Paideia by Southwestern University

ACADEMICS IN FOCUS

Southwestern Magazine

BeyondBeta Paideia Connects the Dots

Tradition! Most colleges and universities have their own traditions, and Southwestern is no exception. The University’s rich heritage and storied traditions are what legends are made of. One of those (not so legendary) traditions has been the course registration process. As recently as eight years ago, students participated in the tradition of gathering in the Corbin J. Robertson Center to register for classes—Black Friday style—to get any course still available that fulfilled a general education requirement. Beginning in the fall of 2014, the tradition of merely checking off gen. ed. requirements will be a thing of the past at Southwestern. Paideia is about to become part of every student’s Southwestern Experience, and facilitating a variety of interdisciplinary experiences will become an integral and integrated part of the Southwestern curriculum. Developed in 2003 by President Jake B. Schrum ’68 and Provost Jim Hunt, the Paideia Program sought to bring together traditional academics with civic engagement and intercultural learning, but to date it has only been available to a small subsection of our students. In an effort to include more students and faculty and to more strongly integrate various aspects of learning, a team of faculty, staff and students formed a committee to develop an idea for a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), which is a significant element in Southwestern’s re-accreditation process. The idea, developed over the course of two years, was a re-imagining of Paideia that would include all students and significantly more faculty members, and would become the foundation for the Southwestern curriculum. According to Alison Kafer, associate professor of feminist studies, “Contemporary social and political problems require the ability to integrate multiple approaches and perspectives.” However, she says these kinds of conversations have happened primarily in offices or hallways or residence halls. “We haven’t had time or space in the curriculum to build on these conversations with any kind of intentionality,” she says. But faculty and staff across campus are working to change that by expanding the reach of Paideia and by building interdisciplinarity into the heart of the academic program. Professor of Kinesiology Jimmy Smith explains that Paideia will allow students to take at least three courses intentionally clustered around shared content—a

theme—and a Paideia seminar in the junior or senior year. The initial three themes are “Mediterranean Mingling,” “Representing Gender” and “Global Health.” Faculty from all disciplines teaching courses within each theme will interact with one another to ensure that connections are being made across the classes students are taking in each of the clusters; the seminars will bring all of this together in a culminating experience. The clustered courses will give students the space and tools to reflect on the overlaps and differences between disciplines, with guidance and support from faculty. The interdisciplinary Paideia seminars will provide the opportunity to individually and collectively reflect on students’ cumulative experiences within the theme. By bringing together faculty from different departments to cover a central question or idea—such as a philosopher and a political scientist, both discussing representations of gender—the seminars will allow students to learn alongside faculty in the classroom; everyone will be bringing different knowledge and experiences to the table.

...In 10 years, any visitor to our campus should know what some of the current Paideia themes are just by walking around, because the entire community will be engaged in various conversations around a handful of topics. Kafer says that students are excited to talk about how what they’re learning in one class informs or extends the work they’re doing in another class. By intentionally encouraging students to think about how they can ask the same questions across different disciplines, and exploring how their methods, assumptions or answers shift across different sites, Paideia will give students an opportunity to collaborate with each other and with faculty over the course of several years. “One of the things I most love about teaching at Southwestern is how frequently I am surprised by my students,” says Kafer. “They are always helping me change the way I see the world. What Paideia does is create more such opportunities—now I will have more of these moments with more students as well as with my faculty and staff colleagues.” Alison Marr, assistant professor of mathematics, adds, “We’re creating a community that understands, respects and appreciates interdisciplinarity. Paideia is no longer for select faculty and students. All students spring 2013 www.southwestern.edu

One of the coordinators of the Global Health cluster, Associate Professor of Biology Maria Cuevas seeks close collaboration with students in the classroom and in the laboratory (right).

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Forty-six current first-year students have applied for their theme and will begin their clustered courses in fall 2013. First year 2013/14 students will apply as well. Beginning in fall 2014, all Southwestern students will be involved in Paideia clusters.

Global Health How do culture, age and sex shape societal and individual definitions of health? In this cluster, students will explore the factors that lead to health and healthcare disparities within and across nations, as well as develop ideas on how to improve outcomes through interventions at the individual, institutional and governmental levels.

Representing Gender How do sex and gender vary across space, place and time? Why is the world sexed and gendered? What are the consequences of living in a sexed and gendered world? Inside and outside the classroom, students will analyze how gender and sexuality are represented in different disciplines and explore the points of sympathy that exist across different fields of study while developing an understanding of areas of tension and conflict.

