Irving Babbitt and E.D. Hirsch defended the humanistic curriculum at both the beginning and end of the twentieth century, respectively. Both claimed that a set of specific knowledge needed to be passed from one generation to the next. Both found this knowledge primarily, though certainly not exclusively, through the classical Western tradition.…

This paper begins by examining how debates about literature's usefulness or, more specifically, its uselessness, have been framed in terms of the binary between utilitarianism and pragmatism on the one hand, and between humanism and idealism on the other. Instead of conceiving the literature curriculum in terms of a position one privileges in a…

This essay responds to and develops ideas set out in Robert Davis' 1999 essay "Can there be a Catholic curriculum?" It takes the measure of far-reaching changes that have taken place in curriculum studies and strategic educational thought in the intervening period as the process of globalisation has intensified. It re-engages with the…

In the midst of a curricular debate at Brown University during the Second World War, the faculty's humanists seized the opportunity to pen their views on the nature and purpose of higher education. This investigation reveals humanism as a fragmented force, at once principal and peripheral to the American academy. The central argument of this study…

Diversifying curriculum is often assumed to be an unequivocal good in higher education--a way of opening up an educational conversation to include the widest possible diversity of perspectives and intellectual traditions. This democratic attempt to be open and inclusive springs from a humanistic concern to have all student voices heard, all…

In this article the author attempts to sketch a more broadly conceived behavioral approach which places a priority on the higher humanistic behaviors and subsumes the smaller instrumental abilities under them." (Author/AK)

Argues for a synthesis of and respect for various educational pedagogies; acknowledges the core values and beliefs about education that reflect infinite human variety. (SK)

Discusses how teaching activities and assessment strategies in a nursing curriculum can be tailored to four philosophy frameworks: idealism, realism, pragmatism, and humanism. (SK)

Article proposed a curriculum with its base in humanities education through the symbolic arts, a curriculum that allows for and encourages encounters with various levels of meaning. (Author/RK)

One means of developing goals, objectives, instructional strategies and evaluation measures aimed at developing humanistic qualities or behaviors is through a dialogue between a trained discussion leader and a group of people with knowledge about the curriculum area to be developed. (Author/RK)

Teachers who are frantically dissecting their curriculum materials into strings of behavioral objectives a yard long or who are under pressure to do so will find sensible advice in this article. (Editor)