Sparking a long-overdue debate about the future of American education, "The Marketplace of Ideas" examines traditional university institutions, assessing what is worth saving and what is not
To reclaim the public university is to focus our energies on teaching all our students well, educating them for a new, increasingly complicated age. To deliver on this promise, we must interrogate the general education we provide for our students, for that is the vast, unrecognized ground we stand on. It is what students and faculty do most in common. If we can get educating our students right, generally and liberally, then we will have laid a claim to what the public university needs to be.
The current higher education policy and practice landscape is simultane-ously marked by uncertainty and hope, and nowhere are these tensions more present than in discussions and actions around general education. This volume uses an anthropological approach to contemplate ways of re-imagining general education for the 21st century and how faculty, teach-ers, administrators, and others can transform the educational endeavor to be holistic, comprehensive, and aligned with the needs of people and the planet in the decades to come. Included are analyses of general education concepts such as "diversity," case studies of general education and con-necting curricula, opportunities for faculty development, unique general education student populations, assessment strategies, and philosophical/ pedagogical challenges. Contributors make the case that far from receding from a central role in higher education, there is a need to strengthen general education curricula as key to the educational needs of students, for the skills and competencies they require in the workplace and for civic engagement.