Academic Advising for the Liberal Arts and Sciences

Abstract

In this article, I provide an overview of academic advising in the United States, articulate a definition of academic advising for the liberal arts and sciences, and defend three theses about the role of academic advising in promoting the sorts of critical thinking and civic engagement that makes the liberal arts and sciences an important catalyst for social and political change. First, I argue that academic advising is essential to the effective implementation of a liberal arts and sciences education and so, even if it were not a part of the concept of the liberal arts and sciences, it is essential to the realization of that concept. Second, I argue that advising is a part of the concept of a liberal arts and sciences education because of the role it plays in student-centered pedagogy, which is a cornerstone of the liberal arts and sciences. Finally, I argue that student-centered pedagogy is not limited to the classroom context, that it includes extraand co-curricular life, and so our account of liberal arts and sciences education needs to be expanded. These three theses constitute a series of increasingly robust challenges to the model of liberal arts and sciences education developed by Jonathan Becker in “Liberal Arts and Sciences Education: Responding to the Challenges of the XXIst Century” and, for educators who have been trained in the Humboltian/European tradition, provide some practical lessons in the development and implementation of that model.