On Hampshire College's Motto, "Non Satis Scire," and the Educational Endeavor

• In Event: To Know Is Not Enough: Commissioned Essay Writers—Saturday (Coffee)

Abstract

Non Satis Scire (To Know Is Not Enough) is not only AERA’s 2012 Annual Meeting theme, it is also the motto of Hampshire College. The motto was
selected to embody a new higher education conception and approach during a unique chapter in the history of U.S. educational experimentation and reform. Hampshire College was created in the 1960s by members of its institutional peers in the Massachusetts-based Five College Consortium (Amherst College,
Mount Holyoke College, Smith College and the University of Massachusetts). It was designed as a significant alternative to traditional institution-based higher education. Hampshire’s choice of Non Satis Scire as a motto, and its mobilization of it, is different from – yet supportive of – the call to action President Ball and Program Chair Tyson have put forward for AERA and its members (Ball & Tyson, 2011). In this brief piece, I share ways in which these other interpretations of Non Satis Scire help further the call for research relevance in practice, but draw attention to the value propositions of the general endeavor of education and our research in relation to it. I suggest we use the example of Hampshire and others who dare to experiment with education, or conceive of it otherwise, as heuristic guidance for radically (re)visiting educational goals for the 21st century and the
research and methods needed to realize them in our changing national and global contexts.

Author

• Sousan Arafeh, Southern Connecticut State University