Higher Education Deals in Democracy: The Truman Commission Report as a Political Document

Autor/in	Ris, Ethan W.
Titel	Higher Education Deals in Democracy: The Truman Commission Report as a Political Document
Quelle	In: Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 54 (2022) 1, S.17-23 (7 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0009-1383
DOI	10.1080/00091383.2022.2006564
Schlagwörter	Higher Education; Democracy; Reports; Educational History; Politics of Education; Educational Change; Access to Education; Educational Finance; Federal Aid; Institutional Autonomy; Educational Legislation; Federal Legislation; National Security + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Demokratie; Abschlussbericht; Berichten; History of education; Bildungsgeschichte; Educational policy; Bildungspolitik; Bildungsreform; Education; Access; Bildung; Zugang; Bildungszugang; Bildungsfonds; Institutionelle Autonomie; Bildungsrecht; Schulgesetz; Bundesrecht; National territory; Security; Staatsgebiet; Sicherheit
Abstract	How can the Truman Commission report be read 75 years after its release? Why should anybody care about it? What is this thing, anyway? The most compelling way to read "Higher Education for American Democracy" is as a visionary and progressive statement of the public purposes of American higher education. In so many ways, the report reads like a blueprint for the values and policies of today's higher education system: multipurpose, globally relevant, socially and culturally responsive, nondiscriminatory, and broadly accessible. But to read it as such a blueprint is fundamentally teleological--bordering on the gravest historiographical sin, Whig history, in which events of the past are interpreted as deterministic steps on the road to a supposedly virtuous present. Doing so robs the reader of perhaps the most important thing about the Truman Commission: its function as a brilliantly crafted political document that helped set an immediate agenda for higher education policy in unexpected and innovative ways. Recognizing its authors not as prophets but as political agents operating in a specific historical context is the way to understand their project's full meaning and ultimate consequences. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01