Universities are always changing, but the tailwinds of change have recently intensified. No one is quite sure what future university learning experiences will look like or how many universities will still be open in a decade or two.
Disruptive forces are at our gates and, as a member of the Brandeis faculty, I am grateful that our leaders acknowledge these forces and have initiated a deliberative process by which we can come together to answer: How might Brandeis best assure its survival and flourishing in the years ahead?
I looked forward to the "Preliminary Framework for the Strategic Plan" that the provost disseminated and hoped for an inspiring vision of what Brandeis might become. But I was sadly disappointed. While this framework addresses our possible future, it is written in ways that are more generic than inspiring. It claims to represent what is unique about Brandeis, but it could be describing any number of research universities in this country.
Still, as University President Frederick Lawrence stressed, we can treat this framework as a preliminary statement and work to enhance the directions that it champions. In that spirit I will address two of its key directives: First, that "all Brandeis students will experience a highly personal education with opportunities to engage in real-world discovery" and, second, "our community will deepen its commitment to social justice."
What is "a highly personal education?" The document describes it as students receiving "individual guidance and support to facilitate an academic experience that is excellent." But in what ways will that academic experience be excellent?
The provost, in addressing the faculty, seemed to suggest that each student will be guided to work one-on-one with a professor who will involve the student in his or her cutting edge research. How that will happen and how many students could possibly be involved in cutting edge research has not been spelled out.
In my many years of teaching here I recall wonderful experiences of working one-on-one with some students and also teaching other students who much preferred learning in small groups. In this document "discovery learning" seems to be identified only with this one-on-one model of interaction.
But cannot discovery learning happen in small groups or even in captivating lectures? Indeed, can any one mode of teaching ever be viewed as the ideal model for all the varied learning interactions that take place at Brandeis?
To more effectively promote "discovery learning," I would look to Professor Lee Shulman, a leading expert on learning in higher education, who asks: Why assume that discovery learning in a biology lab looks like discovery learning in a humanities course or a legal studies seminar?
Rather, encourage teachers and learners in each of these learning contexts to define what makes for powerful learning and then create "signature pedagogies" that can be assessed, refined and shared with professors in that field. It is challenging enough to get a group of like-minded teachers to work on improving their teaching. To insist there is a single "signature pedagogy" for the whole university is to undermine meaningful change for it would leave many professors feeling that their best teaching experiences have been ignored.
The same can be said for the noble aspiration that social justice becomes a hallmark of the Brandeis experience for all students. Is there a single definition of "social justice" that students from many different backgrounds and persuasions can embrace? Has anyone worked past the slogan of "social justice" to examine how to involve students in a meaningful examining of their ethical values? Has Brandeis created sufficient learning contexts in which students can openly and safely explore their ethical values without worrying that they have to be in line with the views of the majority?
The International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life has taken important steps in this direction, but much more would need to be done to effectively make social justice (or any moral virtue) the hallmark of the Brandeis experience.
We are a university with a rich tradition of exploring the great articulations of human virtues.
That includes the classical religious as well as modern secular traditions of both the East and West. An inspiring vision for Brandeis would need to connect the academic exploration of these traditions with the aspirations of our students to learn how to become effective agents for change in the globalized world they will soon be entering.
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Joseph Reimer is an Associate Professor of Jewish Education in the Education Program and the Hornstein Program for Jewish Professional Leadership.