of this volume, written by individuals from a variety of disciplines and fields, recount the experiences of teaching interdisciplinary general education courses.

Editor Marcia Bundy Seabury, an associate professor of English and a former director of the AUC, frames these essays in an "Introduction" that clearly presents the intentions and content of the volume: the goal is not to provide answers, but to offer "local stories" that address common concerns about interdisciplinary teaching. Expressing the trepidation common to interdisciplinary novices treading in "other people's gardens," Seabury notes the contributors' hesitancy to speak as authorities in areas beyond their specializations. Their willingness to teach these courses, she argues, is derived from their commitment to "the quest for student growth" (p. 5). That commitment is amply aired in these varied, engaging, and occasionally passionate accounts of interdisciplinary excursions.

Part I of Outside the Lines, subtitled, "Asking Questions and Crossing Boundaries," focuses on a set of courses that address broadly framed "what is ____ ?" questions that lend themselves to interdisciplinary explorations by faculty and students. Included in this section are six chapters that examine courses on topics such as creativity, symmetry, school, romanticism, and reasoning in science. Part II, "Framing Issues and Dealing with Problems," includes chapters on problem-focused courses that address topics as diverse as AIDS, ethics in the professions, and the concept of power. A final section, Part III: "Exploring Cultures and Understanding Ourselves," is devoted to courses that are organized around the concept of culture and that encourage explorations of values and identity.

Each chapter in Parts I through III shares information on the content, organization, and pedagogical strategies of specific courses. Contributors explain course concepts and philosophies of teaching and write in considerable detail about selected course activities as well as students' responses to these activities. Each chapter concludes with a sample "syllabus" that provides a brief course description as well as lists of topics, readings and texts, and course activities. While most chapters focus on effective classroom activities and approaches, the final chapter in Part III is notable for its concerns about interdisciplinary courses and their impact on student demand for courses in related majors.

Although similar in focus to James Davis' Interdisciplinary Courses and Team Teaching (1995), Outside the Lines provides more detailed and therefore useful descriptions of individual courses. Contributors offer a wealth of ideas for actively engaging undergraduates in the classroom. Their discussions of classroom activities, assignments, field trips, service learning connections, texts, and readings stimulated my thinking about the courses I teach, which are neither undergraduate nor general education offerings, but which depend upon the same kinds of disciplinary connections and synergies sought by the Hartford faculty. In an era when faculty are often called to the table for slighting undergraduate education, the enthusiasm for teaching and learning that these authors display provides both comfort and inspiration...