This essay investigates the need for and the challenges associated with the establishment of western style liberal arts education in a non-western nation. Two such programs in Japan are examined: Akita International University and Yamanashi Gakuin University’s International College of Liberal Arts or iCLA. The authors have been deeply involved in the establishment and administration of both of these all-English language liberal arts ba degree programs. The difficulty of establishing a liberal arts education curriculum in a country like Japan is explored by examining the cultural and institutional obstacles within the Japanese system of higher education. The two case studies are presented to highlight the establishment problems and subsequent successes of these programs in a nation with little tradition of liberal arts education at the university level. Finally, the questions of how to justify a liberal arts education program and how to design such a program are discussed by an examination of the utility of area studies as an organizing framework for liberal arts education in a non-western society.
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Abegglen James & Stalk George Kaisha: The Japanese Corporation 1985 New York Basic Books
Anderson Charles W. Prescribing the Life of the Mind: An Essay on the Purpose of the University, the Aims of Liberal Education, the Competence of Citizens and the Cultivation of Practical Reason 1993 Madison University of Wisconsin Press
Chambers Gail S. & Cummings William K. Profiting from Education: Japan-United States International Educational Ventures in the 1980s 1990 New York Institute of International Education, Research Report Number Twenty
Chung Jennifer Liberal Arts Education in the United States of America 2009 Saarbrücken VDM Verlag
Clammer John Difference and Modernity: Social Theory and Contemporary Japanese Society 1995 London Routledge
De Mente Boyn L. Japan’s Cultural Code Words 2004 Tokyo Tuttle Press
De Mente Boyn L. Japan Unmasked: The Character and Culture of the Japanese 2005 Tokyo Tuttle Press
Dewey John Experience and Education 1938 New York Collier Books
Glyer Diana & Weeks David L. The Liberal Arts in Higher Education: Challenging Assumptions, Exploring Possibilities 1998 Lanham, MD University Press of America
Gotō Tetsuhiko Nihon-teki keiei to bunka 1983 Tokyo Gakubunsha [Japanese style management and culture]
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Ito Toyo Shin-Kenchiku 2015 June [New Architect]
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McVeigh Brian J. Japanese Higher Education as Myth 2002 Armonk M.E. Sharpe
Mock John Eades J.S., Goodman Roger & Hada Yumiko “American Universities in Japan” The ‘Big Bang’ in Japanese Higher Education: The 2004 Reforms and the Dynamics of Change 2005 Melbourne Trans Pacific Press 183 198
Nakajima Mineo Gakureki Kakumei 2012 Tokyo KK-Bestsellers [Revolution in the value of a college education]
Nakane Chie Japanese Society 1997 Tokyo Tuttle Press
Nisbett Richard E. The Geography of Thought 2003 New York Free Press
Nussbaum Martha C. Cultivating Humanity. A Classical Defence of Reform in Liberal Education 1997 Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press
Nussbaum Martha C. Kimball Bruce A. “A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education” The Liberal Arts Tradition 2010 Lanham University Press of America 471 480
Nussbaum Martha C. Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities 2012 Princeton Princeton University Press
Odaka Kunio Sangyō shakaigaku kōgi 1981 Tokyo Iwanami Shoten [Lectures on industrial sociology]
Pascarella Ernest T. et al. “Liberal Arts Colleges and Liberal Arts Education: New Evidence on Impacts. ashe Higher Education Report, Volume 31, Number 3” ashe Higher Education Report 2005 31 3 1 148
Roche Mark William Why Choose the Liberal Arts? 2010 Notre Dame University of Notre Dame Press
Stanley Peter W. Koblik Steven & Graubard Stephen R. “At Home in Our world: The Place of International Studies in Liberal Arts Colleges” Distinctively American: The Residential Liberal Arts College 2000 New Brunswick Transaction Publishers 273 291
James Abegglen and George Stalk, Kaisha: The Japanese Corporation (New York: Basic Books, 1985); Marius Jansen, The Making of Modern Japan (Cambridge: First Harvard University Press, 2000).
Brian J. McVeigh, Japanese Higher Education as Myth, (Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 2002), 178.
Ibid., 178.
Charles W. Anderson, Prescribing the Life of the Mind: An Essay on the Purpose of the University, the Aims of Liberal Education, the Competence of Citizens and the Cultivation of Practical Reason, (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1993), 3-4.
Ibid., 132.
Ibid., 136.
John Dewey, Experience and Education, (New York: Collier Books, 1938).
John Clammer, Difference and Modernity: Social Theory and Contemporary Japanese Society (London: Routledge, 1995), 102; Chie Nakane, Japanese Society (Tokyo: Tuttle Press, 1997), 52; Boyé L De Mente, Japan’s Cultural Code Words (Tokyo: Tuttle Press, 2004), 304f; Boyé L De Mente, Japan Unmasked: The Character and Culture oft he Japanese (Tokyo: Tuttle Press, 2005), 202f; Richard E. Nisbett, The Geography of Thought (New York, ny: Free Press, 2003), 51.
Ibid., 273.
Ibid., 274.
Ibid., 275.
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This essay investigates the need for and the challenges associated with the establishment of western style liberal arts education in a non-western nation. Two such programs in Japan are examined: Akita International University and Yamanashi Gakuin University’s International College of Liberal Arts or iCLA. The authors have been deeply involved in the establishment and administration of both of these all-English language liberal arts ba degree programs. The difficulty of establishing a liberal arts education curriculum in a country like Japan is explored by examining the cultural and institutional obstacles within the Japanese system of higher education. The two case studies are presented to highlight the establishment problems and subsequent successes of these programs in a nation with little tradition of liberal arts education at the university level. Finally, the questions of how to justify a liberal arts education program and how to design such a program are discussed by an examination of the utility of area studies as an organizing framework for liberal arts education in a non-western society.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 496 | 66 | 14 |
Full Text Views | 225 | 2 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 47 | 6 | 0 |