Multidisciplinary
A thought-provoking New York Times op-ed earlier this week led me to reflect on the last two years of my public policy education. The editorialist, Mark C. Taylor, suggested that graduate education—indeed all levels of education—sorely need structural reform if we are to cope effectively with the complex, cross-sectoral challenges facing the world today.
"Restructure the curriculum, beginning with graduate programs and proceeding as quickly as possible to undergraduate programs. The division-of-labor model of separate departments is obsolete and must be replaced with a curriculum structured like a web or complex adaptive network. Responsible teaching and scholarship must become cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural."
"It would be far more effective to bring together people working on questions of religion, politics, history, economics, anthropology, sociology, literature, art, religion and philosophy to engage in comparative analysis of common problems. As the curriculum is restructured, fields of inquiry and methods of investigation will be transformed."
Perhaps public affairs education leads this trend. In training to be public leaders, network-builders, jacks-of-many-trades, we necessarily speak multiple disciplinary languages. In some ways, I think of Humphrey as an issue-focused liberal arts graduate education that transcends the "-iums". (A group of students at Humphrey have been bringing disciplines together for this exact purpose--to escape the ivory silos and learn from one another.)
What are the new liberal arts that public and nonprofit leaders need in order to make sense of the world?
Comments
Bjorn -- I'm so glad to see this post. I do think that public affairs education is leading this trend. Focusing student attention on building skills to solve problems is central to what we do and is fueling new development in our curriculum and tools for education. I've also recently been part of a University of Minnesota and Bush Foundation Design Lab recommending the University redesign undergraduate education in just this way -- being 'challenge' rather than disciplinary-focused (http://www1.umn.edu/pres/bush/ ). The idea has by-in from the top of the University. The issues in the world are complex and more people need to have educational experiences from the beginning of their careers that prepare them to engage in addressing them. I feel fortunate to benefit every day from the amazing energy, insight, and creativity of my students who are committed to this approach.
Posted by: Jodi Sandfort | April 29, 2009 11:40 AM