Mediterranean Mingling How does a part of the world famous for its wine, olives and cheese, serve as a model for understanding global issues? Studying the Mediterranean—a sea of intersections and fluid borders—will help students see what is at the core of global connection and conflict. The cultural, historical and ecological complexity where Europe, Asia and Africa meet invites multiple perspectives and engages a broad range of interests, from art to food, faith to politics, language to literature.

Southwestern Magazine

and a majority of faculty will be participating, thus creating a campus-wide dialogue on the themes.” Students will be learning how philosophy and political science sometimes cover similar territory, but that each field formulates its questions differently, or how one can read the same book in both a religion course and a literature course and get something completely different out of it each time. As students and faculty bring different knowledge and experiences to the table, Southwestern brings interdisciplinarity to the heart of its academic program. By doing so, Southwestern is striving to make sure all of our students understand how to apply multiple disciplines to a single problem. Marr says, “The student who can walk away with an understanding of how to do that will be more successful in the ever-changing world and will be able to solve problems in a more creative way. The fact is that the ability to think about problems from multiple disciplines is a skill many employers and graduate schools find valuable.” Katy Ross, associate professor of Spanish and co-coordinator for the Mediterranean Mingling cluster, hopes that Paideia will allow students and faculty to interact in new and dynamic ways and that, by exploring the interdisciplinary nature of ideas, students will be able to view problems—and solve them—in new, unexpected ways outside their university experience. How will Paideia encompass all of campus, not just faculty and students? Dana Hendrix, head of collection development and acquisitions for the A. Frank Smith, Jr. Library Center, says for example, that she and other librarians plan to “work to connect Paideia students with the resources, concepts and skills they

need for research and exploration as they progress through the program and complete their interdisciplinary Paideia seminar work.” Civic engagement and intercultural learning will continue to be important aspects of Paideia. Sarah Brackmann, director of civic engagement, is excited that through community-engaged learning, “we’re going to be connecting the intellectual with the action and activism in intentional, integrated and interdisciplinary ways to create relevant opportunities—not just volunteerism but experiential learning experiences—for our students.” Kim Murphy, assistant dean for academic success and director of records, sees the advising experience being transformed as a result of Paideia as well. “The guided process of pulling together seemingly disparate ideas is healthy and exciting for both students and advisers,” she says. The general consensus seems to be that Paideia will provide all campus constituents with more opportunities to think critically about how to connect what we do in the classroom to the communities around us. How can alumni, parents, donors and friends of the University participate? Marr suggests, “Alumni can participate in lecture series, panels and extracurricular events related to the themes. Community members can find ways to connect to themes and suggest possible partnerships for civic engagement projects. Donors can think creatively about ways contributions to Paideia could help strengthen the program (scholarships for study abroad, contributions to the library, funds for themed-based housing, support for additional faculty interested in interdisciplinarity, and more).” The importance of interdisciplinarity, says Smith, is that “the great issues and problems facing the world cannot be addressed or solved by viewing and attacking them from a single perspective ... and therefore require an approach that embraces the knowledge, methodology and perspectives of several academic disciplines. In other words, they require an interdisciplinary approach.” Kafer explains, “Clustering courses around themes will enable faculty to develop relationships with each other, to enrich their understanding of interdisciplinary perspectives, and to experiment with teamteaching, collaborative teaching, and creative new pedagogies and methodologies.” The benefits of Paideia are many. In addition to helping new and prospective students better understand the liberal arts, Kafer says that it also provides a way for students to think about education in terms of what interests them, to address different ideas in different ways, and to learn how they relate. For faculty, she says, “it will provide opportunities to talk about teaching together, to share ideas and teaching methods, and to collaborate. As a faculty member, it is providing me the chance to learn from my colleagues.” The thought among Paideia faculty is that in 10 years, they will be more conversant with what their colleagues are doing; that students will better understand how classes can and do relate; that more and more, the library will be a place for gathering and

interacting; and that there will be a vibrant culture of civic engagement and collaborative teaching and learning. Marr suggests that in 10 years, any visitor to our campus should know what some of the current Paideia themes are just by walking around, because the entire community will be engaged in various conversations around a handful of topics. Though “interdisciplinarity” is a word that is frequently encountered in academia these days, few institutions have made a concerted, university-wide effort to both define interdisciplinarity and to create an academic experience that truly is interdisciplinary in nature. “Paideia will make Southwestern unique among liberal arts colleges,” says Smith.

While studying abroad in Xi’an, China in spring 2010, Elizabeth Wilson ’11 rode in a camel caravan in the Taklamakan Desert (top). Twenty-five students, including junior David Boutté, spent their Spring Break in the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico as part of the Destination: Service program (above).

spring 2013 www.southwestern.edu