Narrowness and Liberality

Autor/in	Agresto, John
Titel	Narrowness and Liberality
Quelle	In: Academic Questions, 17 (2003) 1, S.83-86 (4 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0895-4852
DOI	10.1007/s12129-003-1052-4
Schlagwörter	Stellungnahme; Foreign Countries; Higher Education; Educational Objectives; Specialization; Expertise; Graduate Study; Doctoral Degrees; Research; Liberal Arts; General Education; Academic Education; Role of Education; Iraq + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Educational objective; Bildungsziel; Erziehungsziel; Arbeitsteilige Spezialisierung; Expert appraisal; Aufbaustudium; Graduiertenstudium; Hauptstudium; Doctoral degree; Doktorgrad; Forschung; Allgemein bildendes Schulwesen; Allgemeinbildung; Akademische Bildung; Bildungsauftrag; Irak
Abstract	John Agresto, whose task has been to rebuild the war-ravaged infrastructure of a Middle-Eastern university system, is discouraged to see that narrow expertise is the only goal of education there, to the utter exclusion of intellectual breadth. He comments that, although it is not that bad in the U.S., he feels that doctoral programs as currently structured increase the narrowness of academic departments and their offerings, especially in the humanities and social sciences. There is no reason, he asserts, why a Ph.D. should not be evidence of a broad knowledge of languages, ancient and modern; mathematics and the sciences; literature; art; and the best works of the human imagination. In other words, there is no reason why the Ph.D. could not be awarded after evidence of an expanded as well as deepened and sharpened education. Ph.D. candidates who aspire to be professors, however, will teach what they know, and Agresto yearns for a Ph.D. that values clear and intelligent writing on core subjects. There is little to be gained, he says, and much lost in focusing on a fringe topic like "homoerotic poetry," which is mainstream for an American dissertation today. (ERIC).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10